Several years ago, I met with someone representing "The Society for the Common Good " in Calgary. I had thought, Great, let's have a conversation about what is the common good. I suggested that we tall with everyone (I waved at the business across the street). Here's the thing. The person who I was talking to could not imagine talking to a Right Wing person let alone finding common good with them. (He assumed that the business owner was right wing)
That is the CBC today. They could not imagine talking to a trucker
What a fantastic interview, easily the best interview you've conducted on all things CBC and the best interview about the media in general. Congratulations and thank you, both to Tara and David Cayley. This has made my week.
One of my favourite books is "Northrop Frye in Conversation," a series of interviews with the late, great Canadian literary critic, conducted and transcribed by David Cayley - for the CBC Ideas program. Frye, a difficult subject one-on-one, responded effusively to Cayley's well researched questions; the result is one of the very few places one can grasp just how deep and wide ranging Northrop Frye's intellect was.
So it doesn't surprise me that Mr. Cayley has done such a magnificent job at his autopsy of what Frank magazine (and others) referred to as The Corpse. Everyone should read this. Thank you again.
As a side note, let me just add this tidbit: when Jian Ghomeshi hosted his first, official morning episode, his introductory "essay," (as he liked to call them) was a 2-3 minute disquisition on the meaning of the show's title, "Q." I noted at the time that he left out one reference point, the "q factor," which was an industry measure of celebrity in Hollywood and beyond. Surely he had heard of it, yet he never mentioned it. That, for me, was when CBC changed - through an act of dishonesty by omission, one that veiled it's true ambition. Sadly, that became the pattern, which is why I turned my radio off a decade ago.
So relieving to the nervous system to hear an interview like this. Which is related to why I imagine a lot of us can't just "let go" the watershed that the events of the covid years created. For so many people, wherever they found themselves in terms of practical decisions or on the ideological spectrum: we've never had the collective conversation that would clear the air, and let us plant the seeds to trust each other again. And some things have changed for the worse, and not got better--housing prices, crime, the state of downtown in our cities, inflation, over-reach of bureaucracy, even crappier health care access than previously, etc. Which you also aren't supposed to talk about, because for some reason talking about the basics of a liberal democracy now makes you right-wing coded (huh, what???) and therefore makes you easily dismissible. In my observation, the CBC and all legacy media has played a part in making certain perspectives 'off limits' and therefore limiting the national conversation rather than encouraging it. They have obstructed us from accurately naming the challenges so that we can find better, more creative solutions. That is not how I would have described the CBC of my childhood. I feel deeply discouraged. But I still have hope. Thank you (and David) for your continuing good faith contributions.
Such an important point! There are so many important topics that are not covered by CBC or the MSM that should be part of our national conversation. Outright bias is an issue but simply not tackling the topics that everyday Canadians are concerned about is even more damaging to our country. It shouldn’t be indicative of a specific political leaning to talk about the challenges that face us all. So many people are ignorant, including myself, about the concerns that other Canadians may have and we barely talk about those we know we have in common. We would be more likely to solve problems if our media focussed on these issues and helped us have a healthy conversations about how to solve them, from different perspectives. Reporting about these overlooked topics are happening on independent media outlets and podcasts but I still haven’t found, what I consider to be, an objective Canadian news source.
I hear you on Canadian news sources Yohanna. I've been following Tara of course, as well as The Line and Aaron Pete's podcast. Grateful for all the good faith voices. But all of this is more commentary than on-the-ground journalist reporting, for reasons of available resources!
I didn't follow everything David was saying but CBC losing “critical distance" certainly nailed it. Not exactly sure when it changed.
David is a throw back to a time you could have CBC Radio on all day long and throughout the weekend. It was radio that just enveloped you given there was quality in the work.
Peter Gzowski was there to get you started. Vicki Gabereau brought home the humor and "As it Happens" was simply must listen radio with some of Canada's finest journalists ever - no one was better than Barbara Frum. Ending my night was always the most surreal voice on radio: "Ideas" with Lister Sinclair. I smiled when David mentioned him. I could see David Cayley fitting in perfectly on that platform. That was a show that really made you think.
I never thought much about the political back then, or wondered what agenda was at play. It was simply quality programming: informative, enlightening and entertaining. Now? Ugh. Its so painfully obvious. I just saw a CBC Kids short: "Kids explain drag and why they do it". This is grooming at its finest and its from a CBC Doc produced SIX years ago: "Drag Kids". Fine you want to present this but where is the balance? Its on the shelf. Around the same time CBC is broadcasting this propaganda they had a BBC documentary about a similar issue going on in Canada. No broadcaster in Canada had the courage to cover this but the BBC came to Canada and produced: "Transgender Kids: Who Knows Best?". The year is 2017 and CBC made an editorial decision that "they know best". They purchased broadcast rights to this documentary about Canada and put the documentary on the shelf.
Great interview.
I agree, there's no going back.
