CBC apologises after ‘racism’ charge
p2pnet news | Music:- Following charges of "racism" levelled by Quebec singer Claude Dubois (right), the CBC has apologized for cutting francophone performances from a TV show, says the Canadian Press.
The CBC excluded several Quebec artists from the televised version of Monday’s Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame gala in Toronto, say the story.
"Dubois said the public broadcaster had insulted Quebecers."
CBC executive vice-president Richard Stursberg sent a letter Friday to all artists whose performances were not included in the TV show, adds CP.
"It was our view that the broadcast, on CBC’s English language network and directed at an anglophone audience, should focus on music and musicians most familiar to that audience," Stursberg wrote.
"Upon reflection and based upon the negative reaction to the television broadcast, we acknowledge that we could have done a better job of reflecting the full diversity of the participants."
It’s a, "racist and anti-francophone gesture that makes me feel sick," the National Post’s Jonathan Kay has Dubois declaring.
Kay goes on >>>
Not often do I cite CBC press releases approvingly. But in this case, I’ll make an exception: "This was a broadcast on CBC’s English-language network aimed at a prominently anglophone audience." Ergo "we and the Songwriters Hall of Fame chose to focus on musicians and music most familiar to our viewers."
Most English Canadians have never heard of Dubois, and don’t much care to hear him crooning in a language they don’t understand.
So the Ceeb didn’t put him in the highlight show. Not hard to understand the logic here.
According to Quebec nationalists’ own terms of debate, Quebec is a "distinct society," a "nation," a "peuple," and who knows what else. Shouldn’t one be able to infer from all this we’re-so-unique chest-beating that Quebecois culture is sufficiently "unique" that those of us who aren’t versed in it shouldn’t be expected to groove to its 60s-era chestnuts?
The CBC said the French performances were among cuts needed to fit the three-hour gala into a 44-minute time slot, says CP.
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Also See:
Canadian Press – CBC apologizes for leaving francophone artists out of TV show, March 9, 2008
National Post – Jonathan Kay’s phony-racism digest, March 9, 2008
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March 10th, 2008 at 9:57 am
sacre bleu!