“The day I finally lost all respect for The National”

It would be interesting to

It would be interesting to review CTV's national news broadcast for that day as well. I watched neither, but I suspect CTV also lead-off with a cheery piece about William and Catherine. I would be surprised to learn Lloyd Robertson's first words that evening were about the wind-up of the war in Afghanistan. I have never worked in broadcast journalism but it seems to me television news is more about entertainment and ratings than it is about reporting and analying current events and the state of the human condition.

I'm willing to be corrected, but television news seems to reflect the general outlook of the governing classes in Canadian society – the politicians, the corporate executives, the leaders of the 'special interests' and their ilk. They all seem to believe the average Canadian is stupid, ill informed, and simply doesn't care about what's going on the world around them. They see us as Ceasar saw the Mob. Distract the mob with shiny baubles or naked barbarism, which will leave Ceasar to do as he pleased.

Television also thinks we have a limited attention span. That's why, I think, it focuses on the 'new' rather than the 'important'. This explains why, for example, Tim Hudak is so popular in the polls. I don't know of a single journalist is critically examining everything he says, does and publishes. It also explains Steve Harper and Rob Ford.

Not one major news organization in this country – broadcast, print or digital – has, to my knowledge, explained why we went to war in Afghanistan in the first place. No one has explained why 161 Canadians lost their lives in a place that seems to want to live in the 14th century.

Mr. Knight's criticism of the CBC is valid and worthy of discussion. But it's a narrow in its focus. It should be applied throughout the profession.

I gave up with what passes as
I gave up with what passes as journalism at the CBC years ago, when Newsworld dropped its airing of regional news hours which revealed to me what was happening across the country. Its inane morning show lacked any depth and drove me to MSNBC. Don Newman sunk to new lows by offering every spin doctor in Ottawa and Toronto a platform with no real challenge. The main CBC network went from irrelevancy to pandering in its refashioning of the 10pm news hour and pretty much dropping The Journal. And its featured documentaries betrayed a tradition when they started looking a blue jeans and similar trivia.

When our public broadcaster should be giving us an alternative — like the Newshour on PBS, or TVO’s flagship current affairs hour and even Access Alberta’s nightly in-depth examination of provincial affairs — instead the CBC gives us more of the same. And its fixation with the Royals is so fawning that it’s programming managers consistently rejects anything of substance that might be critical of the Family or whole concept of the Monarchy (in Canada or the UK)!

I agree with everything Tim Knight has written and am saddened by what has become of journalism in search of the masses at CBC television. I am thankful I was traveling in Asia during the royal visit and missed this sorry spectacle on our TV networks. At least in Canada we still have a respectable print media, and a couple of hours on CBC Radio, but increasingly I find myself consuming both audio and video podcasts from other countries to sustain my need for serious news and analysis. Thank Jobs for the iPod!

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   I would take Mr. Alboim’s

I would take Mr. Alboim’s message a lot more seriously:

1. If he wasn’t a former CBC journalist who went over to the dark side to work for the notoriously political Ottawa public relations firm, Earnscliffe Strategy Group.
2. If he hadn’t trained Liberal leaders Stéphane Dion and Michael Ignatieff how to evade journalists’ questions.
3. If CBC anchor Peter Mansbridge hadn’t, quite gratuitously, referred to “our friend, Ellie Alboim“ during The National’s At Issue segment last April 7.

As someone living south of

As someone living south of the border I have mostly seen The National when visiting Canada. But I've always regarded the show as one of the last bastions of quality journalism in the world. 'Tis sad times indeed that they have become degraded to the same hollow approach to "news" as has long been practiced in the U.S. We expect better of Canada!  

I have also studied under Mr Knight and understand his values and high standards for journalism. I also remember his pride in demonstrating how The National largely lived up to his standards. For Tim to be disillusioned with that news program is dramatic to me. I remember him often saying that we, as journalists, should "… do the best we can …" Clearly, The National no longer hears that simple standard which is not too much to ask, after all.

