Bad News – Good TV

The G-8 and G-20 summits have come and gone and I dare any news organization to ask Canadians what the world powers accomplished in Toronto. I do not believe that 1 percent of Canadians know what was in the final communiqué. But, ask Canadians what happened on the streets of “Hogtown” during the weekend and you are sure to get in depth responses. There is no better magnet for airtime than violence, destruction, fire and mass arrests. I say this because it highlights the incredible failure of our police forces and politicians.

Based on what I saw on TV and what credible reporters are saying it is patently obvious that the security plan was flawed at best and really, let me be clear here, it didn’t serve the people of Toronto and Canada.

The police missed the boat on Saturday. They were so busy worrying about the politicians behind the security fence that they forgot about the citizens outside the barrier. The result was widespread destruction along several major shopping streets in the city, police cars trashed and burned, media trucks vandalized and televised pictures of the rioting taking over the airwaves. Free access for the “Black Bloc” looked to me like it was part of the police plan…I’m not saying they wanted or condoned vandalism, I’m saying they didn’t care to stop it. Keeping the protesters away from the fence was their only priority.

So then comes a Saturday night where journalists quite rightly question the police tactics and frankly make the security people look unprepared for the reality on the streets. The mayor of Toronto was questioned. The Toronto police chief was grilled. The federal minister in charge of security was dragged into the mess even though he never left Ottawa. The police failure was denied by everyone in charge. The pictures and reports made liars of all the officials.

The criticism worked. Only it worked too well. The security forces reacted to the criticism by going overboard on Sunday. On a day when it sure looked to me like all the protest was generally peaceful the police began rounding up anyone and everyone who hit the streets. Among the arrested were TV camera operators, yup the police claim they couldn’t tell who was a protester and who was a rioter, fair enough. But did they think a guy carrying a $40,000 dollar camera with network decals was a rioter? They arrested reporters. They arrested teenage schoolgirls. They arrested dentists. They arrested anyone wearing black clothes. It was beyond stupid and undemocratic.

As the arrested were let out, one-by-one they told their stories of police brutality and of putting people in small cages and keeping the handcuffed for hours and hours. One man was refused treatment for a broken arm. Another was ignored when he explained he was diabetic and needed insulin. For one strange afternoon Toronto became Tehran and you know, the politicians and police sounded a lot like their counterparts in Iran.

There is no excuse for the vandalism and rioting that took place in Toronto on Saturday. The folks in black should have been stopped arrested and had the book thrown at them. If the police were where they should have been, protecting citizens and property, they would have been able to do just that. Their claim that they couldn’t find the rioters who were using tactics to mislead the police do not hold water. The TV cameras found them. The radio and newspaper reporters found them.

Which brings me to some excellent and some not so excellent work done by the media in covering the events on the streets. First kudos go out to local reporters and crews from CTV, CITY and CBC-Toronto who did a credible job of telling the story while the network reporters were all but invisible. The Toronto Star had the best coverage of events all weekend and the best take on the events after the weekend was over. CBC Radio did an excellent job.

The losers in the coverage this weekend were CBC and Global. When Peter Mansbridge arrived to cover the events live, late Saturday afternoon and he was saddled with nothing but old tired shots we had seen for hours on CBC NN and only one national reporter, Susan Ormiston who seemed overwhelmed and was reduced to using the pictures gathered by local crews. The coverage was better before the network arrived. By Sunday night’s National the CBC was left in the dust. CTV was all over the mass arrests, the police overreaction, the scene at the detention center. CBC was still rehashing Saturday’s events using the same old pictures. The National was a day late and as the saying goes, a dollar short. CTV was terrific.

I only mention Global because they did what they do historically. They didn’t compete. Global never made it to air Saturday afternoon. I guess a second rate golf tournament could not be interrupted. I remember when I was at Global and got a major scoop. We received a leak of the federal budget. The powers at the network refused us airtime because we were running “Wiseguy.” The more Global changes, the more it stays the same.

Much of the discussion today has turned to citizen journalism. Everyone with a mobile phone is now a news source. Better get used to it people, this trend will not go away it will only grow. I’m not sure what to make of it. As far as pictures are concerned I am supportive, but when it comes to commentary I worry about the sources.

One outstanding use of the new technology came from Steve Paikin. He used Twitter to inform faster than any TV, radio or newspaper could. His tweets were informative and right on the money. It was some of the best journalism of the weekend. Great work Steve.

