CBC-TV News gets pwned

shit is going down in TO, heli circling overhead but CBC is showing wizard of oz?? where's my live coverage?It was a major, historic event in downtown Toronto, right next to the CBC building, and TV-watching citizens were asking: where’s the CBC?

Quite simply, Twitter & YouTube & TwitPic & Qik kicked the shit out of them. A handful of free tools that didn’t exist 5 years ago just pwned your half-a-century-old billion-dollar National Television Broadcaster.


Reviewing some of the #G20 vids on YouTube and seeing a new generation of journalists born this past weekend. TV News is obsolete.

This might have been the weekend we all realized that TV news is too slow, too old, and too clueless to report on important, breaking local news. The web is much faster. Hell, even radio is faster, including CBC Radio. CBC Radio blew CBC-TV out of the water.

But CBC-TV was never with it. They missed the story, when it was right front of them as they did a voiceover. It was like they couldn’t process what was in front of their own eyes. Despite years in the business, with more training and experience than anyone in TV in this country, they were useless at reporting what was happening in their own streets.

CBC's G20 social media experiment provides nothing much except a good action shot of Jennifer HollettLooks to me like CBC News is on the run.

52 Comments

  • Gunter says:

    All hail Joe Clard, for he continues to fight the good fight!

    • Anonymous says:

      Who is Clard, anyway?
      And is it true that Joe Clark is unemployed, and has been for years? How does he survive?
      Regardless, the fact that he bothers Joe Clark is reason enough to thank him (or her).

  • Obtuse men on an...oh, forget it says:

    What’s worse, the stern-voiced-daughters-of-god-blue-stockinged pseudonym police apparently missed completely the whimsical, yet subtle, homage to The Kids in the Hole, harkening back as it did to the Corpse’s halcyon days of yesteryear, when instead of being ignored by 99.0% of the country, it was only ignored by a mere 98.25% of the country, thanks to programming that fearlessly–some might say, obsessively–devoted so much air time to spotlighting that vulnerable supposed 10% of the population (or 1-2%, depending on which studies you actually read) normally under-represented (!) in our state-funded cultural content. I am *so* disappointed.

  • Hate speech says:

    If you are gay I guess you can use the word “faggot” kinda like if you are black you can use the word “nigger”. It is obvious that this blog is completely without moderation figurative or literal.

  • Hate speech says:

    faggoty men on a faggoty network = offensive

    • Just sayin' says:

      cbc ottawa = offensive

    • Anonymous says:

      Most people nowadays aren’t offended by homosexuality. Homosexuals are proud of their sexuality. They even have a “Pride” parade. It’s a shame that there’s still a few people out there with old prejudices who think that being called “faggoty” is anything less than a compliment and “offensive”.

      • Anonymous says:

        hate crimes against gays are actually on the increase.

        • fake real meta fake joe clard says:

          What kind of person tries to turn an unfunny fuckwit’s lousy choice of a pseudonym into a human rights discussion?

  • cbc ottawa says:

    Radio has always been faster on it’s feet than TV. It’s also much, much, much cheaper. This is why CBC Radio will survive long after TV news dies. Yes the net is great for fast breaking “Now” stories but there will always be a place for actual discussion and analysis. If CBC TV is smart it will realize this and stop trying to be the web on TV.

    • A-nony-nony says:

      Yes, and can we get “journalists” like Peter Armstrong off the news reader circuit barking the news, and back into the field pulling radio stories in to the Reports, so many that we get an hour of _Radio_ reports rather than 10 minutes.

      And can CBC put back their cutback money and more into radio to create better progamming than low-brow Q, anything on Radio 3, and stop the PRI on CBCOvernight which used to have a world-wide selection.
      Oh. I forgot, CBC management like Boyce et. al is unilingual English and only listen to US public radio via their cable systems.

  • cbc supporter says:

    Let’s not be too critical, Reich wingers. Just tonight on CBC Newsworld there was cutting edge, staged for the cameras, almost live video from Saturday of a fat guy screaming at the locked doors of the Eaton Centre, “Why are you closed?” It was promoted as a video of the week and a most important political statement.

    Nuff said?

  • Anonymous says:

    New media puts the “journalist” in the spotlight, not the story.

  • LocalYokel says:

    The thing I hate most about the new style of CBC news coverage is this incessant focus on “new media” and tools of the new media. It’s almost as if the journalists and producers consider their job more interesting than what’s actually happening, you know… the story and all that.

