[Swprograms] CBC operating on autopilot

["Brian Smith" <am740@xxxxxxxxxx>]

By JOHN MCKAY - Globe and Mail
Tuesday, August 16, 2005
Canadian Press

Toronto - Two days into its controversial lockout of 5,500 unionized
employees, the CBC has been operating on autopilot with plenty of reruns and
pared-down programs.

But the most noticeable change has been the absence of any apparent effort
to mount a management-produced television newscast, relying in prime time
and over the supper hour on imported feeds of the BBC World News service.

Newsworld has been limited to one-minute roundups of Canadian news read by
managers before handing things off to the BBC.

"That's certainly the plan right now," Jason MacDonald, the CBC's official
spokesman, said Tuesday of the news programming from the public broadcaster,
although another publicist suggested it wasn't the network's original plan.

"The BBC as lockout-breaker. It's a very interesting model," said Ian
Morrison, spokesman for the independent media watchdog group Friends of
Canadian Broadcasting.

Bob Hurst, president of CTV News, declined to speculate on the chances of
the private network incurring a ratings windfall from the lack of domestic
news by its public rival. But he was willing to deliver a plug for CTV's 11
p.m. news with Lloyd Robertson, noting that the live Atlantic version is
available at 10 p.m. in Ontario and Quebec on CTV Newsnet.

"So there is an option for Canadians who don't want to stay up till 11," Mr.
Hurst said. "Perhaps this is an opportunity for Canadians who have long been
CBC traditionalists to find out that there is another very credible
newscast, which is Canada's most-watched newscast."

Media observers said Tuesday they're stunned the CBC hasn't tried to provide
any kind of news package from non-union staff or from all the incoming feeds
that are available in any broadcast newsroom.

Patricia Bell, head of the school of journalism at the University of Regina,
said the situation is even worse for radio, especially in places like
Saskatchewan, where there are few alternatives to CBC Radio. She adds that
managers have been shipped to Toronto to keep the central operation going.

"Who are they going to send (to cover news)?" Ms. Bell asks. "I just don't
think they planned."

Ms. Bell noted that David Kyle, one of her school's graduates and a
Regina-based CBC manager, was reading national radio news from Toronto on
Monday night.

And because the current lockout, unlike labour disruptions in the past,
involves one union that now comprises both journalists and technicians, Ms.
Bell said the situation confirms who really brings programming to air.

"We have graduates from here who have been working, especially in radio, for
four, five years, doing very solid work and they're still not even on
contract. They're casual. And you don't build a strong ongoing presence if
you don't nurture people and let them grow."

Normally a strong booster of the CBC, Mr. Morrison said he finds fault with
both sides. He said both union and management went to the industrial
relations board a couple of years ago and supported amalgamation of the
Communications, Energy and Paperworkers (technicians) and Canadian Media
Guild (journalists) into a single bargaining unit, a move that has resulted
in the significant impact the current lockout has generated.

After 15 months of negotiations, the CBC locked out the bulk of its
unionized employees at 12:01 a.m. Monday. At issue is the broadcaster's wish
for more flexibility to hire contract and part-time employees, something the
CMG says is a danger to job security for full-time staff.

In other lockout developments Tuesday:

- Security officials at the Ontario legislature have changed the locks on
the doors of the CBC media offices there at the request of CBC management.
Reporters have not been in their Queen's Park offices all week anyway but
are now officially locked out.

- NDP leader Jack Layton is urging Heritage Minister Liza Frulla to protect
Canadian programming by ending years of neglect of the public broadcaster.
The New Democrats say the current lockout is the direct result of a lack of
commitment from the Liberal government to protect and promote public
broadcasting.

- CBC management paid for a second full-page newspaper ad outlining their
position. It again expresses regret that the lockout became a necessity to
break the deadlock with the union. It says only 5 per cent of CBC employees
are on contract, including some of its most respected on-air personalities,
and that they are represented by the CMG and are well compensated.

- A prolonged dispute could be particularly damaging to CBC Radio. In recent
years, the radio networks have enjoyed a new ratings high, according to
recent results compiled by the Bureau of Broadcast Measurement. In the
Toronto market, Metro Morning, for example, has sustained a two point jump
in market share to 12.6 per cent with an audience increase of 22 per cent.

Brian Smith

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