Why you should work at the CBC

It’s come to my attention that people considering positions at the CBC have been coming across this blog as part of their pre-interview research. CBC managers are quick to tell me via email that I’m a bad influence on this new, generally younger generation of employees.

I personally believe that regular exposure to this blog builds firmness of character, and that any saboteur so bold as to regularly comment upon it displays a measure of pluck and gumption that this corporation sorely needs.

Rumour has it that current president Hubert (as he prefers to be called) was chosen for the job after it was revealed that he works under the pseudonym “Johnny Happypants,” although I might have just made that up right now.

Be that as it may, it would not be wise for prospective employees to bring up this web site in a job interview at the CBC. Unless, of course, I am the interviewer. In which case you will be hired on the spot, rocketed to the top of your pay band, and given the real dental plan, not the one with the niggling 5% deductible.

Similarly, it would not be wise for prospective employees to assume that this blog reflects the totality of the CBC experience.

Think of it instead of an impressionist painting of the CBC experience.

At the same time keep in mind that Degas was going blind, and he was still doing pastels no one else could touch.

Know what I’m saying?

Please try to keep up. You need to think on your feet here.

And so, I’d like the CBCers in the audience to leave a message here for the next generation. Something that job-searching Googlers will find someday in the far-flung future. Something to inspire them. Something to give them hope.

Tell them why you work here. More importantly, tell them why they should work here.

So go at it in the comments. Keep it anonymous. Speak the truth.

Our very existence may depend on it.

45 Comments

  • Allan says:

    You must work for the “awesome, cool” Hour. So what colour boxers is George wearing today?
    Pay isn’t great? Yeah, you definitely work for The Hour.
    Thinking of leaving soon? Ah, the fickle heart of youth.
    You’ll be a loser, kiddo, if you can’t see how lucky you are to be anywhere at the CBC.
    Stay there for the rest of your life if you can, grasshopper. You’ll never regret it.

  • Ouimet&AllanHATER says:

    For kidlings looking to work here:
    I’ve worked here for several years and have had the awesome opportunity to produce some pretty great journalism and television.
    It’s easier to find and create cool and important projects at the CBC than the other Cdn networks.
    The pay isn’t great, so I might leave soon, but it’s not bad for the soul.
    I also like a lot of the people with whom I’ve worked, which helps a tonne.
    p.s. also for the kidlings: i hate this blog; it’s such a cynical piece of shite. i’m only adding a comment for the children.

  • Anonymous says:

    sherry 12:56
    “don’t feed the trolls”
    Please reference an editorial in the National Post dated January 10/08 which states in part:
    “an unnamed CBC reporter had colluded with liberal MP’s in an attempt to tie Stephen Harper’s Conservative government to the Mulroney-Shreiber scandal”… “it is not the CBC’s business to manufacture news with the co-operation of one political party in an attempt to discredit another”…

    Or consider the front page story in the Globe and Mail of January 9/08 concerning the sale of the CBC’s Intl. Sales catalogue to a company which, two days after the deal was ratified “with no open bidding, discussion or presentation”, was sold to Toronto based PeaceArch Entertainment where the CBC’s head of A&E served as VP before he was hired by his old friend Richard Stursberg in April ’06….

    “Why you should work for the CBC” indeed! These two recent stories in the MSM illustrate perfectly the immediate need for an audit and investigation into the editorial policies, management and business dealings of a once trusted cultural institution.

  • Sherry says:

    OK, I’m laughing now. Anyone who thinks “quimet” is trying to run a censored blog – with jokes written over a year ago as “evidence” – is freshly arrived from some other Interwebs in an alternate universe.

    Don’t feed the trolls!

  • Enik says:

    Oh Anon 8:50–I’m afraid you’re in for even more disappointment…

  • Anonymous says:

    I am one of those 700,000 viewers who won’t stick around for a second dose of “The Border” It featured the worst, most hackneyed, cliched dialogue of the last generation on the Ceeb. Great production values but … painful writing. Hope “Sophie” is better.

  • Enik says:

    Anon 9:15 (now 9:03): Oh please–are you new here? Blogging software and websites eat comments by accident all the time. Maybe you went into the spam file for confiding about your need for Viagra and Cialis. Maybe in your Glenlivet-induced haze, you posted your comments to insidecbc.com instead of here. Who knows?

    Regardless, if Ouimet was going to delete your comments, she would say so and you would know the reason why, and her being a manager would have nothing to do with it. And she wouldn’t be posting your tedious accusations of censorship. Whatever you said in your “missing posts”, I’m sure much worse has been posted here to much better effect.

    Here’s a solution: why don’t you just reconstruct your posts in an e-mail and send them directly to Ouimet for posting, instead of using the comment form? If you’re lucky and/or coherent, maybe she’ll feature it as a guest post. Fingers crossed!

  • Kevin says:

    I spent this morning riding the APS unicorn around the Atrium, buck naked (if you don’t count the cowboy boots).

    Then I used my Bat-grappling-hook to get up to my floor, just in time for the icecream party.

    Just another day at the CBC.

