Veteran journalists on the New The National
Dan Say
5 journalists submitted comments partly based on watching, and
this article. Posted below the opening....
http://jsource.ca/english_new/detail.php?id=4457
�The Horror! The Horror!� CBC News gets an extreme makeover
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November 3, 2009 -
A barrage of bullets has hit the CBC as TV critics, journalism
professors and CBC mainstays attack the re-launched news,
but news veteran Peter McNelly may stand alone in calling
for a ceasefire.
Last Monday, CBC Television News re-launched itself with a slick new look and
a bracing new format. The result was shocking. Not the changes themselves �
the CBC had been telegraphing them for months with a new emphasis on hard news
coverage and live on-the-scene reporting.
The shock was the overwhelmingly negative response. The CBC's website was
jammed with angry posts. Emails were flying. The tweets were outraged; and The
Teamakers blog, where disenchanted CBCers go to vent their spleens, was packed
with predictable excoriations.
If the critics were to be believed, the barbarians in CBC's upper management
had sacked the cathedral and defrocked John Doyle's "Pastor Mansbridge." The
charges implied the CBC had committed the journalistic equivalent of a crime
against humanity.
The indictments:
Peter Mansbridge was � wait for it! � standing instead of sitting
The news stories were � blame the news doctors! � too short and, ipso facto,
superficial
The National's new set was � oh, dear! � too colourful
And those big video screens � how crass! � just like CNN
Unnoticed in all the hubbub was a significant editorial change for the better.
The CBC's recent unification of its assignment desk has had the salutary
effect of bringing to television dozens of sharp CBC Radio reporters whose
talents are blossoming on camera. It's like having hired a whole news team
while keeping your other one intact. Some day, this editorial arsenal is going
to blow CTV and Global news away on a big story.
It's easy to attack this new emphasis on live coverage as superficial, or news
on the cheap. But all last week, .... [ MORE ]
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Five journalism watchers live blogged for J-Source during the first airing of
the relaunched The National on Oct. 26. Read the commentary here.
Posted by Peter McNelly 2009-11-04 09:00:13
As always, my good friend Jeffrey Dvorkin's comments merit thoughtful
consideration. I think he makes a good point about the risk of thinning out
the quality of CBC Radio's reporting because of the new roles many of these
reporters will have on CBC News Network. But this is, it seems to me, a
question of how best to manage reporting resources rather than a solid
critique of the idea of unifying the assignment process.
One other point: Jeffrey says it's "offensive to think that a younger audience
is not interested in context or in-depth reporting."
I agree. I never said or suggested that. What I said was that young people
won't watch television news in its traditional format.
Case in point: On Oct. 29, BBM overnight ratings for The National totalled
664,000 viewers. Of these, only 59,000 people - or just under 8% of the total
audience - were between the ages of 18 and 34 years old.
Who'd want to bet their future on those numbers?
---------------
Posted by Jeffrey Dvorkin 2009-11-03 15:47:06
First, Peter is one of the most graceful writers ever to defend the
indefensible. He almost had me convinced. The problem is that The National
just isn't the authoritative voice it once was. But efforts to involve the
audience are, imo, too little and too late. If The National really wanted to
involve the public, it would have programmed to its core and not done this.
Two: Putting radio reporters on may broaden the coverage, but it does so by
making everything thinner, especially radio. the danger is that radio become
content fodder It's also offensive to think that a younger audience is not
interested in context or in-depth reporting. Tell that to our students.
Third, the business of tv news has always been about technology. He (and it's
usually a he) with the most toys wins. Peter and I are both found-ins at The
National where we both saw how the latest technology was a justification over
journalism.
Finally, it may look good, but has the history of public broadcasting lead us
to this?
I have great respect for Peter McNelly as a professional and a friend. But we
disagree on this one, which is the mark of true friendship.
----------------
Posted by Peter Calamai 2009-11-03 15:20:39
The biggest story the National has had to cover since its relaunch is H1N1.
On this topic Peter McNelly refers to "a beautifully written report by Ioanna
Roumeliotis. So much for superficiality."
Neither that Roumeliotis item, nor any other of the National's HINI coverage
seen by me, has included any estimates of disease prevalence and vaccine
efficacy -- two absolutely essential bits of evidence in any story about
severity and impact . Yet the Cochrane Collaboration recently released an
authoritative study covering these matters.
If you don't nail key facts about the big story, all the rest is simply
window-dressing.
Peter Calamai
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Posted by george froehlich 2009-11-03 13:38:16
Finally, a cogent analysis of the new CBC news. Thank god there isn't the
attitude of the chicken little evident and the sky is falling, the sky is
falling so common to all the other negative comments.
For me it is all about audience. The CBC is trying to get a younger audience.
The task is a tough one because younger people are not watching news on TV and
what is even worse, the young audience is not growing into watching it, which
used to be the case. Today a TV audience is getting older and older and with
nary a younger viewer in sight.
At least the CBC is trying but whether it will work only time will tell. And
after a couple of months the ratings will be the key to it all.
Any ratings within a day or even a week are meaningless as anyone who has ever
worked in TV full well knows.
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Posted by Apryl Leaf 2009-11-03 13:34:46
Alright then, it may save them, that's what I'm hoping, but I also hope the
content isn't dumbed down. Though I like Mark Kelley's Connect show on the
News Net, he should still report for the National too, in my opinion.
Many of CBC's journalists are fabulous.
Long live the National!