“END THE MADNESS. Recall the committee. Defund the CBC.” Credit where it’s due to Pierre Poilievre and the Conservatives for writing for radio, as I was taught at a CBC skills course many years ago: short and sharp, three beats, implied subject-verb-object.
The Tories are mad for this gimmick: axe the tax, build the homes, bring it home, fix the budget, stop the crime. It’s addictive and direct and Trumpy, apt to “win the vote” for them, and thus presenting, among other things, a direct existential threat to the CBC. It’s a threat that, starting this month, Catherine Tait, the outgoing president, CEO, and poster-person for bloated bureaucracy, gets to pass on to her successor, Marie-Philippe Bouchard, who hasn’t ticked off anyone significant—yet.
Today I got over my aversion to TV news bullshit and watched that clip. I thought was much better than anything you’d normally see in such a context. Meslin was effective in getting his point across, despite the ridiculous doofus he was talking to, who was made to look foolish to everyone who was paying attention at that moment.
The way they (all TV news) normally distort and misrepresent things is by not inviting such people to participate at all. Bravo to the CBC for doing slightly better than the usual standard on that occasion.