CBC Television

Mondo Times editors    Boulder, Colorado USA

Posted at 2:54pm on Friday, September 4th, 2009

The Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission has directed the CBC, Canada's public broadcasting service, to apologize for a TV program that generated a slew of complaints.

On January 9, 2009, the producers of the CBC show "Bye Bye" apologized for a skit suggesting that President Barack Obama ought to be shot and that all black people look alike. CBC News reported the story:

"The producers of Quebec's wildly popular New Year's Eve Bye Bye special apologized Friday to Quebecers who were offended by the latest edition.

Véronique Cloutier and Louis Morissette took no questions from reporters as they held a news conference in a downtown Montreal hotel to respond to allegations that some sketches were racist and others were in extreme bad taste.

The couple, who produced this year's edition of Bye Bye with their company Novem, said they were deeply sorry their humour was taken the wrong way.

"We are sorry for having shocked people and [we are] saddened at this development because it was not the objective," said Cloutier.

"All we wanted to do was have a night that would entertain people, that would be audacious, funny and find an equilibrium between things that are scathing and things that would interest another type of the public," said Morissette, referring to appearances by popular Quebec musicians.

More than four million Quebecers gathered around their TV sets to watch Bye Bye 2008 which aired on Radio-Canada Dec. 31.

By Friday, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission had received more than 170 complaints.

Members of Montreal's black community were particularly offended by a skit involving a news anchor interviewing an actor portraying U.S. president-elect Barack Obama.

After initially confusing the incoming president with a black Quebec singer, the anchor tells viewers that all black people look alike. He goes on to say that viewers at home shouldn't worry about Obama stealing their purses, but that he might steal their television sets."

The full story:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2009/01/09/mtl-cloutier-byebye-0901.html

Eric Kallgren    Boulder, Colorado USA

Posted at 3:37pm on Saturday, March 28th, 2009

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the publicly owned operator of national television and radio networks, will cut about 800 jobs due to a financial shortfall caused by the downturn in advertising revenue.

On March 25, 2009, Reuters reported the story:

"The CBC, which has about 9,850 employees and receives more than 1 billion Canadian dollars ($813 million) a year from the federal government, said it expected the shortfall to hit 171 million Canadian dollars in its 2009-10 fiscal year. It blamed weak ad markets, higher costs, a base-salary financing shortfall and an aging infrastructure.

It said its projections assumed the government would authorize 125 million Canadian dollars in asset sales.

Aside from government funding, the CBC normally generates about 600 million Canadian dollars a year in revenue from commercial activities."