Canadian cogitations about politics, social issues, and science. Vituperation optional.
Oh Canada and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation – Listen and watch this – this – is what good public broadcasting is like. Germaine Greer rocks the Sidney Opera house laying the smack down on Hitchens repeatedly throughout the program. Q&A is a joy to watch, and a feature that needs to be replicated on the CBC.
Oh and Peter Hitchens is an utter douche. :)
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10 comments
November 12, 2013 at 6:08 am
john zande
And the ABC used to be much, much, much better. My first taste of adults not believing in religious nonsense was on ABC in the late 70’s, a Geoffrey Robertson QC program called, Hypothetical.
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November 12, 2013 at 9:34 am
The Arbourist
@JZ
So, the ABC has gone the same route as the CBC – progressively starved of funds by succeeding governments until the cries of it not being very good can get loud enough for it to be disbanded? (hasn’t happened in Canada yet, but our lovely Conservative majority has its eyes on the prize…)
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November 12, 2013 at 9:42 am
john zande
They suffer regardless of who’s in power. Still, they leave the other stations for shame.
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November 12, 2013 at 9:50 am
The Arbourist
Same here. The most recent low is that because of chronic underfunding CBC radio 2 now has to run commercials to help keep afloat.
Commercials on my PUBLIC BROADCASTER??
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November 12, 2013 at 9:54 am
john zande
Hahahaaaa!
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November 12, 2013 at 10:58 pm
bleatmop
From a strategic point of view I can see why the CPC is attacking the CBC. I mean the CBC, especially the radio, all but campaigned for the LPC during the Martin elections. I remember, as I was a blogging Torry back then, and every day they would have people coming on the radio talking about how the rest of Canada had a right to Alberta’s oil revenue with absolutely no-one coming on defending the constitution, and the CPC position, that the rest of Canada did not have that right. Of course, that was one of the big wedge issues that Martin was hammering on, and I think it is what won him his minority.
Really, what could they expect? They went beyond being impartial observers and became advocates. Some would argue that one must be an advocate to be a good journalist, but it isn’t smart when you are a state funded media company to actually take sides against one political party. When that party comes into power, what do you think is going to happen?
That said, I think the CBC is a Canadian institution and it is wrong to defund them. It’s also worth noting that the natural resources revenue being in the provincial domain is yet another example of a campaign promise being broken by Harper. However, I do see this as the CBC bringing this upon themselves. Harper el al. has obviously cleaned house in their upper bureaucracy since then too, as I definitely feel there has been a culture shift in the CBC since he took office.
I do have an unpopular position for the CBC too, and that is that they would be better served as a private company, but only so long as they are set up as their own corporation with shares given to the people of Canada. That way they could be free from the political interference that obviously goes on there in the past and present.
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November 13, 2013 at 3:06 am
bodycrimes
I watched this last night while I was meant to be doing something else – great procrastination! Germaine Greer is brilliant. I like the way she speaks – very clear, very concise, not afraid to say difficult things (e.g. that the sexual culture they’ve bought into can sometimes bring them great pain). A great discussion.
However…a couple of things did bug me. One is Peter Hitchens’ claim that secular liberals are totalitarian in the way they denounce, belittle and silence opponents. As it happens, he WAS repeatedly cut off in a way that the other speakers weren’t, and in one instance some members of the audience try to drown him out, thus proving his point. Dan Savage also insulted him exactly as predicted.
The other was Hannah Rosin wriggling out of the marriage question. Dan Savage made an excellent pro-marriage argument, Germaine Greer said marriage was a construct from hell, and Peter Hitchens (I think) said the collapse of marriage meant the end of civilisation. As a married feminist, Rosin just shrugged and said “I don’t know why I got married – I just did”, which was lame beyond belief. Either she disagrees with Germaine Greer about the value of marriage, which would have been an interesting discussion, or she agrees with Dan Savage that marriage is a worthwhile institution, which would have put her uncomfortably close to Hitchens as well, which also would have made for an interesting discussion. But she ducked the question and the moderator allowed her to do so.
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November 14, 2013 at 8:28 am
The Arbourist
@BC
Holding a minority(?) view is always difficult. I’m not sure how often Hitchens is ‘silenced’ considering he has a newspaper column and public platform for his point of view. The audience was not on his side and did show their displeasure with his point of view.
I’m not sure how to respond the notion the his point of view on religion was belittled as professing sincere belief in magic and saying that mythology is a guiding force in life *should* be derided and mocked, as it is nonsensical.
Agreed.
Thanks for taking the time to watch and share your thoughts on the debate. :)
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November 14, 2013 at 9:27 am
bodycrimes
Sure, Hitchens has a platform – in the UK. But he was in a different country to present ‘dangerous ideas’. Of the panel, his ideas were the most dangerous, in the sense of the ones that made the audience most uneasy. If in that context speakers like him get shut down, then it’s not really a dangerous ideas festival at all.
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November 14, 2013 at 10:37 am
The Arbourist
@BC
Well said. I agree.
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