CBC must change its TV programming for arts-hating rural Canadians
When it comes to TV watching, rural Canadians don’t like “the world’s best performing arts, intelligent drama and daring comedy.” At least, not according to the CRTC, which recently issued a sharp rebuke to the CBC for converting its rural-focused specialty channel, CBC Country Canada, into the general entertainment–focused Bold. Although Country Canada launched in 2001 with a mandate to serve and inform rural Canadians, the national broadcaster soon started drifting toward a more general format, officially switching the name to Bold in 2008.
The CRTC, however, is apparently just catching on now, directing the CBC to submit “an alternate programming proposal for Bold that will ensure that the majority of the programming is reflective of the living realities of rural Canadians.” That might mean tossing out such populist programs as Live From Abbey Road (a music show featuring the likes of the Mars Volta and the Gossip) and The Tudors, neither of which, evidently, speaks to people who don’t call cities home.
The CBC has until mid-May to respond to the CRTC but so far has said only that it is “reviewing” the ruling. Although we aren’t sure what a rural-focused lineup would include, we fear the Ceeb might have to bring back Wild Roses or air a disturbing number of Rita McNeil and Friends episodes.
• The Globe and Mail: CRTC to CBC: You’ve got 30 days to shape up! [Globe and Mail]
It’s about why you think that you define art. Someone who possibly thinks that grace, beauty, and taste are represented by the lines of a Prius (not a working vehicle), a Starbuck’s beverage with a really pretentious name, or designer clothing that would dissolve in a work environment, despising those who see and work in the elements and are possibly big fans of nature’s art.
It’s about why the people who don’t make a country’s wealth (smug urbanites) despise those who do and somehow think that they should nevertheless dictate how it should be spent.
I suspect rural Canadians cover enough of a spectrum that one couldn’t accurately say that they all hate art. But I further suspect that many of them are united in an aversion or outright loathing for smug Torontonians.
Why the nasty condescension? Rural and urban lifestyles may be different but both are certainly “valid”. I don’t believe that one or the other is superior. People do like to see themselves reflected in their art and entertainment; or at least things they can identify with or recognize. Snide comments from either “side” often merely reveal ignorance and/or intolerance. Articles like this do nothing to bridge understanding.
Stupid arrogant article. All of Canada should not be defined by an over-populated bit of former farmland on the north shore of Lake Ontario. Canada is full of stories and art. What CBC presents is claustrophobic and predictable; hardly distinguishable from anything south of the border except for it’s unjustified excess of hubris. The handful of Toronto producers who gobble our Heritage money aim their products at an American market. As taxpayers we are all fools to fund this. CBC in it’s present form… sucks. Time for change.