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Radio Covers Mulroney's Death Quite Well With Very Little Prep Time
When the news broke late Thursday about the death of former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, I wondered how or whether local radio would cover it beyond a news headline.
Turns out, they did listeners proud.
CityNews 680 obviously had the story and reaction.
But CFRB scrapped all of its regular News Talk Tonight segments and brought in pundits who knew him, including former NDP leader Thomas Mulcair, Doug Ford and political commentator Scott Reid, along with others including CFRA Ottawa morning host Bill Carroll. I thought they did a pretty good job with little notice.
I was less sure about AM 640, with the pre-taped "Let's Talk" with Dani Stover normally airing in the 7 PM hour. But they turned it up a notch as well, holding John Oakley over and bringing Ben O'Hara-Byrne in early to host a special few hours of programming across the Corus network, tracing the impact of Mulroney (free trade, GST etc.) on Canadian history. They also aired audio of a Global TV pre-prepared obit, which I was surprised other television stations did not seem to have ready. It was quite extensive and did not shy away from controversies in his life, including the Airbus scandal.
Corus had fewer resources than 'RB in terms of guests. But I thought both did a very good job.
I tuned into CBC Radio and was surprised to hear them playing music, although I'm sure As It Happens did give it a lot of airtime. While the AM stations were launching into special shows, CBC went with their regular schedule after that, which wasn't what I was expecting, given a former Prime Minister had just passed away.
All in all, with the news breaking around 6:15 PM, I thought most of the local stations who cover politics acquitted themselves quite well on very short notice.
- newsguy1
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Re: Radio Covers Mulroney's Death Quite Well With Very Little Prep Time
CBC radio in Toronto did a great and unbiased job.
I was listening when they did their Mulroney bio and they presented him warts and all including taking a bribe from Karl Heinz Schriber.
But the also covered the positive stuff like sticking up to British PM Margaret Thatcher when she failed to condemn apartheid in South Africa.
Mulroney was a pretty extrordiany prime minister to a sort of Shakespearian or perhaps more relevantly -- Nixonian degree.
A very flawed individual with terrific political acumen, but human weaknesses.
I thought CBC brought this out.
.
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Re: Radio Covers Mulroney's Death Quite Well With Very Little Prep Time
Thanks for the update. I wasn't able to get to all the stations at once, but I figured CBC Radio would have it covered and it sounds like they did. I'm just a bit surprised they went back to regular programming, while the others in the market were doing three or four hours of coverage with various experts. Good to know Canada's national broadcaster did pay attention to it, though.
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Thread Starter- paterson1
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Re: Radio Covers Mulroney's Death Quite Well With Very Little Prep Time
The television news network coverage has been very good as well. Interesting how some of the veteran reporters commented how Mulroney, long after retirement, would call when he heard that they were going through a rough time or had a loss in their family. Politicians from both the Liberal and NDP that butted heads with the former PM commented how it was never personal on his end.
I am glad that journalists and politicians tonight are giving Mulroney credit in bringing acid rain and the environment to the forefront with two US presidents and allies. His biggest achievements will be his leadership in the international fight against apartheid, his unconservative stance on AIDS and the free trade NAFTA agreement with the US. Also his unique and complicated relationship with his home province and two failed attempts to have Quebec sign the constitution. But under him the province voted solidly Conservative.
There has been some talk of his dealings with Karl Schriber tonight but this has not been dwelled upon. The last time we heard from Brian Mulroney was just a few weeks ago when he spoke fondly and kindly of Ed Broadbent.
Lots of memories of a different time will be coming up over the next week.
Last edited by paterson1 (February 29, 2024 10:39 pm)
- turkeytop
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Re: Radio Covers Mulroney's Death Quite Well With Very Little Prep Time
How we on the left despised Mulroney. But today, in hindsight, we can look back on the Mulroney years as the good old days. In comparison with the Conservatives and Liberals of today, Mulroney was a progressive.
There are some politicians in Canada whose death would be welcome news to me. But Mulroney wasn't one of them.
I disagreed with his politics, but he was a decent human being.
RIP Mr Mulroney.
Last edited by turkeytop (February 29, 2024 10:47 pm)
After all is said and done, more is usually said than done.
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Re: Radio Covers Mulroney's Death Quite Well With Very Little Prep Time
newsguy1 wrote:
CBC radio in Toronto did a great and unbiased job.
I was listening when they did their Mulroney bio and they presented him warts and all including taking a bribe from Karl Heinz Schriber.
But the also covered the positive stuff like sticking up to British PM Margaret Thatcher when she failed to condemn apartheid in South Africa.
Mulroney was a pretty extrordiany prime minister to a sort of Shakespearian or perhaps more relevantly -- Nixonian degree.
