It’s a level of publicly-funded budgeting, salary increases and bonuses staff that private broadcasting outlets can only dream of these days!
In 2015, there were 438 CBC employees taking home six-figure salaries, at a total cost of $59.6 million to the public, according to the Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation.
This year, a whopping 1,831 CBC employees are earning six figures … averaging $131,000 each … at a total cost of $240 million!
How did this happen?
CTF research found the CBC now has, among those getting more than $100,000 a year, 181 Managers, 277 Senior Managers, 168 Senior Producers, 493 Producers, 86 Executive Producers, 36 Technical Producers and 124 Directors.
“The CBC also employed 130 advisors, 81 analysts, 120 hosts, 80 project leads, 30 lead architects, 25 supervisors, among other positions, that were paid more than $100,000 last year, according to the access-to-information records,” the CTF revealed.
That’s more than 300% increase since 2015.
Of course, all this, along with programming, costs you a lot.
“The CBC will cost taxpayers more than $1.4 Billion this year, according to the main estimates.”
All this at a time when private broadcasters have been slashing, firing and even closing down entire newsrooms across the country in the face of dwindling viewership and struggling advertising revenues.
In a Commentary in this week’s Asian Pacific Post, CTF spokesman Kris Sims, noted in 2023 the CBC announced it would be trimming its English and French staffing and programming budgets.
“Yet taxpayers’ costs still went up —from $1.3 Billion in 2023 to $1.4 Billion in 2024. Despite claims of tightening its belt, the blob keeps expanding,” Sims wrote.
“Last year, CBC drew fire for paying $18.4 million in bonuses, including $3.3 million to 45 executives. The corporation scrapped the bonuses and earned favourable headlines—then quietly approved $38 million in pay raises for 2024-25. The hikes went to 6,295 employees at an average of $6,000 each, with no pay cuts. In comparison, raises cost $11.5 million the year before,” the Taxpayer group’s director revealed. (Read the full article: https://asianpacificpost.com/article/10374-cbc-spending-soars-while-viewers-tune-out.html.)
Despite all the spending … and public subsidies … Canadians are tuning the CBC out.
In late 2024, Ottawa Life zeroed in on CBC’s declining audience share:
“Even with billions in extra revenue since 2015, CBC’s audience has continued to dwindle. The network currently holds a 4.4 percent audience share for prime-time TV, meaning 95.6 percent of Canadians are opting out of CBC content. Its local TV newscasts have fared even worse, with just 319,000 viewers across twenty-seven programs, representing less than 1 percent of Canadians,” reporter Dan Donovan revealed. (Read his full story: https://www.ottawalife.com/article/cbc-decline-biassed-coverage-broken-trust-and-failed-leadership-at-a-once-cherished-network/)
The Taxpayers’ organization says this year, the ratings are even worse.
” CBC News Network’s prime-time share—the percentage of TV viewers watching during evening hours—is just 1.8 per cent, meaning 98 per cent of Canadians choose something else. No CBC entertainment show ranks in the national top 10.”
Readers of this blog are well aware of my own criticisms of CBC’s bias, one-sided, advocacy-style “reporting” in a number of areas/issues, which I believe makes a mockery of the CBC’s Journalistic Standards and Practices.
Among the stated Principles: Fairness; Balance; Impartiality. (Read their full stated policies here: https://cbc.radio-canada.ca/en/vision/governance/journalistic-standards-and-practices/introduction).
(Hard not to laugh while typing that!!)
Donovan found my criticisms are shared by other Canadians:
” The CBC has faced increasing criticism in recent years for biased reporting, particularly accusations of leaning towards left-wing perspectives and failing to provide balanced coverage.
“One of the most notable examples is its handling of the Israel-Hamas conflict, where a directive from CBC’s Editor in Chief on October 7, 2023, that CBC reports should not label Hamas as a terrorist organisation raised serious concerns about its impartiality,” Donovan said.
So, the Canadian government OFFICIALLY designates Hamas a “terrorist” organization … but the CBC … publicly funded by the Canadian government and taxpayers … arbitrarily decides NOT to call it that.
As a result, CBC began regularly quoting casualty figures provided by Hamas health authorities … without warning viewers their source was designated a terrorist group.
Canadian viewers have the right to know! Or at least, they used to!
Today, it’s even worse: watch/listen closely and you’ll note the CBC now often quotes/trusts figures provided by “local” health authorities or “Gaza” health officials or “Palestinian” officials … no mention of their Hamas links at all.
Coverup? Censorship? Whitewashing?
Apparently, it’s to hell with Canada’s Official policies … and the CBC’s own Journalistic Standards requiring impartiality, fairness and balance.
CBC propaganda-style journalism today disgraces not only its own once-proud history … it disgraces journalism itself.
“In the end, this isn’t about one broadcaster. It’s about whether Ottawa will hold a taxpayer-funded institution accountable when it grows beyond its purpose and loses much of the audience it was meant to serve,” concluded the CTF this week.
Time to clean house … restore CBC’s once-cherished principles … and cut back on the public largesse funding the CBC that exists today.
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