– Alan Foster

Elly Alboim and Tim Knight

Elly Alboim and Tim Knight are two ex-CBCers for whom I have great respect. So respectfully, I would suggest they are arguing for opposite sides of the same coin known as "excellent journalism." To suggest that "story-telling" (Knight) and "reporting news of signficance" (Alboim) are opposing values is a false premise. Good television journalism should be made up of both, and more.

Both CBC and CTV committed significant resources to covering Canada's role in Afghanistan (somewhat uncritically at times, but we can talk about that later). They should be applauded for that.

But what is true is that the lineup that night on The National had a lapse in judgment by devoting so much attention to the royal visit. It's not an excuse to say "everyone was doing it."

In this time of dwindling audiences and trolling for ratings, many media appear to be softening their editorial standards to engage in more pack journalism. The desire for ratings increasingly trumps serving the audience as citizens first, and consumers of media, second.

I’m still waiting for someone

I'm still waiting for someone from the CBC to comment.

Exactly WHY did the royal visit consume so much time and resources? I've pretty much given up on CBC TV news for many of the reasons already outlined here.

Maybe one story a day on the

Maybe one story a day on the royal couple but the coverage was way over the top. I stopped watching CBC and CTV because it was the same stuff over and over again. I completely agree with Tim Knight. I don't understand broadcasters priorities sometimes. I have seen this attitude at a few local stations and don't understand it.

Mark Harrison, Executive

Mark Harrison, Executive Producer of The National, claims “many mistakes” in my posting. Yet he mentions only two.

His first is that July 7, 2011 “was not the day Canada pulled its troops out of Afghanistan.”

Yet it was on Thursday, July 7, 2011, that a farewell ceremony was held at Kandahar base. There was a parade and exit speeches by such as General Dean Milner, Canadian commander of Joint Task Force Afghanistan. Our soldiers stood at attention for a minute of silence to honour fallen comrades. Then the Maple Leaf was lowered and Canadians handed over command of the battleground to the Americans.

As the Associated Press and myriad other news organizations reported “Canada formally ended its combat role in Afghanistan on Thursday.”

Then Mr. Harrison sets up “another truth”. That “The National and CBC News have been in Afghanistan to mark this historic and momentous turning point.” In fact, of course, The National and CBC News simply weren’t there that Thursday. Instead, pool footage with a voice-over from Toronto marked the day.

If Harrison had read my article more closely he would have noted that I never, for one moment, questioned the fact that CBC foreign correspondents – particularly Susan Ormiston, James Cudmore, James Murray and Mark Kelley — have reported on the Canadian mission to Afghanistan. And they've done it with courage, insight and conspicuous integrity.

According to Harrison, my second “mistake” was:  “Oh, the allegation about the American news doctors is also untrue. It's a myth which could have been easily checked.”

I did check. With Jeff Keay, CBC’s Head of Media Relations, English Services. Keay admitted carefully: “We have used Magid (an American news doctor) as consultants in the past.”

Not incidentally, I note that Harrison never tried to defend what I called “endless, excruciating weeks of  fawning over two pretty celebrities who had never actually done anything of note except get married and come visit us on their honeymoon.”

Tim Knight

Kudos to j-source for

Kudos to j-source for creating a forum where this type of debate can happen, with some disagreement but all united in the effort to strengthen journalism. Canadian media is largely lacking in public self-reflection, and there are few platforms for discussion amongst a broad audience about the content, behaviour, evolution, etc. of Canadian media.

The coverage of the Royal visit by many media outlets, especially television, seems to have lit a fire under long-simmering questions about how Canada's larger broadcast outlets choose what to put on their newscasts. Many, myself included, were left scratching their heads as to why William and Kate's visit merited day-after-day top-of-the-broadcast coverage when there was no lack of domestic and international stories to select from.

