In February, 1991, the CBC’s Toronto station, CBLT, aired a clever, facetious television commercial for its six o’clock newscast. In it, Barbie and Ken style dolls sat at an anchor desk, their plastic hair perfectly coiffed, grins stuck permanently in place. Staring vacantly into space, they engaged in some idle chatter: HE: Over to you,… Continue reading Keeping Up Appearances
Tag: A glimpse over the years: Don Obe
Blocking Papers
Until shortly before showtime on October 8, 1991, producers of CBC’s the 5th Estate believed they lived in a society that, above all else, upheld the freedom of the press. They were wrong. At 5 p.m., an Ontario provincial court judge granted an injunction preventing the 5th estate from broadcasting that night’s program, “Evil’s Fortune,”… Continue reading Blocking Papers
Cop Out
In June 1987, CBC reporter Claude Gervais and a cameraman rushed into a post office in Pointe-Claire, Quebec to film angry strikers as they trashed the interior. The item that later appeared on the news did not show the faces of the strikers a stipulation of the union leader who let Gervais in-but some of… Continue reading Cop Out
The Snooze at Six
Right off, an ugly problem stood between me and my assignment to write a piece on CBC Newsworld, “the all-news channel for Canadians.” I would have to watch it. Try it sometime. While you yawn your way through another Capital Report or Ontario Update you get a small dose of what it must be like… Continue reading The Snooze at Six
Monitoring the Media
Vince Carlin sat in Studio T, deep in the heart of the CBC radio building in Toronto, smiling patiently. Across the table, Trent Frayne, sports columnist for The Globe and Mail, and Brian Williams, sports anchorman for CBC, exchanged one-liners while fidgeting with their headsets. In the background, the voice of Edmonton Journal sports columnist… Continue reading Monitoring the Media