Definitely not the opera

Let me guess, this will give the BC Liberal bashers, so visibly a part of the CBC team, an additional opportunity to get their slanted message out.

Is that 8 - 9 AM???

Who is the CBC expecting to listen, I assume it will be like "In The House" and only the MLA's, their staff and supporters will listen.

My tax dollars at work, I love the CBC.

8-9am Saturday morning is a pretty good time slot in the radio world.

I would suggest to Eve that it is no different than the other broadcasters masking as 'neutral'

I think the CBC has been a bastion for fair coverage in Canadian politics for as long as I have been alive and can remember, the only bad example being their seemingly anti-liberal slamming in Burnaby-Douglas last June.

The CBC has no interest in providing unfair coverage. They do not donate to any one political party as Canwest or BCE do, and they don't draw in huge audiences with expensive advertising budgets or ridiculous phony "reality" tv. They draw in viewers with fair and dependable news coverage, extensive and high-quality sports coverage, and unparalled Canadian content.

The CBC's interest lies in providing value to taxpayers, and I certainly think I'm getting my money's worth, although the Radio programming has yet to attract my attention at all. Perhaps more lively programs such as this one will have that effect.

I was dismayed as well to see CBC lose its Olympic broadcasting rights for the 2010 games. Any profits that result from the massive taxpayer investment in "Canada's games" should be returned to the public, not to a private company, although Bell's sponsorship commitments have definitely been encouraging.

The CBC's bias is towards actually wanting to do a good job.

I'll take that as a joke and move on.....

The lefty bias of the CBC is a product of the CBC culture, not any untoward plot. Lefty journalists work at the CBC, move up the ranks, and hire other journalists with a similar outlook on life, and so on, and so on. I only listen to CBC because I want to know what their left-perspective on a particular issue is, not because I trust what they say to be balanced and objective. Frequently, I get so angry with CBC Radio's coverage that I literally turn the radio off mid-story, though I usually turn it back on after I've calmed down. I listen to and read a variety of media, and figure the truth might be somewhere in between or has been missed by all the media entirely.

Don't jump on the CBC. They are far more even handed than the outfits that cotton up to the likes of Keith Baldrey. I've been a CBC listener most of my life and the 8:30 slot with Anna Marie Mon to Friday is always worth a listen, and most informative.

Bill Vanderzam as a regular should be sort of interesting. Will he be discussing flowers, which is a subject he was much better at than politics. Or the times he wanted to do cabinet meetings at Fantasy Gardens? Maybe Fay Leung could come on to be a guest at the same time as Bill.
But lets not forget it was Bill that started the treaty process in this province, and a few years later was out on the streets with a gang complaining about the Nisga'a treaty. Ah, it will be fun to hear what he's on about now. I'm sure he might be a well meaning fellow so shouldn't throw stones at him.

Frankly I really don't consider Bill Vander-Zalm a Master-Spewer of Left-wing propaganda.

IN todays polarized political climate, it is impossible to have programing that will not be interpreted to be 'left' or 'right'. I like the CBC because they dig up more stories other than the lower mainland. I am given a wider variety of news. I to, listen to a lot of stations Eve and love the different slants you can find among them. Gives a good perspective of our country.

Should this program actually happen, those BC Liberals who only wish to listen to the usual right wing hogwash pumped out by the Grasper papers can simply turn to CKNW, the semi-official voice of Gordo and his merry gang of political goons. Eve and her ilk must have orgasms when Bill Good, Keith Baldry and Vaughn Palmer play kissy poo with their BC Liberal pals.

Those of us who are looking for real information will continue listening to CBC. BC Libs will stick with the declining readership of the Can West papers, including that economic and jounalistic cesspool, the National Pest.

Thank God for the CBC. I could not imagine only having the bought and paid for view of The Province or Global TV. The CBC doesn't always report what everybody likes to hear, maybe that's because it's fact based reporting, not agenda driven.