Late addition: Mea Culpa. It seems that Global did break into their golf coverage at least twice for about 15 minutes each time. Not the kind of coverage CTV, CITY and CBC NN were providing but Kevin Newman anchored the short hits.

Filed under: Media Commentary, Political Commentary, Black Bloc, CBC, CBC Radio, CITY, CTV, G-20 Summit, Global TV, Peter Mansbridge, Steve Paikin, Susan Ormiston, The National, The Toronto Star, Twitter

Losing Local

A good friend, and a smart one at that, and I were having a drink at a pub on a beautiful afternoon discussing the state of the world in general and media in particular. He’s a guy who has kicked around successfully in radio, TV and newspapers. At one point he blurted out the fact that all news is local. On the face of it, the statement sounds wrong. What about the earthquake in Haiti and the riots in Bangkok? These events lead newscasts, make the front pages and take place far from Canada.

The real truth though, is that he is absolutely right and the TV networks and newspaper chains have been missing the boat for years in their attempts to maximize profits by minimizing staff and sharing content across broad swaths of the country.

I have several points to make that point out the truth of his bold statement. The first brings me back to an audience study done by the CBC in the mid-80s. The audience was asked to list from first to last what is most important to them: local, national and international news. The study said Canadians want international most, national second most and local least. I was a news executive at the time and I was forced to go along with the poll results. A funny thing happened however, the more international news we ran, the lower the ratings went. The more local news we aired, the more the viewership grew. So much for polls. So much for international news.

My second point is about local versus national newscasts. Most viewers, heck most TV people, don’t realize that local supper hour newscasts get higher ratings than the national newscasts. The problem for local is that CTV’s Calgary newscast might get 100,000 viewers but that’s compared to the over 1 million CTV National News gets across the country. But add up all of the local newscasts aired by CTV and they total well over 1.5 million on most days. Global’s numbers are harder to compare because they run their national newscast as part of the supper hour package. At CBC local news doesn’t get much audience but that has more to do with the catastrophic dismantling of local news and the poor product that’s being delivered. In the mid-80s, before local news was plundered, The National averaged about 1 million viewers on 14 “O and Os” (owned and operated stations) plus 14 affiliates. Local supper hour newscasts were getting close to 2 million viewers on just the 14 “O and Os.” The myopic look at national numbers while ignoring local numbers has done a great deal of harm to local television and local viewership from coast to coast.

In all the bull manure that was spread by CTV especially, and Global about saving local TV they somehow forgot to tell us, the viewers, that in fact they have been dismantling the engines of local coverage for years. Some execs call it consolidation. CTV used to have full newsrooms across Northern Ontario in cities like Sudbury, Sault Ste. Marie, Thunder Bay and Timmins. Now, after massive cuts they have small bureaus in most of these cities to feed a larger newscast that covers an area bigger than France. If you are sitting in front of your TV in Thunder Bay are you interested in a car crash just outside Sudbury, thousands of kilometers away? I bet not. So guess what, numbers dropped and local interest waned. What followed was fewer local ads. It has become a vicious cycle. Cut local stations staff to save money. Local coverage drops. Viewership dips further. The network makes even less money and wants or needs to cut more. It seems obvious but the network execs can’t figure it out.

The same has happened to newspapers. The Canwest papers thought they had a great idea. Why should the Calgary Herald and The Montreal Gazette both send reporters to the Stanley Cup finals? Hey, they will both report on the same game. So to save a few bucks only one reporter covers the games and reports to all of the Canwest newspapers. Nobody at Canwest head office bothered to understand that if the reporter covering the event was from Toronto, he might focus on different players and might have more interest in the eastern team and that doesn’t play so well in Alberta and B.C. Perhaps at the G8 summit a B.C. reporter might focus on offshore drilling and a Montreal reporter might be more interested in abortion rights. In Canada the fact that fewer and fewer conglomerates own more and more of the media has meant that local coverage is disappearing and interest in traditional media, especially news, is dropping.

The same is true for newspapers in the U.S. The conglomerates are cutting newsrooms and asking the local papers to share content across the country. The results have been obvious. Papers are closing and even The New York Times and Washington Post are having trouble making ends meet. Sure consolidation is not the only problem, but I am convinced, that it was the chicken that laid the first egg.

To prove my point, local TV news in the U.S., where it is still mostly community run and community based has maintained strong audience numbers even when the networks were losing viewers and the economy tanked. The local stations in places like Buffalo, Minneapolis and Dallas have remained strong local observers who serve their communities well and thus they have been able to remain economically viable when all around them are suffering.

