From: cbbrowne@csi.uottawa.ca (Christopher Browne)
Subject: Re: Senate Interrogation
Organization: Dept. of Computer Science, University of Ottawa
Distribution: can
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 92 00:00:12 GMT

In article <schuck.721521140@sfu.ca> Bruce_Schuck@sfu.ca writes:
>I think the Senators did a wonderful job in defending the memory of
>the Canadians who died in WWII and those whose returned.
>
>Let us remember the CBC is a public broadcasting instutution which
>spends a pittance on allowing the people to respond to news shows and
>documenteries. 
>
>I will contrast them to the Globe and Mail.
>...Of those 10 pages, 1 page is devoted to letters to the editor,
>where people can respond, where they applaud or chastise the views of
>columnists and editorialist and news stories.
>
>Thats 10% of the news pages dedicated every day it publishes.
>
>The CBC produces several hours of news each day, along with the
>occassional documentery. So lets say about 100 minutes each day is the
>equivalent of the G & M 10 pages.
>
>Does the CBC devote 10 minutes to viewers responses, applause or
>criticism? No. How about 1 minute. I think not. As far as I know,
>there is no time reserved for such feedback on the national network.

In spite of the (minor :-)) disagreements running on other threads, I
have to say that I'm impressed with this line of thought.  Looking at
the overall COST of that feedback might derail things a little, but
the idea of having "viewer feedback" with respect to TV news is quite
original, and is probably a good idea.

>The Senators, unlike the CBC , has provided a public service to the
>veterans groups and a public forum for their response.
>
>I applaud the Senate Committee, and I urge the CBC to provide a daily
>forum for the peoples view on it's news programs.

I haven't had time to listen to enough of the debate to really have
much of an opinion as to the (in)correctness of the TV series.

In some respects, I'm not too impressed with the way that the Senate
has "assumed" their way into being arbitrators of what is historically
correct, and what is not (which either is, or should be the issue by
which The Valor and the Horror is judged).  It's not clear that they
are authorities on historical correctness, and so I would question
whether they were the right body to judge the issue.

However, this HAS allowed Senators to actually get involved in
actually doing something.  This has let them look like they're not a
TOTALLY useless anachronism.  At least they did SOMETHING...

>Without public debate, in a forum with the same viewership as the
>original broadcast, the Valour and the Horror was just propaganda.
>
>The CBC, as a publicly funded institution, with a mandate to serve all
>Canadians, should not be in the propaganda business.

I'll disagree slightly; it's very difficult for the CBC, as an
institution funded THROUGH the government, it is very difficult for it
NOT to involve propaganda.
-- 
Christopher Browne                |     PGP 2.0 key available
cbbrowne@csi.uottawa.ca           |===================================
University of Ottawa              |  The Personal Computer:  Colt 45
Master of System Science Program  |  of the Information Frontier
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