A very flawed individual with terrific political acumen, but human weaknesses.
I thought CBC brought this out.
.
Why does everyone on this board keep pointing out that the CBC is unbiased, as if you aren’t expecting that? Right wing media lies often, the left-wing media presents facts and then opinion. They are not two sides of the same coin.
- dieter
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Pierre Poilievre is calling Mulroney "Canada’s greatest statesman." Among other things, PP credits Brian for improving Canada’s finances. That was largely due to bringing in the GST. Would PP have supported that?
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Re: Radio Covers Mulroney's Death Quite Well With Very Little Prep Time
I was not suggesting that the CBC skewed either right or left, but just that they did not try to be nice just because somebody died. Sometimes media reports tend to say nice things on the initial news that someone has died then take a while to mention the negative things. I was just pleased to see that the CBC did not do that and very quickly presented the good with the bad.
- peter
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Re: Radio Covers Mulroney's Death Quite Well With Very Little Prep Time
If you get money from the Feds as CBC does, you are biased
- Jody Thornton
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Re: Radio Covers Mulroney's Death Quite Well With Very Little Prep Time
If you get money from the Feds as CBC does, you are biased
They have also received monies from Conservative governments at time (albeit less ... hmmm wait! Do I sense a bias in the opposite direction? Why golly gee! I think I do!)
Anyway, I can't believe I'm wasting oxygen responding to you.
Cheers,
Jody Thornton
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Re: Radio Covers Mulroney's Death Quite Well With Very Little Prep Time
A subtle little inside radio moment happened during CFRB's first Roundtable on Friday. In discussing Brian Mulroney, Jerry Agar rightly noted that, politics aside, his incredible voice might have made him the perfect candidate to be on radio if he'd chosen a different profession.
And then John Moore made a surprising revelation - when he was much younger, he was a camp councillor for one of Mulroney's children.
"Was it Ben?" asked Agar.
"As a matter of fact it was," responded Moore.
Agar then suggested he have Ben Mulroney on one day to talk about that experience. To which Moore sagely replied, "Not now!"
Agar's response suggested he missed the point of that answer entirely. "Well, not now, but after some time has passed."
I believe Moore was subtly referring not to the period of mourning, but to the fact that the younger Mulroney is now a host on CFRB's direct competition AM 640, and therefore wouldn't exactly make for the perfect guest on their airwaves.
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Thread Starter- Shorty Wave
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Re: Radio Covers Mulroney's Death Quite Well With Very Little Prep Time
Surfed the dial a bit last night and think Jim Richards and his crew on CFRB did a great job covering this at such short notice, plenty of profile pundits who took it right to the end of the show.
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Re: Radio Covers Mulroney's Death Quite Well With Very Little Prep Time
If you get money from the Feds as CBC does, you are biased
Harper stacked the CBC board of directors with conservatives but let’s not deal in reality.
- paterson1
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Re: Radio Covers Mulroney's Death Quite Well With Very Little Prep Time
If you get money from the Feds as CBC does, you are biased
Harper stacked the CBC board of directors with conservatives but let’s not deal in reality.
I don't think Harper's appointments on CBC's board of directors could be called stacking the deck. Has anyone ever accused CBC as being pro conservative over the past 40 years?
It was under the Mulroney government that CBC finally had modern new facilities for Toronto built and completed. Since the 1950's, CBC Toronto radio and TV studios had been an embarrassment, scattered among many old locations downtown. For decades there was lots of talk but no action on new CBC facilities for Toronto, and it did finally happen under a conservative government that appropriated the additional $350 million to have the facility built. Opening was in 1991. The Queen toured the facilities in 2002.
- 67GreenRambler
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Re: Radio Covers Mulroney's Death Quite Well With Very Little Prep Time
However it has been under utilized for years. They did a deal for 40,000 sq ft on the 6th floor last month though - or at least it was removed from listing.
- RadioActive
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Re: Radio Covers Mulroney's Death Quite Well With Very Little Prep Time
The building was controversial back in the day. Check out this mini-editorial from TV Guide, of all publications, from March 1977, just a little under 50 years ago. Times have certainly changed. Note the references to all the American programming on the Corp. at that time, which doesn't happen today. Looks they got the building AND the shows the editorial refers to. Now all they need is more viewers.
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Thread Starter- peter
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Re: Radio Covers Mulroney's Death Quite Well With Very Little Prep Time
Doesn't matter which Party is in power, the CBC gets their usual bailout, annual $$$$. Therefore, they are biased. Duh!
PP will change that!!!