Local sells. Local works. It is high time that the people who run the media understand this point. This won’t happen though as long as the shareholders are more important than the audience and the decisions are all made in Toronto boardrooms. Diverse ownership, local ownership or at least local management free from interference could be the biggest boon to traditional media, maybe the only thing that can save TV and newspapers as they exist today. Can it happen? It looks grim. All indications are that we are moving in the opposite direction.

Filed under: Media Commentary, Political Commentary, Calgary Herald, Canwest, CBC, CTV, CTV National News, Global TV, Montreal Gazette, New York Times, The National, Washington Post

Battle of the Blades

When I first heard about it I thought it was one of the truly dumbest ideas for a new television show that had ever been contemplated. A bunch of rough and tumble former hockey players lacing on figure skates and pairing with some of Canada’s best female pairs skaters, who thought this would be a good idea? Only the CBC could come up with this concept and allow it to get to air.

Guess what? I was wrong. I hesitatingly tuned in to what I expected to be massive disaster. Perhaps I even subconsciously wanted it to fail. I used to like to think I knew a good idea from a bad one. But I was hooked. Not only is Battle of the Blades a well produced and conceived TV show, it is utterly charming entertainment that both men and women can love and most of all, and this is what the CBC and the producers deserve the most credit for, it is the first originally Canadian reality show. Battle of the Blades may even be the first truly original Canadian TV show.

For those of you who didn’t tune in on Sunday night I will describe the show. Half-a-dozen former National Hockey League players, from goons like Tie Domi to pretty boys like Ron Duguay, are teamed up with some of the best female “pairs” skaters this country has produced. They train for a “LIVE” free skate together and their performances are judged by a panel that includes two great Canadian figure skating stars, Sandra Bezic and Dick Button and a third judge that will change every week, in this case it was former L.A. Kings goaltender Kelly Hrudey. Of course there’s the great build-up with lots of pictures of the hockey players falling over their toe picks and dropping the women in practice sessions. All this beautifully sets up the expectation of disaster. Finally we come to the time to perform and a glitzy, beautifully lit set has been created at Maple Leaf Gardens with a live audience on hand to lend atmosphere to the proceedings.

As it turns out almost all the hockey players do very well. Ron Duguay in fact, looks like he could have been a great figure skater had he not been a very good hockey player. Sure most of the artistic skating was performed by the women, but the men, except for Bob Probert, the former Chicago Black Hawk fighter, did not look out of place.

It was a truly riveting hour of TV. Yes, many watched to see the men fall or the possibility of a train wreck, but what every viewer got was not disappointing: they were entertained.

Where the show sparkled was in its down home Canadian charm. This was not a program that attempted to be anything that it wasn’t. There was no pretense. It was a bunch of jocks, regular guys, Canadians having a great time doing the unexpected. The female skaters seemed to enjoy it as much as the hockey players. The charm of the characters continually shone through. In the end I found myself liking each and every one of the skaters.

Donald Button was perfect as both a judge and a personality. He made it fun by being willing criticize as well as praise.

The only negative I could find was Ron MacLean. Is it me or is MacLean becoming so predictable with his bad puns and dry humour that I prefer to turn off anything he is involved with. A few years back I wondered why CBC was giving him a hard time when his contract was up. Now I think it’s time for Ron to hang up the mic and for CBC to find another sports host.

When Battle of the Blades comes back next year, and based on the great ratings for week one I’m sure it will be back, I would like to see a few more hockey stars like Ron Duguay and Tie Domi, guys who are showmen; hockey players who are happy to display their infectious enthusiasm. Skating ability is secondary on this show, having fun is what it is all about. That goes for the audience too.

The TV Tax – An Update
On a very different note, a few weeks ago I would have bet the farm that the CRTC was going to rubber stamp the CTV, Global and CBC request to be paid by cable and satellite companies for distributing their signals. The bogus claims by CTV and Global that this was to save local TV seemed to have some resonance with both the politicians and the people.

Now, after an effective counter attack by the cable and satellite companies it appears the networks might not get their undeserved millions. Polls are showing a vast majority of Canadians are against what is really a new tax on television in Canada. I don’t know if this is the reason but the Harper government has stepped in. They have asked the CRTC to look into how the new charges would affect Canadian TV viewing and how Canadians feel about the new levies.

