As friends, relatives, casual passersby and, most recently, Fringers (I was the guy in the ’70s-logo CBC hat and T-shirt) know, I’m an avid fan of the CBC. My parents originally turned me on to CBC Radio back in the days of Basic Black, Jack Parr, the last few years of Max Ferguson’s shows, and the Royal Canadian Air Farce—they used to be on the radio, don’tcha know, and funny too—and I remember evenings at my grandparents’ house playing checkers and watching Hockey Night in Canada (even though I didn’t, and still don’t, particularly care for the televised game). I started watching The National and The Journal and listening to As It Happens and Quirks and Quarks as a teenager. In my Amiga days I quizzed a CBC staffer about the Broadcast Centre’s newly-installed CDTV-based navigation kiosks during a World of Commodore trade show, and asked what I’m sure were very impertinent questions of an early webmaster about the format in which they were offering audio downloads.
So it’s safe to say I’m an avid follower of all things Corp, and that it’s had a strong influence on my vision of this country.
When the lockout happened last year, that constant presence was interrupted. I soon found, however, that there were a lot of other people who were missing the Ceeb just as much as I was… and that they were the people responsible for what I’d been listening to for all those years, the very people who’d been locked out of their jobs. They were looking for a way to keep telling stories to and about Canadians, and so they did: by writing on weblogs, by producing podcasts, and by creating radio and television any way they could. (Some were just bitter that their jobs had been taken from them, of course.) There was even a manager who joined the fray; several of the new bloggers took her to be the enemy, but she was often a voice of calm and reason.
After the lockout ended, many of those projects slowed or stopped. There has been a core group that has continued blogging and podcasting, but very few new voices have chosen to make themselves heard. Part of the reason for this, I’ve learned, is that CBC doesn’t really have a policy for blogging; as a result, people who might otherwise have something to say about the CBC, their jobs, or the world at large have felt constrained by the rigorous Journalistic Standards and Practices.
But no longer. Today, on the anniversary of the start of the lockout, that selfsame manager, “A. Ouimet”, and several other prominent CBC bloggers (plus one or two outsiders), published the CBC Blogging Manifesto. It’s a set of guidelines for employees to use when blogging, written to fill a gap in the corporation’s official policies. It’s also an invitation: as Ouimet puts it, I also hope that someone reading this in the CBC, or Radio-Canada, or anywhere really, says to themselves: hey that sounds like fun, and goes over to blogger and starts a blog.
That means more stories, for more years, from more perspectives. More of what I’ve grown up listening to and watching. More from and for and by Canadians.
Sounds like a great idea to me.
I’d be interested in your response to the following:
The manifesto states that it’s acceptable to spread rumours about the workplace, and encourages people to do so.
What part did you have in formulating this policy, and how can you justify it?
You say that many people “felt constrained by the rigorous Journalistic Standards and Practices” and that the manifesto you wrote was “written to fill a gap in the corporation’s official policies”
So you appointed yourself to try and circumvent it.
If you don’t like present policies, why not make an effort to change them?