Juno News - The CBC has abandoned local journalism

00:00:00.000 Why should any Canadian be forced to pay for the CBC when they don't watch or listen to it?

00:00:06.300 And this brings us to our third and final argument why leftists think that Canada needs the CBC.

00:00:11.500 It's all about local coverage. In today's media landscape, leftists will argue that there's not

00:00:16.580 a market case to be made in these smaller markets, smaller local markets. They're not economic

00:00:22.040 necessarily to run a newsroom out of anymore as more advertising dollars have gone to tech giants

00:00:27.660 like Google and Facebook. They argue that the CBC should operate in these smaller local markets

00:00:32.980 where there's not necessarily a market case to do so. But shockingly, as we saw during the pandemic,

00:00:38.500 the CBC actually shut down its local coverage at a time that Canadians would have needed it most.

00:00:44.820 Susan Margetti, who's the general manager of CBC News, Current Affairs and Local,

00:00:49.300 said the following in a statement. As Canadians turn to us for the latest developments during

00:00:53.540 these unprecedented times, we're temporarily pooling our resources into one core news offering.

00:00:59.560 We are needed now more than ever, and we will work together across the organization to serve Canadians

00:01:04.680 night and day with the trusted news and critical information they need for the duration of the

00:01:09.380 pandemic while keeping our team safe. Simply stated, extraordinary times require extraordinary

00:01:15.340 measures. Oh, the poor CBC. They don't even realize how they're shooting themselves in the foot here

00:01:20.100 because a lot of their defenders say that local news coverage is their raise on debt,

00:01:24.840 that this is why they exist. But obviously during the pandemic, they couldn't even keep that alive.

00:01:30.700 But this obviously does bring up a large criticism of the CBC, which is that they actually compete with

00:01:36.460 private industry, private media that could have otherwise popped up in the space. If it's difficult to run

00:01:42.480 a news operation in a small local community, it becomes that much more difficult when you have a

00:01:48.440 multi-billion dollar funded competitor to compete with. So here's a reality check. It is inappropriate

00:01:54.500 that any government funded institution in this country should be defining and dictating what Canadian

00:02:00.240 culture and identity are. If the CBC truly was a relevant cultural force in Canada, then more than

00:02:06.800 5% of the market would be tuning in. But of course, the CBC is bleeding ad revenue and viewership. But

00:02:12.940 instead of improving its content, it instead just dips further and further into taxpayers' pockets.

00:02:17.840 And it's all too quick to axe local coverage when the going gets tough. Frankly, the CBC is the last

00:02:23.660 institution in this country that should be defining our culture and identity. And it's not justifiable

00:02:28.380 as a taxpayer expense, especially in these times when taxpayers are struggling to even afford their groceries.

Juno News - September 30, 2022