The end of 'Nature of Things'?
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- Published on Wednesday, 13 August 2014 16:20
- Written by editor
The CBC is planning to scale down its award-winning in-house documentary department because of deep government budget cuts. This could mean the end of in-depth Canadian documentaries that are timely, provocative and political like "The Nature of Things" and "8th Fire."
Tell the CBC to preserve its reputation for "fearless journalism" and keep making important documentaries in-house.
The CBC is poised to dramatically scale back production of its cutting-edge documentaries. The quality, variety and political punch of CBC documentaries is about to plummet -- unless the national broadcaster takes steps now to safeguard in-house production.
Some of the CBC's most prominent on-air personalities including David Suzuki, Peter Mansbridge, and over 30 other news and current affairs staff have spoken out publicly against the cutbacks, proposed in response to deep government budget cuts.
Reading between the lines, it’s clear that this is just part of the Conservative government's plan to gut the CBC in favor of its private media friends. SumOfUs members have successfully stepped up to protect the Canadian media landscape before. Now it’s time to do it again.
Will you speak out against the decision to produce fewer documentaries and purchase more from other production companies?
It's hard to imagine losing award-winning Canadian programming like The Nature of Things, Canada: A People’s History, The Canadian Experience and 8th Fire.
Linden MacIntyre, the veteran host of The Fifth Estate, says that CBC's public funding allows the broadcaster to produce fearless journalism: “The DNA of Canadian documentary production has to be preserved in an institutional setting… that’s where innovation happens, that’s where controversy is embraced — and if we lose that we’ll never get it back.” The Fifth Estate’s Host is stepping away from show this summer to save younger producers from job cuts.
The publicly-funded broadcaster needs to provide in-depth documentary coverage that is timely, provocative, political, and controversial to continue the challenge, educate and inspire all of us in Canada.
There's a solution to preserve CBC documentaries despite budget cuts -- CBC staff proposed that the documentary department becomes embedded within News and Current Affairs, which would preserve original CBC documentary production while allowing for sharing of resources, facilities and infrastructure.
Let’s speak out now to save quality documentaries in Canada.
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