Hume last night: [1]
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has decided a racially-tinged attack by one of its commentators on Sarah Palin was not such a good idea after all. Heather Mallick said in a September 5 column that Republican men were sexual inadequates and that Palin was a toned-down version of a porn actress. She then said Palin “added nothing to the ticket that the Republicans didn’t already have sewn up, the white trash vote.”
The CBC initially stood by Mallick, but after more than 300 reader complaints — and criticism from both Canadian and U.S. media — the CBC is now apologizing. The corporation’s ombudsman said Mallick’s assertions were not fact-based, and CBC’s publisher John Cruickshank says “we erred in our judgment… Mallick’s column is a classic piece of political invective. It is viciously personal, grossly hyperbolic and intensely partisan.”
Meanwhile, Mallick has never apologized for her column and lauded the CBC for its initial support.
Ya know, for 40 years, I listened regularly to CBC’s Radio 1 outlet, CBL/740. The old Horton site, in the north end of the GTA, shared with another 50kw CBC AM outlet, the French service of CBC, CJBC/860, really packs a huge punch. And the old Continental transmitters they ran gave a classic sound I used to love from a technical angle. I lamented when CBL went dark years ago to be taken over by CHWO some weeks later. CBL went to CBLA on FM, which gets wiped off the radio here locally by adjacent channel WBZA over in Rochester. So, I don’t often hear R1 anymore.
But I have to tell you when I see what the CBC as an org has developed into, I have to say I’m somewhat less displeased with the current state of affairs. You guys can keep it up there, thank you. And if CBC is really, as it used to be, a representation of Canada as a whole, you can keep the whole country, too.