A few bits and pieces of lockout-related material this evening, as the so-called Cone of Silence continues in Ottawa (well, Gatineau, to be precise) over negotiations involving the CBC and the Canadian Media Guild.
Mallick cries 'coward'
Heather Mallick's column on Saturday in the Globe and Mail took aim at Prime Minister Paul Martin, whom she describes as a coward:
The reason I know Mr. Martin is a coward is that the damage has already been done. The thread that connects this country, the CBC, has been off the airwaves for seven weeks. Only a coward would have let a gang of Canada-hating bean-counters dribble away a great organization. The BBC defends its journalists. The CBC humiliates every last employee, and all for money, when profit is not the point of the CBC. Keeping Canadians in touch with each other is the reason it was born and the reason it was nurtured until the cowards took over.
Common and Workman
A big issue in the blog world this week has been the fates of David Common and Paul Workman. Workman is CBC's Paris-based correspondent; David Common is poised to succeed him. Why the fuss? Start here with a post that Antonia Zerbisias made on her blog on Friday. Many people - and not just inside the CBC - were surprised (if not shocked) to read the post, which seemed to imply Common was angling during a lockout to fill Workman's boots.
The whole story is more complicated, because the issue of Workman returning to Canada and Common going to France dates back some time. What's striking is this: Zerbisias did not interview the two men at the centre of it.
Robin Rowland has posted on several aspects of this: Common's disclosure that the offer (which he insists is not final) dates back some time; a look at what may be behind the peculiar timing of the leak to Zerbisias; and, strikingly, an e-mail from Paul Workman about learning about all of this from the internet, not from his employer.
I contacted Zerbisias by e-mail, who defends her posting and notes that the facts that she presented in the original post have not been challenged. "I am NOT responsible for the consequences of my post," she wrote to me.
Hoy on CBC: no great loss
I missed this until today: a Sept. 28 column by Clare Hoy that appeared in the Sudbury Star. Hoy, never a CBC lover, took aim at the theory that CBC programming is broadly missed:
Given the egos involved, one suspects that many CBC “stars” felt their would be a public uprising after CBC management – no prize itself – locked them out.
It didn’t happen.
Many people of my acquaintance who regularly tuned into CBC, particularly CBC radio, seem to be surviving without it. It’s rarely mentioned in day-to-day conversations, not a good sign for those who think the country can’t survive without it, or, more to the point, without them.
New, in our self-help section
Aigle de Nuit stretches her wings with some self-help selections for us all. Hilarious. She writes:
About six hours to go until the most recent blackout is lifted and there's only shite on tv.
I though I'd catch up on my reading and perhaps offer a few suggestions for others who are restless and OCD-ing on all of this.
An example is at right. There are many more to have a giggle at her blog, TBC Nights.
OK, you two, take a deep breath ...
I seem to have fallen into bad odour with two bloggers who don't much care for each other: the anonymous employee blog CBC Drone and the anonymous manager blog Tea Makers (aka, Ouimet).
CBC Drone posted this weekend, regarding Ouimet:
I warned you about the management stooge blog. I told you it wasn't what it appeared to be. But a lot of you didn't listen. It annoyed me when I saw some of you sucking up to it. As if Ouimet was really a young woman, bravely speaking her mind. Was really on our side. It horrified me when the great John Gushue himself wrote that he found reading Ouimet was one of the few pleasures of this lockout. Now I think John knows better. I think you all do. The mask has fallen. It stands revealed for what it is. An evil little management blog whose only mission is to try to coopt and divide us.
I had indicated recently that I have, indeed, taken pleasure at reading Ouimet. With all due respect to Drone (who believes he knows who writes Tea Makers), I find some of the Tea Maker posts really funny. And, no, I don't think Tea Makers is a conspiracy, having exchanged some e-mails with the author. (And, no, I don't know who Ouimet is.)
Anyway, I do like Tea Makers ... usually. But the post that ticked Drone off so much that it prompted the above post also bothered me, but for different reasons. He was bothered by Ouimet's comments about picket protocols (and possible repercussions inside); I was more annoyed by assumptions that Ouimet made about my colleague Anne Budgell and the T-shirt she was wearing:
I mean, if I were carried out of here on a stretcher, would this woman cheer?
As I wrote in an e-mail to Ouimet, I don't think that was fair to Anne. She deserves far better than that.
But, in this kind of climate, people feel free to write all sorts of nasty things. Especially when their real names aren't attached.
(On the upside, I was surprised to see Ouimet reinstated the lyrics to the Clash tune Career Opportunities to her banner, on my suggestion. Oooh, influence. And as for the young whippersnapper who posted somewhere - sorry, didn't make a note of exactly where - and complained about middle-aged people who claim they like the Clash ... get this: we fans are middle-aged now. We bought London Calling when it came out, we danced to Should I Stay or Should I Go a few years after that, and now we're in our 40s, whether we like it or not. Sigh.)
So ... can we all play nice for a while?
Mum's the Word ...
The Word, the newsletter distributed to middle managers who have been keeping CBC running, appears to have disappeared, writes Locked Out Employee 100000223 (you'd think I would have remembered all those digits by now, but I have to look them up each time) in Winnipeg.
Eye on ... um ...
I can't help but notice that CBC Eyeball has yet to post for the second time, after soliticing posts from others who wanted to expose "waste and mismanagement" at the CBC. I'm sure there's a story behind the silence; it's just not posted in a public-yet-helpfully-anonymous context.
And a final thought ...
From Matt Watts, who always has such a way with words:
Man... I hope this ends tonight.
I feel like I haven't pooped in seven weeks.
Hey John,
You have no idea how many times I've had to haul out my CBC I.D. to remember my "number" so I would never expect anyone else to memorize it!
BTW, I can't live without your blog. Truly. Without it, I'd never have found out what I SHOULD be reading on other people's blogs...nor some of the great news articles from out east. Thanks!
Alison Crawford (100000223)
Posted by: Alison | Monday, October 03, 2005 at 02:14