A Bad Dream?

I don't know if I will ever forgive the CBC.

If you are in Canada and you are reading this, you will know what I am talking about. This week, the Canadian Broadcast Corporation failed to renew the rights to the iconic "Hockey Song" (you may know it just as the "Hockey Night in Canada Theme"). I thought that perhaps the whole ordeal was a gig by the CBC to renegotiate the rights in a more favourable arrangement. Instead, I turned on the TV this morning to watch the sports highlights on TSN, only to hear the "Hockey Song" repeated endlessly and triumphantly as proof of their victory in snatching the rights to the song. It was surreal, like seeing your mom walking around holding hands with some guy she met at the gym. It just wasn't right.

I'm just so shaken up that I don't know what to say or how to say it, so I'm turning to the readers of the blogosphere for comfort.

Back to the issue...

I can't blame TSN for what they did. I only know that CBC's consistently deteriorating reputation in my eyes took a further, huge dive. To the litany of their sloppy journalism, highly partisan, though publicly funded, coverage, and their insistence on producing cloyingly saccharine, formulaic imitations of "Anne of Green Gables" throughout my childhood (anyone remember "Emily of New Moon"?), the CBC has discarded what can reasonably as a Canadian institution. HNIC is probably one of the only reasons why many people even want to keep the CBC.

Of course, I can't say I'm all that surprised. The strong commitment of Canadian crown corporations to mediocrity and bungling inefficiency is as much an embarassing Canadian institution as our insistence on continuing to give them money.

I am switching to the CTV for my Canadian news coverage.