Source : Globe & Mail

Alliance Atlantis, the company from which CBC Television has plucked its new executive director of English-language programming, is a big, fat broadcasting operator. As every single announcement from the company reminds us, it "offers Canadians 13 well-branded specialty channels boasting targeted, high-quality programming."

Well, the company would say that, wouldn't it? The thing is, Alliance Atlantis is also home to instances of stupidity and inanity. Last Wednesday, the very day on which CBC made its announcement about hiring an Alliance Atlantis vice-president, one Kirstine Layfield, for the big job, there came another announcement, from Alliance Atlantis, about the company's big plans for St. Patrick's Day programming. This caught my attention.

First, I noticed that the big, 13-channel company got the day wrong. St. Patrick's Day is not Sunday, March 17, as the announcement states. March 17 is a Friday.

The top program, named first on the list for what it dubs its "Shimmering Shamrocks" schedule, is on Discovery Health Channel and it is -- wait for it -- The Making of a Hangover.

Excuse me? Since when is it acceptable to smear an entire ethnic community with the suggestion that the community is given to excessive drinking? Next on the list is mention of two movies -- both American-made, not Irish -- about the IRA. Ha-ha. The generalization that the Irish are violent and permanently inebriated is a throw-back to the racist stereotyping that was rife during British colonial rule of Ireland in the 19th century.

The stereotyping of a nationality, as Alliance Atlantis indulges in the practice, would be deeply offensive if it weren't so obviously air-headed and ignorant. It is a thoughtless generalization, an attempt at being both cute and cheap in providing programming built around a theme. The theme is actually the feast of the patron saint of Ireland, but that's irrelevant if you're trying to be cute and do it cheaply.

Of course, some people will get drunk on St. Patrick's Day and have a hangover the next day. Some may be violent. Some of these people may even be Irish. Some of them may even work at Alliance Atlantis, and they may not be Irish.

Now, one particular piece of news is rather well known to the world at large. It is that Ireland has the strongest economy in the European Union and almost full employment. That didn't happen because the Irish, as a race, are permanently inebriated, hung-over and violent. I doubt if this news has reached Alliance Atlantis. The geniuses there have trouble reading the calendar.

On matters Irish, and in particular the matter of television, the Alliance Atlantis vice-president who is about to take charge of CBC English-language TV might want to make a note. RTE, the Irish equivalent of CBC-TV, dominates Irish broadcasting with Irish-made programs. It had 18 of the Top 20 most-watched programs in 2004.

One hesitates to speculate in these circumstances, Alliance Atlantis not being an organization that deserves to be taken seriously, but it's still tempting to wonder about what it all means for CBC-TV.

Since Alliance Atlantis has incubated the incoming executive director of English-language programming, what can we expect? A Canada Day filled with programming about lumberjacks and igloos? Leaping leprechauns, say it ain't so.

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