    The same can be said of Hirsh, who I think is simply replacing Tod Maffin in the role of in house tech-geek mouthpiece. The technology of delivery is simply not a story in any way, other than a gateway or a tool to what’s happening and why. He had the audacity to state on air, on CBC with Galloway, that twitter had basically taken over news coverage. And this after CBC radio smashed every single thing covered by the twittering meatballs of the G20 Street team.

    • Allan says:

      There was no traditional media outlet that could be everywhere at once except Twitter, as well as provide a broad range of perspectives so quickly.

      • LocalYokel says:

        Agreed that no news org can be everywhere. But twitter can, and is, manipulated and broadcasting the comments without some form of vetting seems very odd. Using instantly published PR statements doesn’t make much sense to me.

        And who, other than a journalist or someone who doesn’t have a job where they can stare at their phone\computer, can actually follows the endless tweets of twitter?

        I got the feeling that the G20 social media producers spent more time staring at their cell phones than searching out stories, angles, people… What’s the point?

  • Anonymous says:

    The CBLA radio coverage was much better than the TV coverage…

  • Anonymous says:

    what’s with old much vjs becoming the worst reporters on the planet?

    • Allan says:

      some of Jennifer’s reporting, Sunday night
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CG8Tn-0Kngc

      • Anonymous says:

        Thank you Jennifer Hollett for your informative piece on the existence of technology.

        Hats off to the CBC for doing zero compelling reporting when the biggest Toronto story of the past decade was happening within a ten block radius of its newsroom. Great shots of Evan Solomon in a warehouse somewhere, nothing of the smoke billowing by the fucking building they’re shooting in. CBC = fiddling while Rome burns.

  • Anonymous says:

    Incredible reporting. CBC missed the boat completely.

  • Allan says:

    Here is a moment from the CP24 coverage … in two parts. The commentary by the anchor shows considerable courage.
    Outstanding dedication to the story, an historic and pivotal moment for civil rights in Canada.
    Part two, especially.
    1
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dU-m8YMDLQE
    2
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9-k-UfGGRo

    young people surrounded by police officers deliberately forcing them to stand in torrential rain for long period

  • Anon 3.0 says:

    CTV/CP24’s coverage was great. I felt that they were telling me the goings on in real time. Meanwhile Newsworld/CBC’s coverage was somewhat lacklustre at best and that is being kind.

  • Anonymous says:

    From a West Coast perspective, it seemed that all the CBC did for the G20 was hang out around headquarters at King, or head up the street to Queen St. There was little reporting on other protests/events occurring in the city. Myopic (& maybe a little lazy?)

  • Anonymous says:

    Twitter etc. is inherently faster, apples and oanges etc.
    What was sad was watching News Net get absolutely destroyed by CP24.

    • Fake Jojo Chinto says:

      Agreed!

      Pulse24 was at multiple locations, and they just felt more ‘agile’. And even though they’re often right-wingy-douche-y pawns of big brother CTV, they did a pretty good job at balance. Especially after their reporters got busted.

      Seemed like CBC was a step behind, or a block away, or just late to the party. Christ, even Steve Paik-yawn had more outrage.

      Cheshire crap, CBC!

  • faggoty men on a faggoty network says:

    CBC Newsworld et al. were too busy trying their best to be mouthpieces for the protesters instead of doing any actual reporting on the G20.

    Btw, wtf were the protesters protesting? Does anyone know? Or does simply showing up to protest in and of itself merit slavish CBC devotion to giving every tax-subsidized perpetual grad student badly in need of a haircut and a shower a platform to like, fight da powa, man? I wonder who those shitheads think pays the taxes that makes their pseud lifestyle possible (and that includes the CBC, bien sur).

    • Anonymous says:

      I think they were protesting their inability to find anything better to do on a Saturday than set fire to police cars, smash storefront windows and get arrested.

    • Louise says:

      faggoty, you hit the nail on the head. The rabble that marches in these demonstrations are as causeless as they are clueless. They are there for publicity to feed their narcissism. The best thing the media can do is not feed them. They should stay away from the mobs and actually cover the meat and potatoes issues being discussed inside by the leaders attending the summit. That’s the only thing I’m interested in.

      • Allan says:

        Care to suggest any other news that shouldn’t be covered, Louise?

        The three of you trivialize the price that the Black Bloc and others are prepared to pay for what they believe in.
        While admitting that you neither know nor understand what motivates such extreme methods of protest.