I might thank the taxpayers for CBC since the alternate media seems to be on an agenda also at least i presume an agenda at CBC but that's de rigeur for unionist employees on public sector wages.Play to the boss is what i perceive at canada west global ,and BCTV.
Very little is spent in either case on my concerns since rarely am i asked.Truly beleive the CBC should go private shares or stock,perhaps one for every canadian!Or simply go IPo as any other business,sink or swim.
Please don't try to persuade me otherwise please I'm gettin' cynical in my old age.

WOW......I hope it is just like the Vynel Cafe. The only supporters it has are green, marajiuana party and about 50% of the New Democrats.
Why you ask? Well simply because most CBC programs make more sense after you smoke the drapes!

I listen to the cbc1 while working and having listened to radio programs from Limbaugh to Mair I genuinely believe that the cbc works in the best interests of its listeners.It is one of the only programmers that makes it a practise to allow both sides of an argument be heard and yes the programming does have a tendency to reflect a humanist approach to the issues,but takes the time to try to create understanding.On many occasions when guests are invited to share their often expert opinions on a subject they are able to reach consensus and not arbitrarily argue points but learn from each other.This is an example that could perhaps be modelled on this site as the level of discourse developing on these threads has reached the point where it is no longer even amusing. We have a lot of work to do as a society and the longer we allow ourselves to point fingers and lay blame simply moves us further away from reaching posistive solutions.

O.K guys and gals. I've listened to a lot of creative analysis on this post and I can't take this without saying something. Orgasms over Keith Baldrey, et al.? Pu...uu....LEEEEEE....seeeee!!!! I have standards! Re CBC...When the political panel on the Early Edition includes such luminaries as Wilf McMartin (has-been Reformer and Socred who didn't luck into a remunerative relationship with the BCL) and no Green Party representive although the Greens gave the NDP a good run for its money (ooops money...that's a capitalist term), and when the proposed CBC radio show brags about its objectivity because it will have Bill van der Zalm on its upcoming (coincindentally scheduled same time as May 17 new BC political show) who probably despises the BC Liberals more than any dipper, I can only think there is some plan on the CBC's part to emphasize splits between the centre-right portion of the spectrum and to deemphasize any splits between the left-centre portion the spectrum.

damn. are they going to be cutting in to north by northwest sunday mornings? for politics? damn. that gal has the happient, sexiest voice in broadcasting and the best b.c. music and culture guests and performances ... i get quite enough politics

so all the media in bc is to lefty. and we don`t need any more leftist coverage of the upcoming election in bc, is that right folks? you have to be kidding. cknw is the most right leaning, biased news coverage anywhere. perhaps these learned commenters are saying that bill" wheres my tax break" good is a ndp supporting commie? same goes for jennifer mather i suppose, certainly you can`t mean gordo`s chief financial advisor and brother mikey is`nt a card carrying commie now is he? you guys need to knock off the drink and go read a book or something. sheesh

What is all this drivel about the CBC not having enough right-wing coverage. Dad nabbit, they have that annoying "Promo Girl" already. Isn't that enough for you double-dippers?

I find it amusing that the people who criticize the CBC don't see a problem with the Sun/Province/CKNW
axis which converges to support the Campbell liberals at every opportunity. Along with the Booard of Trade, Chambers of Commerce, Phil Hochstein etc etc etc

I find it amusing that the people who criticize the CBC don't see a problem with the Sun/Province/CKNW
axis which converges to support the Campbell liberals at every opportunity. Along with the Board of Trade, Chambers of Commerce, Phil Hochstein etc etc etc. We commies are early risers.
Bring it on CBC!

fiberals do not like the truth.If it is true it is lefty propaganda.Pretty outrageous to call Rick cluff the morning liberal or Pria the afternoon liberal lefties when they are so obviously anything but.. but Eve, take a bite of the apple of knowledge and you may just see the light

How dare you call me a double-dipping right wing ideologue?
I am there to ensure that mother corporporation has just the right touch of hollywood to keep people like stephen harper off the trace.
I just wish the rest of the cast, crew, and management of CBC worked as hard, or was a deserving as I am.
But they are busy gazing at their navels trying to determine what balanced Canadian coverage is. A pox on their houses, I say. Let's bring in more Frums, more Coynes, more Harpers, more Kleins, and even more Days. And an IPO, that's the best idea yet. Think of all the money I can make with my $hare of the stock, given my magnificent contribution.