  • Anonymous says:

    quimet 10:16
    “why would I censor dissent?”
    Why indeed, because you are a manager with the CBC. It is your job. I defer to your posting of 9/25/06 at 10:04 PM and I quote;
    “this morning was spent with other CBC managers..
    dreaming up new subliminal ways to discredit the current Prime Minister”.
    In an article from the Post referenced in the same blog Robert Fulford writes “seamless intellectual agreement (exists) in all corners of the (CBC) staff.”

    Relatively neutral, no political bias, who do you think you’re dealing with? Your Worship, I rest my case.

  • Blistering Barnacles says:

    Anon 9:15, Hit the publish (and be damned) button not preview. C’mon we want to read the two missing posts….

  • Ouimet says:

    “A total lie – teamakers censor dissent. Two of my submissions to this thread were not posted.”

    Why would I censor dissent?

    And then why would I not censor your post that accuses me of censoring dissent?

    Maybe you’re just a liar trying to get a rise out of me. Maybe you just pressed the wrong button and your comment was previewed instead of published. Maybe Blogger ate it.

    I’m trying to keep an open mind on the matter.

  • TruthCommission says:

    Liar liar pants on fire.

  • Anonymous says:

    quimet 2:48
    “hold it right there anonymous. I posted every single word… you wrote on this thread”

    A total lie – teamakers censor dissent. Two of my submissions to this thread were not posted – which validates and confirms my contention that the CBC propagates values, opinions and issues to further its own political agenda.

    The theme of this thread “why you should work for the CBC” could be more appropriately titled “CBC: a miasma of decrepitude, can you handle it?” because only the most despotic and mendacious shall survive CBC’s pernicious agenda.

  • Anonymous says:

    Too bad it turned into a slant rant. It’s an important opportunity for those that have not surrendered totally to cynicism to prove it.

    I saw some people discuss the public service aspect. It’s why I remain in public “broadcasting”, and the reason why so many people at least come through the door.

    Talent abounds. Also bitterness at service opportunity lost, and direction away from what we should be doing.

    I wonder what the place would be like if it had double the money right away. Would it retrench towards mandated niche programming, and skip the ratings hand wringing? Would there be a children’s department again? Science?

    I always tell people that working for the public does not compensate well financially or in benefits or certainly perks (hello?), but the one thing it can provide is interesting projects to work on. Take those away, as we are seeing more of, and there *is* no incentive unless you find that great isolated show or website to toil on.

  • Anonymous says:

    Hmmmm … doubtful … The CBC is rarely on the radar of the Free Newfoundlanders.

  • joeclark says:

    Anonymoose, you have not ’œexpress[ed] legitimate concerns.’ You have insinuated various libels under cloak of anonymity.

    Here’™s a (Marxist?) idea for you: Real critics give evidence and sign their names.

  • Justin Beach says:

    From the way it reads and the argument style it sounds alot like this guy http://responsiblegovernmentleague.blogspot.com/.

  • Enik says:

    I thought it was Michael Coren, but the words are too big.

  • Anonymous says:

    “marxist”? You’re kidding, right? More like United Church. Anybody who thinks there is anything remotely “left” coming from the painfully middle-brow, centrist CBC is just uninformed.

  • Anonymous says:

    Tell us, who?

  • Justin Beach says:

    And please no one notice the dodge “Give us real examples under your own name” – no real name, no examples just defensive posturing. I actually think I know who this anon. is.

  • Ouimet says:

    “the most salient illustration of bias will come from
    this very site which did not post my final rebuttal to justin.”

    Hold it right there, anonymous. I posted every single word you and any other anonymous wrote on this thread.

    And if you browse the rest of this blog you will never find an ‘antipathy to opposing points-of-view.’ The opposing points-of-view is my bread and butter.

  • Anonymous says:

    joeclark 1:13
    the most salient illustration of bias will come from
    this very site which did not post my final rebuttal to justin.
    CBC’s antipathy to opposing points-of-view, along with its didactic and pertinacious editorial agenda, are embed in a marxist philosophy dating from the early 20’th century. The petulant and abrasive assertion that I “go fuck myself” for expressing legitimate concerns in this regard is predictable. The obtuse and supercilious posture of CBC’s bloggers appear to be commensurate with its own declining audience share and the political will of those who wish to privatize it.

  • Anonymous says:

    The preoccupation with “balance” at the CBC has made it hopelessly toothless. They are more frightened than they are threatening. Only a a delusional paranoid could think it has a bias in favour of anything except for the bland.

  • cbcfrank says:

    From the technical broadcasting end, I can’t recomend this place. I’d prefer that they privatize us so’s they’d get out of our face.

    Sorry.

  • joeclark says:

    Anonymous at 1:13: Give us real examples under your own name or go fuck yourself.

  • Enik says:

    Anonymous 7:32, when the Liberals were in power, many of them were convinced that we were biased against them, and when the Conservatives have been in power, they’ve been convinced that we’re biased against them.

    The NDP and the Green Party think we’re biased against them because they get so little coverage compared to the other two parties, the provinces think we’re biased in favour of the federal government, the federal government says we’re biased in favour of the provinces and cities.