To me this seems like code for “kill the new tax.” The CRTC is supposed to work arms length from the government but the request by the Conservatives is at worst a delaying tactic and at best a signal to the bureaucrats that they would be making a mistake to give the networks a $50 million windfall for nothing in return.

Stay tuned. We will hear a lot more about this before a decision is made.

Filed under: Media Commentary, Political Commentary, Battle of the Blades, Bob Probert, CBC, CRTC, CTV, Donald Button, Global TV, Kelly Hrudey, Maple Leaf Gardens, Ron Duguay, Ron MacLean, Sandra Bezic, Stephen Harper, Tie Domi

Private Network Pirates

Canada’s biggest networks could not make it any clearer. They are cynical, money-grubbing entities that are not worth giving the time of day let alone the millions they are trying to squeeze from television viewers in Canada.

Let’s look back at how the last few months have played out. First CTV and Canwest/Global cry poor and beg the federal government through the Canadian Radio Television and Telecommunication Commission (CRTC) to force the cable and satellite companies to pay them for their signal. They claim this is so they can save local television. Let’s leave aside the fact that their buying spree of local TV stations followed by their cutting them to the bone have been a primary cause of the failure of local TV. The networks shamelessly produced commercials and invited the public to their stations to explain why local television was in danger of disappearing. These fine upstanding TV moguls told us they want the opportunity to save their local stations and the only way that could happen was to charge all Canadians a few bucks for their services.

The CRTC then caves in to the demands of the millionaire owners. A new levy of 1.5% is to be added to your cable or satellite bill which is supposed to go towards local television production. Problem solved.

Not so fast. While waiting for word from the feds about the bailout the networks got busy. Victoria, B.C. and Red Deer, Alberta will see their stations closed. CTV sold its Brandon, Manitoba station and Canwest/Global sold CHCH in Hamilton and CJNT in Montreal. But hey, you say, they got money. Not enough it seems. The networks still want to charge for their programming even though their last pretense, saving local television, has gone by the wayside along with five local stations.

This whole situation is just plain crazy. The networks bought up every available station in Canada. CTV bought the CHUM/CITY group with all its “A” Channels across the country and specialty stations. Canwest/Global bought CHCH and Alliance Atlantis with a large roster of cable and satellite channels. This came years after CTV bought a bunch of small over-the-air stations from Victoria to Northern Ontario and Canwest/Global opened stations in Montreal and the Maritimes. The networks created a huge debt load they can’t sustain. Add in the recession and their troubles mounted. They screwed up. Their eyes were bigger than their stomachs as my mother would say when I wanted too much food at dinner. The CRTC knows this. The feds know this. So why are we contemplating bailing them out, now especially, when they have abandoned the reason for the bailout, local TV?

Here’s my take. If Canwest/Global is serious about operating a television empire in Canada they should immediately sell or shut down The National Post. It barely exists anyways after the staff slashing that has gone on for over two years. You don’t save a newspaper by providing less and less news on its pages. It is an empty shell. Further, it’s time to sell off the foreign assets like Channel 10 in Australia. Why should Canadians pay to support failure and foreign ventures? Canwest/Global has some excellent assets in its stable of cable networks. They could get all the money they need by picking two or three of their cable stations and selling them to Rogers or Astral Media. Save yourself before you ask me to save you. Finally, I would demand that Canwest/Global become serious producers of Canadian content. When I worked there they never lived up to their CRTC license agreements and they constantly cheated on the money they claimed they spent on Canadian content.

If CTV wants to prove it is serious about its commitment to Canadian programming and to Canada it too will have to produce and invest in more than the odd Canadian drama and comedy and schedule the Canadian shows in time slots that are not dead zones opposite Canwest/Global’s few winners. CTV too has plenty of assets that they could sell to tide them over the recessionary hump. Did we need a TSN2 at a time when CTV says they have no money?

I’m probably wasting my time and energy because of the political power the networks command. I cannot see any way they will not get their money from us. The CRTC wimps and the toady politicians will cave to their demands. But has anyone thought about the long term affects of the large increases in the cost of cable and satellite? Will you continue to buy History Channel and Discovery Kids if you need to save a few bucks because of the rising cost of cable? Is MTV Canada and CTV News Channel still worth having when you can’t afford the satellite TV cost increases? Are CTV and Canwest/Global actually hurting their own bottom lines with this irrational demand for new payments for their network signals?

So far I have seen no sign of intelligent life at Canwest/Global since Izzy Asper died and left the company in the hands of his kids. At CTV I have seen a company that has managed to lose money while running seven of the top ten shows in Canada, a feat worthy of public ridicule. This is what we are being asked to prop up, greedy owners who have mismanaged a license to print money in the good times and are now paying the price in the bad times. Only they don’t want to pay the price, they want us to.

