The Ghost of Tod Maffin

As if a crypt had been opened, CBC’s “official” blog Inside The CBC has risen to life once more, and, so far, a pale imitation of the original.
Tod Maffin awkwardly denies that it’s him. (Just someone using his password)
Could he have known that something was up, when in February he wrote

The CBC has hired an editorial director for the intranet who will re-write, in a more “human” tone, news releases and policy announcements from the CBC.

ADDED Nov. 13
The ghastly apparition turns out to be the flesh and blood of Paul McGrath, who fancied himself a professional blogger when he performed similar duties for The Hour.
Paul hopes to uphold the same ability to question that Tod did, adding that “the blog is no more an official organ of the CBC than it was previously”, meaning still confused about it’s place in the world as ever.

4 Comments

  • Anonymous says:

    I heard the same Nunavut story three times on Radio One tonight, with three different pronunciations of “Paul Okalik”.

    Amazingly, ALL of them were incorrect.

    Clearly it’s not just foreign correspondents that are getting cut.

  • Kev says:

    The real question is – Allan, are you going to start cyberstalking Paul now? It’s a 2-for-1 deal after all, what with your other obsession with George. Think of the efficiency gains!

  • Allan says:

    yes, it has the sense of being a mousetrap for the inane.
    With “what do you think” as the cheese, when they’re not really interested in feeding you so much as basically diverting pesky varmints. No wonder it doesn’t pay well, it’s so innocuous.
    I never read it for the content so much as for just how far and in what new twist Tod could make it as self-serving as possible. He was able to make every post somehow and strangely be about himself.
    I guessed that with virtually no pay for doing it, Tod saw some value at least in using it to remind the corp of his powerful existence.

  • Anonymous says:

    here’s what i love about that link you posted:

    1) the post is written in a very Tod Maffin tone. Mark Cuban is namechecked. All seems to be in order. written by “author” but filed under “iO! intranet” for some reason

    2) Someone nmed “Tod Maffin” appears in the comments with some extra commentary. is this the real Tod Maffin? Who knows?

    3) Small Dead Animals checks in to point out that current tv is laying off employees. WTF is going on?

    4) hapless reader “Kathleen” has a question for the original author, “author.”

    5) “author” chimes in, claiming that he is not writing the posts there, that they are “being done internally.” Is “author” internal? Or external? What does that even mean? Who is “author” anyways?

    6) The whole thing is put on by CBC Communications as an exercise in transparency. But what could be more opaque and confusing?

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