Several years ago, I met with someone representing "The Society for the Common Good " in Calgary. I had thought, Great, let's have a conversation about what is the common good. I suggested that we tall with everyone (I waved at the business across the street). Here's the thing. The person who I was talking to could not imagine talking to a Right Wing person let alone finding common good with them. (He assumed that the business owner was right wing)
That is the CBC today. They could not imagine talking to a trucker
What a fantastic interview, easily the best interview you've conducted on all things CBC and the best interview about the media in general. Congratulations and thank you, both to Tara and David Cayley. This has made my week.
One of my favourite books is "Northrop Frye in Conversation," a series of interviews with the late, great Canadian literary critic, conducted and transcribed by David Cayley - for the CBC Ideas program. Frye, a difficult subject one-on-one, responded effusively to Cayley's well researched questions; the result is one of the very few places one can grasp just how deep and wide ranging Northrop Frye's intellect was.
So it doesn't surprise me that Mr. Cayley has done such a magnificent job at his autopsy of what Frank magazine (and others) referred to as The Corpse. Everyone should read this. Thank you again.
As a side note, let me just add this tidbit: when Jian Ghomeshi hosted his first, official morning episode, his introductory "essay," (as he liked to call them) was a 2-3 minute disquisition on the meaning of the show's title, "Q." I noted at the time that he left out one reference point, the "q factor," which was an industry measure of celebrity in Hollywood and beyond. Surely he had heard of it, yet he never mentioned it. That, for me, was when CBC changed - through an act of dishonesty by omission, one that veiled it's true ambition. Sadly, that became the pattern, which is why I turned my radio off a decade ago.
Thanks so much, Warren.
So relieving to the nervous system to hear an interview like this. Which is related to why I imagine a lot of us can't just "let go" the watershed that the events of the covid years created. For so many people, wherever they found themselves in terms of practical decisions or on the ideological spectrum: we've never had the collective conversation that would clear the air, and let us plant the seeds to trust each other again. And some things have changed for the worse, and not got better--housing prices, crime, the state of downtown in our cities, inflation, over-reach of bureaucracy, even crappier health care access than previously, etc. Which you also aren't supposed to talk about, because for some reason talking about the basics of a liberal democracy now makes you right-wing coded (huh, what???) and therefore makes you easily dismissible. In my observation, the CBC and all legacy media has played a part in making certain perspectives 'off limits' and therefore limiting the national conversation rather than encouraging it. They have obstructed us from accurately naming the challenges so that we can find better, more creative solutions. That is not how I would have described the CBC of my childhood. I feel deeply discouraged. But I still have hope. Thank you (and David) for your continuing good faith contributions.
Such an important point! There are so many important topics that are not covered by CBC or the MSM that should be part of our national conversation. Outright bias is an issue but simply not tackling the topics that everyday Canadians are concerned about is even more damaging to our country. It shouldn’t be indicative of a specific political leaning to talk about the challenges that face us all. So many people are ignorant, including myself, about the concerns that other Canadians may have and we barely talk about those we know we have in common. We would be more likely to solve problems if our media focussed on these issues and helped us have a healthy conversations about how to solve them, from different perspectives. Reporting about these overlooked topics are happening on independent media outlets and podcasts but I still haven’t found, what I consider to be, an objective Canadian news source.
I hear you on Canadian news sources Yohanna. I've been following Tara of course, as well as The Line and Aaron Pete's podcast. Grateful for all the good faith voices. But all of this is more commentary than on-the-ground journalist reporting, for reasons of available resources!
I love this interview. Thank you so much.
I didn't follow everything David was saying but CBC losing “critical distance" certainly nailed it. Not exactly sure when it changed.
David is a throw back to a time you could have CBC Radio on all day long and throughout the weekend. It was radio that just enveloped you given there was quality in the work.
Peter Gzowski was there to get you started. Vicki Gabereau brought home the humor and "As it Happens" was simply must listen radio with some of Canada's finest journalists ever - no one was better than Barbara Frum. Ending my night was always the most surreal voice on radio: "Ideas" with Lister Sinclair. I smiled when David mentioned him. I could see David Cayley fitting in perfectly on that platform. That was a show that really made you think.
I never thought much about the political back then, or wondered what agenda was at play. It was simply quality programming: informative, enlightening and entertaining. Now? Ugh. Its so painfully obvious. I just saw a CBC Kids short: "Kids explain drag and why they do it". This is grooming at its finest and its from a CBC Doc produced SIX years ago: "Drag Kids". Fine you want to present this but where is the balance? Its on the shelf. Around the same time CBC is broadcasting this propaganda they had a BBC documentary about a similar issue going on in Canada. No broadcaster in Canada had the courage to cover this but the BBC came to Canada and produced: "Transgender Kids: Who Knows Best?". The year is 2017 and CBC made an editorial decision that "they know best". They purchased broadcast rights to this documentary about Canada and put the documentary on the shelf.
When did the CBC lose "critical distance"?