Filed under: Media Commentary, Political Commentary, Alliance Atlantis, Canwest, CHCH, Chum, CRTC, CTV, CTV News Channel, Global TV, History Channel, Izzy Asper, The National Post, TSN2

Gemini Joke

“It’s a juried award, which means that a volunteer group screens all the entries and decides on the nominees. That jury has a lot of power, and a lot of sway, and depending how it’s made up, you can favor certain things, favor your friends, or fulfill vendettas, say what you will.”

That’s a quote from my friend Denis McGrath’s highly popular blog,  Dead things on sticks. He’s lamenting the state of the Gemini Awards, especially in light of the snub to Corner Gas. Zero nominations for the most popular Canadian comedy show ever.

Denis is too nice a guy and too committed to Canadian television to say the obvious. The Gemini Awards are a joke. The industry should join most Canadians and ignore the TV show and the process.

Yes there are a lot of very worthy winners and terrific programs honored. All Canadians should both recognize and laud the quality television that is produced in this country. Heck, I’m a Gemini winner myself. But the Geminis are far too political and far too based on friendships and network loyalties to be taken seriously as awards of excellence.

I have two stories that speak to the ‘bull’ that the Geminis are:

When I was news director at Global I was on the jury for the best news program and the best news anchor. I was on the panel with someone from CBC, Tim Kotcheff from CTV and one other jury member. We watched the tapes from across Canada and honestly discussed the quality and value of each program we viewed. So far so good.

Then the trouble started. CTV did not enter Lloyd Robertson for nomination. I didn’t enter any of the Global anchors either. It soon became obvious that Peter Mansbridge would win the Gemini by default. Tim Kotcheff immediately protested. He demanded Lloyd be nominated. But you didn’t put him up for nomination, he was told. Kotcheff said he didn’t care. Further, he said if Lloyd was not nominated he would pull CTV out of the award show and the process. Of course everyone backed down and nominated Lloyd. I then demanded Thalia Assuras’ nomination. A whole lot of deserving anchors who were entered were shut out of any chance for recognition. In truth Thalia and Lloyd did nothing special that year. They did not deserve the nomination. That didn’t matter. It never does. Oh, by-the-way, Peter Mansbridge won the award. It was a foregone conclusion. He would have won whether he deserved it or not. He hadn’t made very many enemies yet and thus as the CBC nominee it was a lock. You see, CBC had about two out of three voters in the academy. CBC won everything in those days. That’s why CTV News boycotts the awards to this day.

The second story is even more curious. About a decade later I was jury chair for the best long form news story category, my description, not the category title. The CBC’s Terrence McKenna and Alex Shprintsen had done brilliant work finding ties to Al Qaida and Islamic terrorism in Canada after 9-11. Their piece was masterful, both great journalism and wonderful TV. Our panel of five looked at all the pieces sent in for nomination and as usual discussed each item as we saw it. Every single member of the jury stated openly that the McKenna/Shprintsen piece was head-and-shoulders above anything else we saw. It was clear the piece could not lose. That year the jury vote counted for 60 or 70 percent towards the award. I don’t remember which amount is correct. It does not matter though. Even at 60 percent if all the panelists agree on the best program the voters cannot override their choice. I left thinking I knew which news item had won months before the award ceremony.

Guess what? The McKenna/Shprintsen piece did not win. That means at least one, probably two or more jury members voted against the piece they openly professed to be the best by far. Why did they do this? I will never know because it’s a secret ballot by the jury. But Denis McGrath’s quote at the top describes some of the possible reasons.

I’m sure some Gemini panels are more honest than others. Some winners are most deserving. But as long as the process allows politics, friendships and network loyalty to play as large a role as the quality of the television programs they are judging and nominating, the Geminis will continue to exclude shows like Corner Gas, it will continue to make it more difficult for non-CBC shows to win, and it will make it almost impossible for excellent small market programs, producers and on-air personalities to be rewarded. In short the Geminis will continue to be a joke to those in the know and an afterthought for the Canadian television audience.

Filed under: Media Commentary, CTV News, Gemini Awards, Terrence McKenna, Lloyd Robertson, Peter Mansbridge, Denis McGrath, Corner Gas, Global TV, Tim Kotcheff, Thalia Assuras, Al Qaida, 9-11