Spectator

CBC execs: low on reason, high on the hog

Posted on March 18, 2008 by Douglas Bell


Yesterday’s Toronto Sun reported on its freedom of information requests that dug up the following on the expenditures of senior CBC executives:

Former president and CEO of the taxpayer-funded CBC, Robert Rabinovitch, enjoyed a five-day stay at the posh Ciragan Palace Kempinski Hotel in Turkey.

The stay in September 2006 cost $4,377 to enjoy the hospitality of one of the world’s most luxurious resort accommodations…

Bill Chambers, CBC’s vice-president of communications, said Rabinovitch’s trip was to attend a conference of top broadcasting executives.

He called it ‘a very wise expenditure of our funds’ because it provided a unique opportunity to discuss future co-productions from around the world.

In 2005, I interviewed Rabinovitch in the Toronto Star, discussing the shortcomings of CBC funding:

The subject of our discussion was an interview he had conducted with worldscreen.com in 2001.

[WORLDSCREEN.COM]: How is the CBC funded?

Rabinovitch: The CBC is funded, from a public-broadcasting point of view, in the worst possible ways. We are a combination of advertising and a public grant from the government, which comes on an annual basis as an appropriation. Therefore we are vulnerable, unlike the BBC, which gets its license fee every 10 years. We also raise about 30 per cent of our money through advertising, and the advertising, in turn, can mean less distinctive programming, because the purpose of advertising is to deliver eyeballs.

Please note the phrase “the worst possible ways”—not “in a manner that could use improvement,” not even “wretched,” “terrible” or “dismal.” The. Worst. Possible. Ways.

I asked him if, four years later in the midst of the worst labour dispute in the history of the CBC triggered by management, i.e. him, this was still his position.

“This very much remains my position,” he said. “If you add the instability caused by the cuts we have taken over the last 20 years, the constraints therefore on program planning where it takes three to four years from idea to getting a story on the air, etc., the impact on the CBC is obvious.”

Um, so how does this work? How could Rabinovitch go on the record saying that the government does such a piss-poor job funding the CBC, then spend that kind of money complaining to his international colleagues of same? I’ve put this question to the current set of worthies at the CBC. I await their response.

• Puttin’ on the Ritz [Toronto Sun]
• The price of our ambivalence [Toronto Star]

Comments

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GravityLevity2 March 18, 2008 at 11:32 a.m.

The other expenses mentioned in the Sun article but not mentioned in Doug's posting, seem more questionable. My experience with conferences is that if you attend a conference, you stay in the hotel where the conference is being held, with the other conferees. So the real question is: was the Turkey conference that Rabinovitch attended a legitmate conference for the president and CEO of the CBC to attend? Neither Doug nor the Sun offer anything to suggest that it was not.

Barbara_in_BC March 18, 2008 at 12:28 p.m.

The amount of money spent is far below anything that would make alarm bells go off in my head. If we consider ourselves world class media players... no problem.

ValC March 18, 2008 at 1:01 p.m.

Are there any CEOs who don't attend conferences (I mean conferences that are relevant to that CEO's business)? I thought this sort of thing was part of the job of being CEO. Of course his expenses should be paid. It's a chance to network with other executives that he would not normally meet face to face. It's not as though the man chartered a private jet to take him there and back and then expected the CBC to pay for it.

jade_lee March 18, 2008 at 3:22 p.m.

I have always enjoyed the CBC, on television, on radio, on ipod. They represent talent. I trust their message, they entertain me. If the CEO is advocating for improvement I think he is doing his job. I would much rather spend my Tax dollar on the CBC than on weapons of mass destruction ie aircraft.

Jeanne March 19, 2008 at 11:22 a.m.

I'd have agreed with the foregoing posters' opinions ten years ago. But not any more. Rabinovich and his successor have placed the Mother Corp in the hands of a management cadre that is a disgrace to the CBC.

As a long-time CBC fan, I've watched both the tv and radio offerings on CBC get dumbed down to the point where I can't watch or listen to most of what goes on air any more. I am sick to death of the noon-time call in shows on Radio 1, consisting of callers who have nothing interesting or new to say, but who love the sound of their own voices. There's rarely any in-depth, informed documentary or discussion on Radio 1 any more at any time, just endless, tiresome yapping punctuated by music selected to be forgettable and inoffensive.

As for CBC tv, aside from The National, what we get is now hockey, American dramas and sitcoms, and mind-numbing "reality" shows.

I don't mind seeing real executive leaders meeting with their peers, sharing information and ideas about creativity, improvement, the purpose of public broadcasting, etc. But Rabinovich and Stursberg have taken the CBC down the road of deadly dull, vacuous, unoriginal, derivative programming that insults every viewer/ listener and taxpayer. I'm not willing to pay for them to buy a cup of Tim Horton's coffee across the street from the CBC headquarters.

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