Eve's got a valid point if the show is going to emphasize divergence on the right but not so on the left. But it's too early to make that call. No one's ever going to please all of you, but give me the CBC (or CTV, or practically anyone else) any day over CanWest Global to at least attempt seriously to show all sides and get beyond the ubiquitous spin.

I dont know about Canwest being right wing biased.
Yes, the ownner does make contributions to right wing parties, but I have not seen Canwest being as biased as CBC is. CBC documentaries on the other hand are definitely biased.

"I dont know about Canwest being right wing biased"

I found this to be an interesting take on this question:

http://www.thetyee.ca/MediaCheck/current/BudgetCoverageOutofBalance.htm

It's interesting that in all the talk of bias (left or right) no one ever A) defines the term; or B) gives an example of what they mean by it. If Eve thinks the CBC is biased, fine. But I'd like to see her give a specific example of biased story or trend and define precisely what makes it biased. Is it the focus of the story? The interview choices? Are there actual errors in fact? Or is it simply a story that does not conform to her own biases?
Same story for the knee-jerk CanWest bashers. I'm not going to defend any of their troika of major dailies as excellent papers. All three, however, do have some very good journalists. So to suggest that the entire lot of them are tainted because their boss' boss' boss is Leonard Asper is naive and stupid.
Everything is spun to one degree or another. But painting entire organizations as tilted reveals more about your biases than it does about theirs.

Richard--I already gave an example of bias on the CBC's part. The political panel heard on the Early Edition has a representative of the NDP (Bill Tieleman), a representative of the BC Liberals (Judy Kirk) and Wilf McMartin (formerly involved with Social Credit and Reform parties. McMartin rarely aligns himself with the BC Liberals. My complaint is that the political panel has no Green Party representative. The Green Party had significantly greater support in the last provincial election than had Reform or Social Credit combined. The effect of the political panel over time has been to emphasize differences in the centre-right part of the spectrum, and deemphasize differences in the centre-left.

Thanks for the story, N.
Well, I read Vancouver Sun everyday, and I actually find it fairly neutral. And they do tolerate some left-wing voices. Same cannot be said for our national broacast company. Especially their new program "the Hour" which is unbelievably biased.

I must defend my colleague Will [not Wilf!!] McMartin of the CBC Early Edition political panel from unfair comments.

Will replaced David Mitchell many years ago and is there not as a party representative but as a political historian and "neutral" in terms of partisan politics. David filled the same role after he left politics - you will remember he was a BC Liberal MLA when Gordon Wilson was leader but distanced himself from Wilson and also from Gordon Campbell when he became leader.

Will comes from the right side of politics but is clearly critical of the BC Liberals on some issues and the BC NDP on others. He has run as a provincial Social Credit candidate and a federal Conservative candidate, so he is neither a BC Liberal or New Democrat.

As for Green Party representation, I don't believe a party that has yet to elect a single member in a single riding in BC has the demonstrated support to warrant a spot, but that's up to the CBC.

Lastly, neither Judy nor I actually "represent" a political party - it is our leaning but we are not appointed by the parties and in fact, I'm sure they have often been unhappy with some of our comments. Neither of us have any role with the Liberals or NDP.

As to the new CBC Radio show, how could anyone who flocks to Public Eye and other media be opposed to more coverage of BC politics. Judge the new show on its merits but for goodness sakes don't criticize it before it even has one broadcast under its belt!

