Monday, October 03, 2005

Aftermath

Now that the fight is mostly over, it's time to start cleaning up the wreckage:
The lock-out attracted international attention — it was a virtually unprecedented spectacle of a large broadcaster shutting down its entire workforce, said Suanne Kelman, associate chair of journalism at Ryerson University in Toronto.

“Part of the reason for that is everybody knows how dangerous it is in terms of listenership and viewership.”...

NHL telecasts will likely grab big audiences — and attractive advertising revenues — right away.

But there's been little promotion for CBC's fall entertainment programming, and some current affairs shows are badly behind in production. Moreover, advertisers looking at the autumn television buys will have already committed elsewhere said Terry Sheehy, media consultant at Saatchi and Saatchi Advertising in Toronto.

The blame is undoubtedly split between the Liberal governments who have starved the CBC of money, and the management who decided to gamble the network's viewers, listeners and advertisers in an effort to do nothing more than take away union job security. But the tougher work now is to try to turn the melee into something positive.

For those of us who understand the importance of the CBC, the easy step is to go back to watching and listening...though it couldn't hurt to mix that with the occasional letter to the editor, blog post or conversation making clear that that's not to be taken as an endorsement of the management tactics. And Charlie Angus' suggestion of getting rid of the CBC's top brass should only be the start: rather than merely getting rid of the people responsible, the Liberals (presumably with a push from the NDP) need to make clear that the CBC will be receive future funding in sufficient amounts to ensure that the network can both rebuild from any losses caused by the lockout, and expand its presence in the future.

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