        You want to discuss what happened with the G20 leaders?
        The CBC did lots of talking about it, but in the end were frustrated because absolutely nothing of any substance took place.

        • Louise says:

          Who said we didn’t “know” what the Black bloc is all about? Do you think they have a new fresh idea that no one has ever heard before? ‘fraid not. It’s old. It’s stale. It’s stupid. Every generation produces its useful idiots and infantile leftists. The content of their “ideology” and the method they use to advance it remains the same. They’re a bunch 0f spoiled children who’ve never had to take on any serious responsibility for anything.

        • Louise says:

          One further point. Are you suggesting it is CBC’s or any other network’s responsibility to act as the publicity arm of the Black bloc?

          You sound rather put out that three of us “trivialize the price that the Black Bloc and others are prepared to pay for what they believe in.
          While admitting that you neither know nor understand what motivates such extreme methods of protest.” Is that what you want the CBC to do? Be the Black bloc’s unofficial mouthpiece? Sometime they come pretty close to doing just that sort of thing.

          • Allan says:

            “fresh ideas” are still coming in, even in 2010. Each year demonstrates that even civilized and modern societies still have a lot to learn.
            For example, we now have street cameras in many parts of the city for better surveillance.
            Along with iPods, internet and Greenpeace.

            These “bunch of spoiled children who’ve never had to take on any serious responsibility for anything” are about to do that very thing, in the courts, wouldn’t you say?

            By learning more about the group The Black Bloc is the CBC glorifying them, spreading their propaganda, acting “as the publicity arm”, being their “unofficial mouthpiece”?
            That’s a good question for perhaps Tony Burman.
            But most journalists and reporters would say that they are in the business of gathering news and information so that their readers and the public can make better informed decisions about their priorities.

            The G20 leaders are not prepared to commit to anything, because they don’t know what tomorrow may bring, and they are already, all of them, in a tight spot themselves as it is.
            That’s a fair summary of the substantive part of the historic conference.
            And the rest of it was just another orgy of photo ops, and how many more pictures do we really need of Obama and Sarkozy and their wives?

            The story for us in this country was in the streets.
            What are civil rights and how do they apply to each of us anywhere we find ourselves?
            Under what circumstances is it deemed permissible to suspend those rights?
            What is considered “humane treatment” of a person who has been arrested?
            Why would someone jeopardize their safety, their future, even perhaps their life, to smash windows, start a riot, create chaos?

            The CBC was very restrained in their coverage, though they did in due course report the events accurately and fairly.
            But the impression was that the events of those days were all just skimmed over, when it was a vivd and teachable moment for everyone, especially for the inhabitants of major cities.

            “useful idiots”?
            Wasn’t that once considered the alternative name for The Tea Makers?

          • Fake KKKAte says:

            Louise, your Hollett photos are fucking hilarious.

        • Obtuse men on an...oh, forget it says:

          “for what they believe in.”

          Which is what, exactly?

          And why, exactly, should any of us care? The KKK, Aryan Nations, Laroucheites, et al., “believe” in dark forces behind multilateral fora and the global economy…so what? Should the CBC be obligated to provide a mouthpiece for those belief systems? And if not, then why must CBC be a mouthpiece for the Black Bloc? Let the Black Bloc buy air time and broadcast whatever the hell they want. Or they can field candidates for Parliament, state their belief system to the public, obtain a majority and pass whatever legislation they want. Or fail trying. And if they fail, fuck ’em. Vox populi.

          Just because a bunch of prissy, pampered malcontents congregate in the public square doesn’t mean that they have a legitimate case anyone needs to hear. And for the CBC News, to broadcast is to choose; and they’ve long chosen who gets their story heard and who doesn’t. See Barry Cooper’s Sins of Omission if you don’t believe me.

  • Anonymous says:

    Where was Toronto’s #1 media rebel Strombo at a time like this?

    • Anonymous says:

      He seems to be in, uh…
      http://www.cbc.ca/thehour/roadtrip/
      Can anyone figure out that fucked up map? I’m going to guess Los Angeles?

      But is anyone expecting real reporting out of George? Get real! He has a talk show!

      Where’s the rest of the CBC-TV News team? They’re in town, at least, and the coverage is shite.

  • LocalYokel says:

    That photo looks fake to me. Who runs from the cops with a hand in one pocket?

    Anyone notice the video that Hollett took just before this alleged photo was taken? Apparently no one has introduced a “pro” camera to the cross platform specialist.

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