Last edited by peter (March 2, 2024 8:30 am)
- Hansa
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Re: Radio Covers Mulroney's Death Quite Well With Very Little Prep Time
In retrospect, I think getting rid of all the US programming was a mistake. Even the BBC carries some American programming. Having a few US hit shows across the schedule brings in viewers and many will stick around and catch the Canadian shows. It was the private sector stations who were really pushing for an all Canadian CBC - meanwhile the private commercial channels in the UK carry much less American programming than do CTV or Global.
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Re: Radio Covers Mulroney's Death Quite Well With Very Little Prep Time
Doesn't matter which Party is in power, the CBC gets their usual bailout, annual $$$$. Therefore, they are biased. Duh!
PP will change that!!!
That would be a shame. CBC, especially the television service, needs reforms but eliminating the CBC would be a serious loss that would be regretted.
- mace
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Re: Radio Covers Mulroney's Death Quite Well With Very Little Prep Time
Doesn't matter which Party is in power, the CBC gets their usual bailout, annual $$$$. Therefore, they are biased. Duh!
PP will change that!!!That would be a shame. CBC, especially the television service, needs reforms but eliminating the CBC would be a serious loss that would be regretted.
It would be a serious loss, particularly for Coronation Street viewers, of which there are many.
- paterson1
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Re: Radio Covers Mulroney's Death Quite Well With Very Little Prep Time
In retrospect, I think getting rid of all the US programming was a mistake. Even the BBC carries some American programming. Having a few US hit shows across the schedule brings in viewers and many will stick around and catch the Canadian shows. It was the private sector stations who were really pushing for an all Canadian CBC - meanwhile the private commercial channels in the UK carry much less American programming than do CTV or Global.
I think the privates were also concerned that since CBC was bidding for some US programming (with taxpayer dollars) it was also pushing the prices up. The private networks were correct in that CBC shouldn't be bidding and driving prices higher when the network is largely financed by taxpayers.
In reality CBC seems to have just replaced what little US programming they were carrying in the mid 90's with British or a bit of Australian. CBC did carry many more US shows in the 60's into the 80's since some Canadians didn't have cable or have access to much US programming if they were in more remote areas. And of course it was good for ratings and their ad revenues.
The only US shows that CBC carries now would be around Christmas with most of the seasonal movies they broadcast.
It's kind of hard to compare the UK and Australia with Canada regarding domestic programming. In the UK their own shows are usually more popular than US imports and I believe similar with Australian programming down under.
However these two countries are not next door to the US and haven't had 75 years with much of their population having free access to US stations and programming off air. And of course Canadian culture is much more similar to the US than either the UK or Australia.
Personally I wouldn't care if CBC showed some US shows or movies on a regular basis. But you are going to get into the old situation again if they are bidding against the private networks. And more importantly it gives fuel to those that want to get rid of the network altogether. So I think they will likely carry on with the mostly Canadian schedule with some British and Aussie programming.
CBC actually does have a fairly strong prime time line up right now with some excellent dramas. But like all OTA networks...is anyone watching??
- peter
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Re: Radio Covers Mulroney's Death Quite Well With Very Little Prep Time
Canada's biased public broadcaster is getting an increase in funding
Last edited by peter (March 2, 2024 11:46 am)
- Walter
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Re: Radio Covers Mulroney's Death Quite Well With Very Little Prep Time
Doesn't matter which Party is in power, the CBC gets their usual bailout, annual $$$$. Therefore, they are biased. Duh!
PP will change that!!!
I doubt he'll change much. His base want the CBC defunded, or killed outright, but PP won't dare do that. He'll make a public show of demanding some spending cuts from department heads, which won't amount to anything significant, and behind closed doors inform them that there's a new boss in town, and to pay heed, but little else, unfortunately.
- jughead jones
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Re: Radio Covers Mulroney's Death Quite Well With Very Little Prep Time
Greatest PM in the history of this country. RIP. The 640 morning show on Friday was an excellent cross section of people who knew him well.
- Hansa
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Re: Radio Covers Mulroney's Death Quite Well With Very Little Prep Time
Greatest PM in the history of this country. RIP. The 640 morning show on Friday was an excellent cross section of people who knew him well.
Almost broke up the country with Meech Lake and Charlottetown before destroying his party.
- jughead jones
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Re: Radio Covers Mulroney's Death Quite Well With Very Little Prep Time
The country was already broken - he tried unsuccessfully to repair it.
Politics is a funny game. Massive popularity leads to massive unpopularity. Mr. Mulroney did nothing more than enjoy two of the most dominant wins in political history before, like any politician, his expiry date came and passed.
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Destroyed our industrial base. Gave away dozens of crown corporations at fire sale prices including one that manufactured vaccines (the buyer was a multinational that closed the Canadian factory) - shortsightedness that screwed us during the covid crisis.