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Eric Ball: how can we listeners remove those executives?
By admin1 | August 7, 2008
LETTER TO JOSÉE VERNER
29 July 2008
Hon. Josée Verner
Minister of Canadian Heritage,
Status of Women and Official Languages
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A6
Dear Josée Verner:
Re: CBC Radio Orchestra and CBC Radio One and Radio Two music programming
I’m writing with a specific question that I hope you can help me with, but first let me explain what my concerns are.
When the CBC executives announced the dismantlement of the CBC Radio Orchestra, a huge protest spontaneously erupted across Canada, and it has continued unabated. This closure was the last straw for thousands of listeners and musicians who already were deeply troubled by the impending changes to the music programming on Radio Two (and Radio One).
In response to the protests, the executives have not budged an inch. Instead, they have arrogantly pursued their original plan, completely ignoring the outcries from listeners and artists alike. They act as though the thousands of people objecting to their policies are simply out of touch, but clearly, it is the executives who are out of touch.
When I wrote to Susan Mitton, Executive Director (Interim) of CBC Radio, raising numerous objections to the changes, she didn’t bother to respond to my arguments. Instead she wrote, “I was sorry to read of your continued disappointment with the proposed changed [sic] to Radio 2 and the decision to disband the orchestra.” In other words, she hasn’t altered her position in the slightest, but regrets that I have not yet seen the light. She adds, “I do hope that, despite your misgivings about the new programming, you will tune in to judge the new shows for yourself when they launch in September” (my emphasis). That means the CBC executives are going ahead with their plans regardless of what anyone says or does, and it implies that, in their view, the thousands of people outraged by the coming changes just need to get with it.
Here’s how CBC executive vice president Richard Stursberg has responded to the widespread protests against the CBC’s planned musical programming changes: “We’ve had far bigger protests concerning the Hockey Night in Canada fiasco and we squashed those, just like we’ll do with the present protests about CBC radio programming.” Mr. Stursburg uses an strong verb - “squashed” - but of course all he and his fellow executives have to do in order to “squash” the protests is to ignore them. And that’s what they’re doing.
The problem, then, is that the executives persist in implementing their retrograde policies, regardless of the wishes of their listeners. So my question is, how can we listeners get rid of those executives?
They are not elected, so they cannot be voted out of office. The House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage has no power over them. To quote the chair of this committee, Gary Schellenberger, “the government has no authority to compel CBC to make any particular programming decision.” That committee could have made stronger recommendations to the executives, but chose not to. It would appear, then, that the CBC executives are completely unaccountable, at least in relation to the public.
It is clearly an unacceptable situation to retain executives who are so uncaring of the opinions of their constituency. So again, could you please tell me the means by which they can be removed? Or, if there is absolutely no way that this can by done, meaning that the executives can do whatever they want to Canada’s public broadcaster with impunity and without accountability, could you please confirm that this is the case.
Yours sincerely,
Eric Ball
CC:
- Libby Davies, MP for Vancouver East
- Right Hon. Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada
- Gary Schellenberger, Chair of House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage
- Hon. Mauril Bélanger, Liberal Heritage Critic
- Bill Siksay, NDP Heritage Critic
- Maria Mourani, Bloc Heritage Critic
- Stand on Guard for CBC website
Topics: Dispatches from CBC Listeners, Letters |
4 Responses to “Eric Ball: how can we listeners remove those executives?”
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August 13th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
Hi there
Interesting post.
I’d love to know what your source is where you quote Richard Stursberg as saying: We’ve had far bigger protests concerning the Hockey Night in Canada fiasco and we squashed those, just like we’ll do with the present protests about CBC radio programming.”
I haven’t seen that quote before and, well, kinda doubt he said it.
???
August 14th, 2008 at 12:25 am
To Todd Maffin - thanks for your comment!
I found the quote in a post by Peter Rahn, titled “CBC: show more integrity and responsiveness,” on this site. If you use the search tool at the bottom of the left-hand column, you’ll soon find it.
Peter’s critique of the Heritage Committee hearings is generally positive towards the committee, but critical on certain points.
Here’s the sentence containing the quote: “Moreover, when CBC executives, like Mr. Richard Stursburg openly flaunt the people protesting the changes to CBC radio 2 programming with inflammatory remarks like, ‘We’ve had far bigger protests concerning the Hockey Night in Canada fiasco and we squashed those, just like we’ll do with the present protests about CBC radio programming!’ one has to question whether there is any serious attempt to keep Classical programming alive or that CBC Executive declarations of commitment to serious music are genuine.”
August 14th, 2008 at 12:45 am
Here’s the direct link to the Peter Rahn piece:
August 20th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
Peter doesn’t cite his source either.
I’d love to know where specifically he believes Richard S. said this.
I don’t know Mr. Stursberg and have never met him, but it does seem pretty unlikely he’d say something like this.