Perhaps audience surveys suggest that's what viewers want. But in today's landscape of increasingly segmented audiences, the question isn't only what do viewers want to see, but also what type of journalism should we be producing to bring non-viewers (back) into the fold.

This is a really important

This is a really important article.  I am grateful to hear Mr. Knight's point of view, especially since I have recently arrived at the same conclusion.  It actually began last January when events in Egypt were unfolding.  I was reading all kinds of twitters from people in Tahrir Square and from journalists from other countries all over the world who were there too.  One of them was Nahlah Aymed.  Her tweets, and the information that I gleaned from others, gave a very different story from what The National reported.  I was incensed.  "On the ground" reports showed that Egyptians were in revolt of their government.  It was also clear that the small group of pro-government forces were in the minority and were mostly paid by the govt (there were eye witness accounts of that).

  But the report that appeared on The National was a story of 'opposing factions' in Egypt –  there was an anti-government group and a pro-government group.  That was utter BS.  Even Nahlah's report seemed edited to suit that scenario. 

  That was the day that I lost respect for Peter Mansbridge and The National.

  I should also add that I found Mansbridge's interviews with party leaders before the election laughable.  He was tough and pushed Michael Ignatieff yet he handled S Harper with kid gloves.  Makes me wonder if he is positioning himself for a Senatorship some day!

Feeling remiss: Forgot to

Feeling remiss: Forgot to mention what I can't do without : As It Happens … addicted to my daily hit of AIH, there should be more contextual journalism like it and the original  The National had it. Can we bring it back?

I find it both fascinating

I find it both fascinating and encouraging to see the level of debate over this issue.  I, too, have felt for the longest time that The National was dumbing down its product and hope Tim's remarks might cause a re-examination by The National team of where it is going.  In the case of the Royal Visit coverage, it was over-the-top to this observer. 

I stopped watching the

I stopped watching the National many, many months ago– well, truthfully, more than a year ago. That may seem relatively insignificant– but I was a journalistic child of the Corp for more than 15 years, doing everything from anchoring to reporting and producing documentaries, even subbing in summer for the national correspondent in Winnipeg. That was when the National was miles ahead of CTV for ratings, because it believed in public service journalism, not in pandering to a lowest common denominator audience.

It was in the late 70s and early 80s. Winnipeg's one-hour supper-hour local newscast was top-rated in the city. We were proud (in retrospect, justifiably) of our own local record of staunch public service journalism. We had beat reporters: anyone remember those? City Hall? The Legislature? We covered the stories our training and experience taught us to believe was important for the public in a democracy to know. We did not lead with blood. Much of the time, we led with public interest stories, poltiical stories, economic issue stories. We found human beings to be the people about whom the stories spoke. We had resources. We had enough staff to enable all of us to do good work. We had managers who believed in public service journalism and who supported, groomed and developed their journalists with additional training and varied job experiences.

I have for some time been unable to stomach the devolution of CBC's news work, both national and local, into a sloppy band of under-equipped, understaffed, under-resourced, under-experienced, ungrammatically-inclined reporters working in frantically over-stretched newsrooms, producing pap, serving up warmed-over headlines from that day's print news media  and that morning's cop shop newser.

The CBC used to be the banner news service against which all others were measured and found wanting. It was the news service I took with me into the private sector, infusing its principles in the philosophy of my newsroom at the local Global station– a newsroom that became a training ground for reporters, camera operators, and producers who wanted to move onto some day to the Mothership.

Today– well, I just can't stomach it. Not the National, not the local. It is simply too damn sad for me to deal with, when I know what it once was and what it could be, properly resourced and knowing once again that in the end it should not be about numbers. It should be about journalism.

Public service journalism need not be dull– if you are given the resources and support needed to do it properly. The shrill ambulance-chasing that dominates the video circuits these days is not journalism. It never was. It never will be. I sorely wish the CBC would give me a newscast I can watch and from which I can learn and about which I can think..the kind of newscast I worked with so proudly once.  Today, I am ashamed of what the Corp has become. i did not see the newscast that set Tim Knight off.

