John Doyle: A new and better CBC must start from within

JOHN DOYLE
The Globe and Mail Published Wednesday, Jul. 22, 2015 1:55PM EDT Last updated Th
ursday, Jul. 23, 2015 6:46AM EDT
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/television/john-doyle-a-new-and-better-cbc-
must-start-from-within/article25628667/
Neither the Senate standing committee report on the future of the CBC, nor Se
nator Art Eggleton's minority report in response, is much use in figuring out wh
ere the CBC goes in the immediate future.
Blunt opinions on the CBC come as part and parcel of Canadian citizenship. So
a passel of grumpy senators hardly has a monopoly on ideas about the CBC's futu
re. The Senate report, often livid with resentment and obsessed with salaries an
d money, is far from a series of reliable signposts about the public broadcaster
's best possible future.
In his dissenting view, Eggleton states: "Simply put, the CBC is starved for
cash. At $29 per capita, the CBC is well below the average of $82 per capita inv
ested in public broadcasting in other industrialized countries." Well, we know t
hat. Even the cats and dogs of Canada know that. But stabilized or increased fun
ding for CBC is seriously unlikely to happen under another Conservative governme
nt or indeed a Liberal government.
Eggleton also makes this suggestion: "As much more content continues to be co
nsumed online, the CBC should launch a direct streaming service similar to Netfl
ix. This should be a free service for Canadians so they can consume CBC's conten
t on the platform they desire." Nice idea, but far from easily done. CBC-TV has
formidable archives that would find an audience in a streaming service but faces
huge and expensive problems in releasing that material. Royalty and technical i
ssues thwart that idea into out-of-reach territory.
In the finger-wagging, often outlandish 22 recommendations from the Senate re
port, one stands out: "The Board of Directors of the CBC/Radio Canada implement
stringent restrictions on the external activities, including outside paid-employ
ment, of all senior staff and on-air talent to prevent any possible conflicts of
interest."
There's the nub of things. The Senate report, like the views of many Canadian
s on the CBC, is tarnished by recent scandals and revelations that undermine the
CBC from within. Sympathy and support for the CBC are not easily mustered when
the broadcaster appears to suffer from a culture of arrogance and indifference t
o the accepted rules.
The through line of the CBC narrative, from the row about Peter Mansbridge's
and Rex Murphy's paid speaking engagements, to revelations brought up by the Gho
meshi scandal, to the accusations about Amanda Lang's allegedly compromised repo
rting and interviewing, to the departure of Evan Solomon, to the recent, tempora
ry participation by Mansbridge as a patron of the controversial Never Forgotten
National Memorial Foundation project, is this: hubris, pretension and disdain fo
r journalistic discipline.
Anyone who appears on TV, to a national audience, and with regularity, is lia
ble to be infected by smugness and self-importance. The CBC is, regrettably, and
in my experience, rife with all that. There's an ill-discipline. It's as if the
bosses of on-air talent are simply averse to instilling discipline and, in some
cases, mere good manners, into people who have the privilege of some fame and h
igh earnings thanks to the CBC.
The ill-discipline and hubris extends beyond the CBC news arena. While most p
eople who work on CBC shows I cover are thoroughly professional, there's a small
group involved with CBC programs that behave with an emphatic obnoxiousness. I'
ve never had to contact Bell Media, Rogers or Shaw to point out that the behavio
ur of people connected to their shows was unacceptable. But I've had to speak to
the CBC about that. As recently as June, an evening I attended was ruined after
being hijacked by a guy with a CBC show. The rude, roaring, attacking conduct w
as unspeakable.
It all matters, and CBC fails to see how it is perceived. A lack of disciplin
e and outbreaks of arrogance among on-air staff suggests to outsiders, from sena
tors to the skeptical public, that there's a larger lack of discipline in spendi
ng taxpayers' money. Hence the Senate report's obsession with money, from salari
es and speaking engagement fees, to the future funding models for the CBC.
The CBC as an institution can forge its own signpost to the future and it bes
t start by getting its house in order. Curbing the culture of arrogance and indi
fference to the accepted rules, from within, is paramount.