A former managing editor of CBC Radio, and ombudsman at NPR, Dvorkin, floats the idea that CBC consider abandoning commercial advertising in favour of direct audience financial support. That’s right… the dreaded funding drives.

While I’m not confidant that this approach would fly in Canada, I think he nails it when he suggests that now, more than ever, is time for the Ceeb to rethink its connection to the nation’s cultural life:

“The CBC’s financial problems are directly related to the question, “What should a public broadcaster be?” Most countries with public broadcasting systems wrestle with this, but in the United States, a certain clarity of vision has emerged.

NPR and television’s PBS have found niches in the world’s most competitive media market. Those niches are “local” and “quality.” CBC, on the other hand, seems to define success exclusively around high audience numbers.”

I want to be optimistic. I want to believe that our executive team will, perhaps, after a midnight visit from the ghosts of public broadcasting, see the value in this vision, but so far we’ve seen no evidence of any bold, out-of-the-box thinking that might get us out of this mess.

So then, maybe we should look to the words of Otto von Bismarck, who once said: “There is a Providence that protects idiots, drunkards, children and the United States of America.”

Fingers crossed that this includes us as well.

“On the compensation front, executive salaries are being frozen at 2008 levels for 2009-2010. Potential bonus payouts for executives in 2009-2010 will be reduced by 50 percent. This means that the compensation for each of our eighty or so top managers will on average be reduced by 10 to 20 percent next year. I thought that you should know that management cares, and cares enough about CBC/Radio-Canada that it needed to send a clear signal that we will do our part.”

- CBC CEO, Hubert Lacroix

It’s the cluelessness of this statement that shocks.

At a time when as many as 1200 CBC staffers could lose their jobs, and face unemployment in a market already flooded with media refugees, this comment has a whiff of “Let them eat cake.”

I’m sure Lacroix is not a callous individual, but how could he possibly imagine this wouldn’t beg the question, “how’s about not taking any bonus, and being satisfied with your salary, like everybody else?” Especially in light of the raging AIG bonus scandal. Do these guys even read their own news service?

While this doesn’t come close to the banditry of that scam, it does come across as being disassociated from the fact that we’re entering a massive recession, and Canadians are already suspicious of the corp’s executives after the revelation of questionable spending last fall. Once again, CBC comes across as being out to a very expensive lunch.

But come on. Are we mice, or are we salty media seadogs ready to face up to the horrible truths of survival? (Repeat after me: “I’m a salty media seadog, ready to face the horrible truth.”)

Okay, then. Here’s the horrible truth.

Television as we know it, is about to die. Not just CBC, but TV as we know it.

Right now, if you wanted to, you could cut your cable, plug your laptop into your TV, and watch whatever you want, when you want. You don’t even need to know about computers ‘n’ stuff. It’s that easy. I just did it myself last month, and I’m not what you would call an early adopter.

It’s not elegant, to be sure, but there are a multitude of choices that are currently fighting to be born that will make it cheap, easy, and highly desirable for anyone with an internet connection. You have to ask yourself, who (aside from the elderly) is going to continue to pay $50 per month for the privilege of missing their favourite shows because they’re never on when you want to watch them, when they can just download them or stream them online

De-camping from the regions by merging radio and cutting local staff is not the answer. We’re already considered “latte drinking urban elites” by far too many Canadians. And cutting online services in this day and age is just such a brain dead idea that anyone who even floats this should be politely shown the door. These dinosaurs are better off on the golf course where they can’t hurt anyone. Either strategy is sure to further reduce our relevance.

No, the answer is to cut broadcast television loose as if it were a horribly injured leg. The sooner we do this, the faster we can adapt.

In no way am I trying to be insensitive to our colleagues in television, or suggest that all TV has to go immediately. We should definitely keep Newsworld, and move it over to the main channel, and even step up our investment in news, docs, and lifestyle programming.

But we should radically step up our efforts with online video — essentially creating an online television station that focuses on what CBC does best: news, documentaries, kids, comedy, and arts programming — and hopefully preserve as many jobs as possible. In essence, I’m not proposing we axe the bulk of CBC content — just the archaic and expensive medium in which we deliver it.

As for drama, well… I don’t think our attempts to copy American programming (The Border / 24) are worth the money, though it’s possible that moving online will give us a chance to experiment with radical new dramatic forms. It sounds radical I know, but this way, CBC will still find its way into the little glowing box in Canadians’ living rooms.

Question is… will Stursberg with his Ahab-like obbsession with television be able to let go? I have my doubts.