    The “right” thinks we favour the “left” (if we can even use these terms anymore, and the “left” thinks we favour the “right”. Both sometimes think that we favour the “far left”, whatever that is, and God knows what the “far left” thinks because–let’s face it–they’re extinct.

    (Someone who thinks Avi Lewis and Naomi Klein represent the “far left” hasn’t seen what they wear.)

    Trust me, Anonymous 7:32, for this is the God’s honest truth: we get complaints from all sides, because we’re biased against everybody. My understanding is that we hate them all.

  • Justin Beach says:

    It doesn’t matter what your side is. If the CBC makes your side look bad it’s because the facts, not anyones bias, makes your side look bad. If you want the CBC to not make your side look bad, by not reporting facts then you are asking them to be biased.

    Sorry facts upset you so.

  • Anonymous says:

    Justin 3:50
    Your sophomoric argument only confirms my previous statement. If the CBC was “relatively neutral” then we wouldn’t have to concern ourselves with it “not always (making) my side look good.” And exactly “what is my side”? As an “interested observer” I will suggest that Stephen Harper is not the greatest threat to the CBC, which operates at-arms-length from Parliament. The devastation to the CBC’s budget and hence its ability to deliver on its mandate to Canadians has come from high ranking liberals.

  • Justin Beach says:

    “Any suggestion that the CBC does not aggressively promote a set of values and opinions which are contrary to the concerns and interests of Canadians
    is sheer lunacy.”

    No, you are biased and you want the CBC to reflect your bias. The fact that CBC is relatively neutral bothers you because it doesn’t always make your side look good. Stephen Harper, for example, does not want an unbiased media – he wants a media that tows the line. It is you that has an agenda to push, not the CBC.

  • Enik says:

    Anonymous 1:17 – I’ve been here longer than you and I still don’t have the patience or the tools. Can I come work in your department?

  • Enik says:

    Just wait till you see The Border which is biased against–gasp!–the Americans!

  • Anonymous says:

    The veterans that are still working at CBC – the ones who remember the good days and have even a teeny bit of hope they will return – have a ton of knowledge and experience to pass on. I consider myself fortunate to learn from them.

    I absorbed more in my first six months at the CBC than in four years of j-school. After seven years, I’m still gaining new skills every few weeks because of the people around me. That includes the patience and tools to deal with managers who don’t have the creativity, passion or heart that I see in my colleagues.

  • Anonymous says:

    Justin 12:15
    Any suggestion that the CBC does not aggressively promote a set of values and opinions which are contrary to the concerns and interests of Canadians
    is sheer lunacy. Remarkable and notorious examples of bias in CBC’s programming have become part of the cultural fabric in the psyche of Canadians and it is that perception which cannot be undone. As a consequence, and with an evolving media, it will prove difficult for the CBC to find allies or public support for the worst which is yet to come.

  • Justin Beach says:

    @ Anonymous 11:29

    Sadly, for you, the CBC is relatively unbiased. Of course Rick Mercer picks on the Conservatives, he’s a comic and they’re the party in power. When the Liberals were in power Mercer picked on them. If hockey and Rick Mercer constitute your only claims of Bias then you’re just looking for it, hoping desperately to find some.

  • Anonymous says:

    anonymous 10:18
    “no ones telling (the CBC) to skew the story to please the owners or advertisers”
    You’re joking right?
    The influence and the bias can be seen and heard in virtually everything broadcast by the CBC whether it is HNIC cheering for the Leafs or Mercer denigrating the Tories. The ultimate demise of the CBC will come from a lack of confidence in impartiality which is reflected in historically low ratings. Canadians do not want spin they want integrity.

  • Anonymous says:

    After slogging it for years in the private sector, what many lifelong CBCers forget is the freedom that comes with a genuine commitment to balance and fairness. No-one’s telling us to skew the story to please owners or advertisers.

    Sure, we’re human, and we have to work hard to prevent our personal biases from creeping in. But what other news organization in Canada has a written ethics and standards policy?

    It’s sure as hell not perfect, but I consider myself fortunate to work at the CBC.

    And Anon #2: You’re so right. Especially in the regions. It’s where the best come to play.

  • Anonymous says:

    You will be running “Wheel of Fortune” shortly … you are selling soap.

  • Anonymous says:

    I’d rather work here, for something I believe _CAN_ be excellent, than work someplace else selling soap.

  • Anonymous says:

    Yeah, the CBC is looking for some young ambitious people who will ensure that the stuffed characters from Mr. Dressup and the Friendly Giant don’t end up in any more pornos.

  • Anonymous says:

    Skilled labour demand now seriously exceeds supply in Canada. The CBC doesn’t offer a competitive package or attractive working conditions. You can’t, in conscience, ask people to work there.

  • Anonymous says:

    I’m watching Shaolin Soccer, a Chinese movie dubbed into French right now.

    Price is right starts soon.

    8)

  • Aigle says:

    Watchin teh tv in the mourning 2 see what u need 2 due tuday iz k3w3l !!!1!!!

  • Anonymous says:

    By and large, the people are great, and among the most brilliant you will find anywhere.

  • Justin Beach says:

    HA! …. just sayin

    – J

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