Cable TV offers resistance to Trump war on media
Now that the American midterm elections are over, there is likely to be a great sucking vacuum in the television-viewing habits of many folks on this side of the border who have been addicted to CNN and MSNBC, well, ever since that orange-haired fellow began his run for the presidency.
(Of course there’s still the on-going dramatic series, Trump’s Threat to American Democracy, to follow, but it’s hard to watch).
Curiously, timed nearly precisely with the Nov. 6 election was the advent of a significant change in the Canadian television world, although “television” is not the word, really. It’s streaming, and the world where the technological choice exists, is pretty much splitting up into cable people and streaming people.
As of Nov. 1 telecommunications giant, Montreal-based Bell Media expanded its streaming service to include HBO as well as programming on channels previously called The Movie Network (TMN).
Our cabled household became aware of this new development when suddenly channel names on the on-screen guide changed. The four TMN channels are now called Crave 1, 2, 3 and 4, and they include programs from the Showtime, Vice and Kids channels. TMN Encore, which has vintage programming, is to be rebranded in 2019 as Starz.
According to industry watchers, this is a big brave push by Bell to become a serious player in the streaming market, which, the same watchers say, is the future for attracting and retaining viewing eyeballs. Competing in the saturated streaming world against beasts like Netflix and Amazon Prime is not for the corporate faint of heart. Anybody remember Shomi?
With HBO, though, Bell has got some pretty juicy bait to lure streaming customers. Without sounding like too much of a shill for the groundbreaking cable TV channel, HBO is a gamechanger, programming wise, and, dare we say, worth every cent no matter what platform it’s served on. It’s got the resources and the guts to offer a wide variety of bold and often daring programming.
Which brings us back to politics on television. This year comedian-commentator Bill Maher celebrates 25 years on television, starting with the network series Politically Incorrect, which was cancelled because he said something politically incorrect that the network suits didn’t like.
HBO picked him up, renamed the show Real Time with Bill Maher, and, 16 years later, blessed with the uncensored power of cable TV, he’s become a leading voice for “the resistance” in the United States, and compulsory viewing for anyone who loathes Donald Trump. That said, he can be just as harsh a critic of the failings of liberals, whom he terms “snowflakes” for lacking the brutal ruthlessness of conservatives.
One would seek in vain for a Canadian equivalent for Maher, although, truth be told, the antics of Canadian politicians - including “Carlos Danger” (look it up) copycat Tony Clement - are laughably tame compared to the excesses of Trump. The Beaverton, 22 Minutes, latterly Rick Mercer and, en francais, Infoman or Laflaque, are hardly in the same universe of scathing and often foul-mouthed political satire and commentary as one finds on a typical Friday night with Maher.
The 62-year-old native New Yorker appears to have a soft spot for Canada, a fondness that surely deepened for the unabashed pot-smoker, with the legalization of weed north of the border - as was the case in California, where Maher lives, earlier this year.
He finally got Canadian comedian Jim Carrey to come on his show recently, and he succinctly explained why Canadians are stereotypically so nice: “They can be nice because they have health care.”
Maher, like him or not, and certainly Trump fans do not, offers a unique weekly platform of unfiltered commentary and reflection on the state of the U.S.
Apart from the quality of the programming, from The Sopranos to The Pacific to Sharp Objects, and, okay, Game of Thrones, HBO is a beacon of the U.S. constitutional First Amendment. In an era where the president of the United States calls the media “enemies of the people,” this bastion of freedom of speech and the press is all the more vital.