As I said, I never watch CBC news any more. And that breaks my heart.

I don’t know Tim very well,

I don't know Tim very well, but I can't have been the only person to notice the echoes here with what I wrote earlier in the month, when I resigned from CTV. The royal visit, the Afghan war, the American consultants, and the race-to-the-bottom doctrine embraced by the CBC. At the time, a number of people tried to write off what I said on the basis that I'm young. I'm curious what arguments are now being mustered to deal with the Tim Knights and Bill Cunninghams of this world. Are they too old? Is there a magic sweet spot, right in the middle, where people are wise, TV news makes sense, and the emperor is clad head to toe?

Tim and I don't agree on everything. Let me be very clear: I don't think insulting people is the best way to change minds. I don't think anger helps people see your point. But in a way, Tim has earned the right to feel so wounded, in a way I never did. A lot more straws were laid across his back. And if the current state of TV journalism leaves him so upset, we owe him the respect of trying to understand why.

Saw a comment by Mr Knight on

Saw a comment by Mr Knight on the Tyee a couple of days ago (http://thetyee.ca/Mediacheck/2011/08/04/CTVQuitStrikesNerves/index.html), directing here and soliciting comments - and am taking him up on that offer.


My interest is thus: I have a great interest in helping my country - and world - be a good country for all of us; I think Democracy is the way to do this; I think a good media is absolutely necessary to a good Democracy; and I think our 'democracy' is in pretty dire trouble now, and our media is not only not doing their job which is a good part of the reason we are in such trouble, they have actually, over the last couple of decades, slowly been transformed into a central part of the problem.


First, a couple of comments on the issue at hand.


(1) First, I don't quite get the connection between the title and the ensuing rant - Mr Knight says he has been watching the National decline in quality for years, and apparently the relegating of the official ending of the Cdn 'mission' in Afghanistan to non-headline status pushed him over the line. They've been up to far more egregious things than this on the CBC on a very regular basis (pretty much daily..) the last few years, it seems to me, I can't imagine a relatively small editorial decision of this nature having such an impact - but I guess we all have different ways of looking things.


2. Which may be related to - apparently Mr Knight supports the Afghan "mission" (why else would he be so upset at this pushing the story away from headline status?) - I myself don't support it at all, and one of the reasons I myself gave up on the CBC years ago was their apparent acceptance of the idea that they were, basically (with all of the Cdn media), working hand-in-hand with the government to sell the 'mission' to Canadians. (somewhat contrary to the view of Mr Alboim, in his later comment .. the preponderance of 'pro-mission' views I hear on the radio compared to the rare voices questioning it, not to mention the often thinly-veiled hostility of interviewers to anyone daring question it, compared to their friendly attitude towards those supporting it, makes it very clear where the CBC stands on 'the mission'. Which is not, I would suggest, their job - especially when there has rarely, if ever, been a majority of Canadians supporting this completely illegal invasion, nor has it ever been publically debated as to whether we ought to be invading another country that never presented any threat to us. It's not the job of the CBC to get the Cdn public on board to any particular policy through biased coverage of that issue. (Mr Dvorkin calls the Afghanistan coverage 'somewhat uncritical(ly)' in a later comment - must be looking for some kind of 'understatement of the year' award ...)


3. I suppose a 'disclosure' is in order at some point - I live in Thailand, and never watch television - but for about 3 years my internet connection has allowed listening to the CBC radio - at which I was thrilled at first, having been a CBC radio addict for many years prior to coming here (1994), and missed it greatly - but it was not long before my joy turned to disbelief, and then dismay, and then anger, at how far my great CBC had fallen in 15 years (like the rest of my country, for that matter). No more did we have a relatively middle-of-the-road selection of shows, with almost exclusively pretty intelligent speakers from all around the middle of the political spectrum talking intelligently with intelligent, more-or-less politically neutral hosts about the things going on in our world, it had turned into another monologue NWO- promoter, dominated by rightwing hosts and guests, and with a generally considerably lower level of intelligence all across the spectrum. Exceptions can be pointed to, certainly, but the overall 'quality' level of hosting and interviewing and "news" coverage is something I would expect in college radio, rather than the CBC. I expect the great Gzowski isn't listening anymore, after some countless number of turnings in his grave - hell, he probably wouldn't qualify for a job with the new CBC, for that matter - far too intelligent and willing to talk reasonably with anyone. But I draw dangerously close to a rant ..


