Segacs's World I Know

Posts Tagged ‘cbc’

CBC’s surprising decision last week not to renew the licensing agreement for the theme song to Hockey Night in Canada has been met with opportunism by the likes of CTV… and Stephen Colbert:

Stephen, we know you secretly love Canada. Now can you do us a favour and convince the CBC to further cut costs by axing Don Cherry?

A CBC reporter was caught red-handed playing favourites among federal political parties:

A Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reporter who covers Parliament will be reassigned because she inappropriately wrote questions for an opposition legislator, the public broadcaster said on Monday.

The ruling Conservative Party — no fan of the CBC — complained that television journalist Krista Erickson had given the questions to a Liberal member of a committee examining the dealings of a former Conservative prime minister.

Whatever your politics, you have to admit that this is a new low for the CBC. Our tax dollars at work.

I still don’t have time to properly blog, but I wanted to at least mention some of the newsworthy items in the passing show these days.

Disengagement is depressing. I can barely read the news – from any perspective – because it just gives me a giant headache. The whole issue is so clearly lose-lose that I can hardly work up the energy to take a position. Of course the terrorists are viewing this as a victory and an excuse for more violence. Of course it’s tough on the families who have to uproot. Of course Israel is dangerously close to civil war, as people are pitted against each other in a gut-wrenching emotional issue. And of course it has to happen, now that the die is cast – and maybe it’s the only way to break the stalemate. But there seems to be very little to say that hasn’t been said by many others already.

A plane crash in Greece killed 121 people yesterday. There don’t seem to be any signs of terrorism.

Here’s a new one: a Muslim cleric suspected of terrorism agreed to be deported from the United States. Usually these guys drag the fight against deportation out for years. I wonder what this guy’s in such a rush to get to Pakistan for. I doubt it’s ballroom dancing lessons.

The CBC has locked out most of its unionized workers, because they’re fighting over whether they can hire less full-time people and more contract people. So now, not only are billions of tax dollars going to fund a useless network that also competes for advertising money and shows no programming anyone wants to watch… but it’s also operating without 60% of its staff. Would someone finally yank the cord on the CBC and put it out of its misery?

Regular posting should hopefully resume shortly.

Some stuff makes me too mad to even blog about it, because it just gets my heart rate up. But you can read about it on other blogs. Like Ken Livingstone’s latest spewings. (More here). And the continuing Palestinian terrorism against Israel. And CBC’s gutlessness and the fact that my tax dollars fund it.

Then there’s the stuff in my own life that makes me mad too. Like certain people who I am forced to deal with at work. And certain issues of long distances. And certain issues of lack of air conditioning.

When I’m really mad, sometimes it’s great to listen to some appropriate music.

John Morgan, one of the stars of Royal Canadian Air Farce, has passed away at age 75.

I haven’t watched the show in years, but it used to be almost a family tradition to tune in and watch the weekly political gags. Morgan’s biggest hit gag was probably “Mike… from Canmore”. I used to laugh so hard that I almost cried.

Farewell, Mr. Morgan.

Alan has the follow-up on the UNRWA story, namely that Kofi Annan is backing Peter Hansen, the corrupt agency head who freely admits employing terrorists, among other things. I can’t claim to be too surprised at that one.

Debbye has thoughts on the CBC’s “Greatest Canadian” contest, something I’ve tried to avoid watching because I knew it would make me very very angry. Judging by the top 30, it seems we’re propagating our own stereotypes as a nation, voting in hockey players, any popstar or movie star with crossover American success, and iconofied politicians. The fact that this is a contest where Don Cherry can place in a top 10 alongside Alexander Graham Bell should say it all. *Sigh*.

Imshin is absolutely required reading, lashing out at those who believe that Israel should not exist. She also points to this article, published in the Guardian, about anti-Americanism and antisemitism in Europe.

And this is a little late, but Burnside has packed in his keyboard. Another casualty of the blogosphere. He’ll be missed.

What do you get when Canadians try to jump on the reality TV bandwagon? A hockey reality show.

Yes, we’re proud of living up to our stereotypes.

According to a CBC poll, us Canadians don’t know much about our government.

Some interesting results of this poll: While only 84% of us could name our Prime Minister, 97% correctly named the President of the United States. And 17% of Quebecers thought that Gilles Duceppe was the leader of the opposition.

Yes, these are the people who decided tonight’s election. Sometimes I read these results and get very scared.

Al-Canada The CBC continues its regularly biased coverage of Israel, in an article that paints the defencive Rafah incursions as a “massacre” (taking Arafat at his word, it seems):

Israel’s continuing assault on the Rafah refugee camp has killed another 20 Palestinians.

The operation along the Gaza-Egypt border has sparked a growing international outcry. The United Nations and the European Union have demanded an end to the incursion and Amnesty International has accused Israel of war crimes.

Israeli military vehicles in Rafah (AP photo)

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat described the attack as a “big massacre.” He’s calling for international intervention.

It gets worse from there. This is what the CBC refers to as “balanced coverage”. Yeah right.

For a little perspective, check out this Ma’ariv interview (via Meryl):

It was a combat situation, under fire. Soldiers were injured but in the end, we brought our soldiers home. I haven’t told this to anyone but in the midst of this operation, we assisted a baby being born and evacuated an elderly woman who was injured and summoned a local ambulance for her. Terrorists ran and fired from behind the ambulance. Therefore, I do not want to make any comparison between our scale of values and theirs.

“If my soldiers can assist a Palestinian woman giving birth when six of their comrades have been blown to bits in the street but, at the same time, they fire at us from behind an ambulance, you must understand that we are at opposite ends of the scales of values. They are at the very bottom”.

Yet the moral equivalency games continue.

Believe it or not, traditionally anti-Israel CBC has hired Irshad Manji as a commentator on The National:

. . . and the debut of someone who will be contributing some Point of View commentaries for us in the weeks ahead — writer and broadcaster, Irshad Manji.

Judith, in a comment at LGF, wonders if someone at CBC read Manji’s bio but forgot to read her resume:

I’m stunned, I’m amazed, I’m astounded, I’m shocked. How did the CBC allow one of Canada’s finest anti-idiotarian on their airwaves to speak as a regular!?!

Well my husband says its because she’s Muslim, she’s a lesbian, she’s a woman, in other words she’s perfect for CBC, except that someone forgot to actually read what she says. This evenings talk was about how anti-Americanism is stupid. Wow! A pigs flying moment!

If only my TV were hooked up… I would’ve loved to see that.