Source : Vancouver Sun

Robert Rabinovitch says the future of Canada's public broadcaster depends on a return to its public-service roots

by Daniel Sieberg

Robert Rabinovitch, the new president of the CBC, stressed the need to avoid ratings and commercialism in the television marketplace during his first public appearance on the West Coast since being appointed the beleaguered corporation’s leader.

“What we must look at very carefully is how do we reposition the CBC to be what it’s supposed to be, and that is a public-service broadcaster,” said Rabinovitch, who officially became president in mid-November 1999. “I personally think that it cannot be done while the agenda or the programming appears to be dominated by commercial needs.”

He said the federal government made a huge mistake in the early 1980s when the encouraged the CBC to become more sensitive to the public by taking on more advertisements because it resulted in the CBC becoming “advertisement junkies.”

This is one area where observers say Rabinovitch’s vision differs dramatically from his predecessor, Perrin Beatty.

A lively crowed packed the Vancouver Playhouse Theatre Tuesday night to listen to Rabinovitch and to participate in a debate between him and other media experts.

Audience members were geared up for the event, voicing their opinions even before the speakers could finish their presentations and underscoring the emotion that often surrounds the fate of the CBC.

The panelists on hand Tuesday night were Matthew Fraser, media columnist for the National Post, Lysiane Gagnon, columnist for La Presse and the Globe and Mail, author and Vancouver Sun columnist John Maclachlin Gray and Simon Fraser University professor Catherine Murray, who all debated the question: Is the CBC past its future?

Jointly presented by the University of British Columbia’s Sing Tao School of Journalism and the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting and moderated by the school’s director Donna Logan, the evening began with a provocative start with stimulating comments from Gray.

“The CBC is a shell of its former self,” said Gray. “In fact, if you hold it up to your ear, you can hear the ocean.”

Gray also said the CBC has been suffering from “managed deterioration” recently, despite making some improvements to its mandate.

Rabinovitch has expressed some reluctance to go along with a decision by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission that effectively demands the CBC cut Hollywood movies from its prime-time schedule, scale back professional sports and significantly boost local and regional CBC radio and TV across the country.

Rabinovitch has suggested that the broadcaster may ignore conditions contained in the seven-year renewal of its broadcast licences and he defended some of those beliefs Tuesday night.

“Professional sports, whether we like it or not, are some of the events that tie the country together,” he said. “Professional sports, whether we like it or not, are some of the events that tie the country together,” he said. “Professional sports is part of our culture.

Rabinovitch has also said in the past that the CBC is “a critical instrument for Canada.”

The evening was eventually opened up for public debate and discussion.

© Vancouver Sun