Okay Bill, I disagree that the so-called neutral role on the panel first has been occupied by individuals who are neutral. Both Mitchell and McMartin more accurately fall into the category of disaffected BC Liberal and disaffected Reformer/Socred. And why hasn't the neutral role ever been filled by someone of Green Party persuasion? I stand by my point that the composition of the panel emphasizes differences in the centre-right and deemphasizes differences in the centre-left. Your comment that because the Green Party hasn't elected someone it hasn't demonstrated support to warrant a spot sounds more like wishful thinking on your part about the outcome of the next election.

Umm Eve, we're less than 100 days from the provincial election. Has anyone heard from Adrianne Carr? Does anyone want to hear from her? Follow this site a bit. You'll see people from all political stripes talking about a wide range of subjects, and political parties. I'm sorry but other than you talking a bit about wanting to see the Greens have some kind of stake in a political panel discussion, and the dreams of Mr. Gregson, who in his weird way of seeing things, thinks that the BC Green party is going to take over the centre left of the spectrum currently inhabited by the NDP, no one seems to be talking about the Green Party. Even in the results released by the Mustel group poll published in the Vancouver Sun, the one with the Libs with a 6% lead on the NDP, there was no mention of the Green party in the reports I heard today.

Heck, DRBC has had more buzz and public exposure of late than the Greens. Why is that Eve? I mean, I have my own ideas. As I said previously, Ms. Carr has not spent the last 3 years wisely. The Greens missed a tremendous opportunity when the NDP was down and out. She could be BC's answer to Paul "Mr. Dithers" Martin. From Day 1, Ms. Carr and the Greens failed to capitalize on the momentum they achieved during the last provincial election, where they succeeded in spliting the vote, but at the end of the day, didn't affect the result.

What's so funny about Mr. Gregson's prognostications of the Greens supplanting the NDP on the centre left is the simple fact that the BC Green Party ARE NOT Centre Left people. On the environment and prop rep they are, but in a lot of other areas, they are in line with the Neo Con way of seeing life. And I think that people have taken a hard look at things, and realize that a vote for the Greens is a vote for the Liberals, plain and simple.

It'll be interesting to see the debates coming forward during the campaign.

Umm Eve, we're less than 100 days from the provincial election. Has anyone heard from Adrianne Carr? Does anyone want to hear from her? Follow this site a bit. You'll see people from all political stripes talking about a wide range of subjects, and political parties. I'm sorry but other than you talking a bit about wanting to see the Greens have some kind of stake in a political panel discussion, and the dreams of Mr. Gregson, who in his weird way of seeing things, thinks that the BC Green party is going to take over the centre left of the spectrum currently inhabited by the NDP, no one seems to be talking about the Green Party. Even in the results released by the Mustel group poll published in the Vancouver Sun, the one with the Libs with a 6% lead on the NDP, there was no mention of the Green party in the reports I heard today.

Heck, DRBC has had more buzz and public exposure of late than the Greens. Why is that Eve? I mean, I have my own ideas. As I said previously, Ms. Carr has not spent the last 3 years wisely. The Greens missed a tremendous opportunity when the NDP was down and out. She could be BC's answer to Paul "Mr. Dithers" Martin. From Day 1, Ms. Carr and the Greens failed to capitalize on the momentum they achieved during the last provincial election, where they succeeded in spliting the vote, but at the end of the day, didn't affect the result.

What's so funny about Mr. Gregson's prognostications of the Greens supplanting the NDP on the centre left is the simple fact that the BC Green Party ARE NOT Centre Left people. On the environment and prop rep they are, but in a lot of other areas, they are in line with the Neo Con way of seeing life. And I think that people have taken a hard look at things, and realize that a vote for the Greens is a vote for the Liberals, plain and simple.

It'll be interesting to see the debates coming forward during the campaign.