4. Although most of Mr Knight's comments are directed at the National, when he says "..In the main, however, Canada's public broadcasting flagship The National is no longer in service to the Canadian people.." - I would add - this pretty much applies to the whole CBC. As with Mr Knight (and many others), I was pretty much appalled at the endless, and largely breathless and adoring, coverage of 'the young prince and his storybook bride' that dominated the CBC and all other media a few weeks ago - this is not indicative of a media devoted to telling *adults* what they need to know to make intelligent, informed decisions about what is going on in our country and world - it is more of a media encouraging citizens to think of themselves as serfs, in a kings-and-serfs world. Happy serfs by and large, to be sure - but still -


5. I very much agree with the first comment, by Michael Knell, with the caveat that I wouldn't confine the comment to the television - I think the newspapers are not a lot better. Some, perhaps, but not a lot.


6. Afraid I must take exception to Mr Knight's July 29, 2011 - 8:06am comment, in which he states National journalists acted in Afghanistan with "..insight and conspicuous integrity..". As a debating position, my rebuttal statement to this notion would be something along the lines of 'in Afghanistan, Canadian journalists have basically played the role of embedded propagandists whose job is to tell Canadians what a great job 'their' military is doing bringing democracy and freedom to the poor beleaguered souls of this country' - I could doll that up a bit, but that is basically what I have been hearing on the CBC the last few years, with only a handful of non-embedded commentators ever allowed to question this, and then only to a point - there's never, that I've ever heard (or seen elsewhere in the Cdn media), been any analysis of the validity of the excuses that were used to start or continue this (in my view and that of many others) completely illegal invasion, or the various rationales that have been used to continue it - by and large, the media is working *with* the government, to 'sell' this mission to Canadians. Not the role of a media in a democracy.


7. Well, there's a great deal more I would like to comment on here, and a great deal more I would like to add - but I grow long for a comment. I have been watching and writing about the Canadian media for quite a few years, however, as central to my own broader ideas about what is going wrong and what needs to be done here, and if anyone is interested in any of my analysis of what is happening with the Canadian media these last few years, you could start here - Canadian Media: Reporting or Managing the News of the 2008 Election?   http://www.rudemacedon.ca/vgi/backgrounders/creating-cdn-narrative.html . The issue the essay is built around is past, of course, but the general analysis is as valid now as it was then. I have sent many things to many Canadian journalists over the years talking about how I think they have been doing a somewhat less than stellar job, with comments such as in this essay on various particular issues, and gotten no response at all - which may, of course, be the result of intelligent judgement that I'm a nutcase of some sort nobody has time for - or perhaps I'm seeing and getting into things far too clearly that would be far, far too uncomfortable for those I have written to to want to deal with. If anyone wants to get a small discussion going here on the state of Canadian journalism, from a truly critical and 'out of the box' perspective - I'd be happy to play your devil's advocate.


(and I would note that I do not think all Cdn journalists are intentionally churning out propaganda, and spinning and otherwise gatekeeping what appears in the Cdn media - although it seems a pretty inescapable conclusion that those at the upper levels know exactly what they are doing, I expect most in the lower levels are in the same box as most Canadians, and believe the things they have been taught all of their lives to believe, and truly are trying to do a good job, and tell Canadians what they need to know within the limits of that box. It is helping people to understand and escape from that box that I try to do. Believe me, if you think journalism is a thankless job sometimes, you ought to try this one ...)


Dave