By Greg O’Brien
TORONTO – Facing a wave of criticism from within and without, CBC leadership attempted Friday to again explain why it was absolutely necessary to temporarily suspend English language local newscasts across the country while providing national coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic.
CBC staffers received three different pieces of correspondence Friday: from their CEO and head of English services; the general manager of news, current affairs and local; and the editor-in-chief of CBC News.
The message was clear: Given the virus protections needed for staff and a never-before-seen demand on news resources, we really had no choice.
CBC announced the decision earlier this week and was immediately met by a round of harsh criticism from employees and some Canadians. “We know how important these local TV shows are to communities, but the unprecedented demand on our systems was not sustainable,” said a memo signed by CBC CEO Catherine Tait and head of English Services Barbara Williams circulated Friday.
Local digital and radio services have not been altered and continue to pump out local news.
“We had to take immediate action to ensure there would be no service disruption or breakdowns in our technical systems, which support television, radio, and web streaming. Like many businesses right now, we are operating with fewer employees. Fortunately, to date, we have no confirmed cases of COVID-19; however, more and more employees are home sick and many are heeding the government’s good advice to work from home,” added the memo.
“On a normal day we broadcast eight live events. Now we are broadcasting more than 35.” – Catherine Tait and Barbara Williams
“At the same time, breaking news demands are exploding. News conferences from public officials and Medical Officers of Health, in every province, all day. On a normal day we broadcast eight live events. Now we are broadcasting more than 35. We need to bring these to Canadians — all Canadians. The risk we faced was that the system would overload and we would lose broadcasts.”
Right now, Canadians are seeing essentially the same live news program at 6 p.m. and 11 p.m., with some local information inserted by local hosts. This will continue for as long as the public broadcaster deems necessary.
“By pooling our resources and reducing the pressure on daily feeds and live streams, we have built some relief into our system, which will protect our service through the weeks ahead. Your local journalists continue to provide stories for radio, digital, and CBC News Network. As you may have already noticed, local hosts are also there to provide the latest news from their region,” reads the memo.
Williams and Tait also said the CBC is pooling resources with private broadcasters where possible in order to help get the news out.
“We are committed to restoring our full local TV news programs as soon as possible. In the meantime, each of our local stations will continue to bring their communities the most information possible,” said Tait and Williams.
Then, in her message to staff, general manager of news, current affairs and local Susan Marjetti hit back at some misinformed critics. “We did not cut the CBC local supper hour newscasts because they have low ratings and declining advertising. That is a tweet sent to me this morning,” she wrote.
“We did not abandon local communities in a time of great need. We are there every day.” – Susan Marjetti
“We did not as many others have, lay people off… We did not abandon local communities in a time of great need. We are there every day.”
Marjetti added we have not seen anything like the Covid-19 pandemic in our lifetimes and extraordinary times means taking measures which would normally be unthinkable. “Like many organizations, we have people self isolating after travel outside the country,” she wrote. “As they should, we also have a lot of people heeding health warnings and working from home. There is some illness and understandably, a lot of anxiety.
“And all of it comes at the same time we are experiencing increased demands for coverage and a critical need for information.” Plus, since the CBC has centralized operations in Toronto (as many broadcasters around the world have), the pandemic has stressed its Toronto Broadcast Centre like never before.
“As an essential service, CBC News and Current Affairs and Local have been there from day one and we must continue now to be there for Canadians throughout the pandemic,” she wrote. “To do that, it meant alleviating the extraordinary pressures on our centralized technical and operational system because, as you know, many things now go through the Toronto Broadcast Center to air.”
“Unfortunately, technical resources in Toronto experienced an influx of sick calls at the start of the week. So, we have had fewer people at a time of unprecedented demands and we simply had to act and act fast to ensure we did not lose our service.”
Which is why the CBC made the decision it did on Tuesday. She also added this week CBC has seen many times more viewers, listeners and users to its various platforms. While CBC Radio is the top station in most of its markets already, “for CBC News digital, we have seen nearly 8 million unique visits,” she said. “The CBC News app has over 1 million daily users. The National has more than doubled audiences and CBC News Network is the number one specialty news network in Canada.”
“Let me be clear – we will continue to increase the local presence on CBC News Network at 6 p.m. and ultimately, return the full complement of local supper hours as soon as it’s possible, both on a human level and from a technical perspective. But we simply do not know how long this pandemic will last and the need to stay home and self-isolate will continue.”
Finally, a blog post from CBC News editor in chief Brodie Fenlon told staff: “We have some of the most comprehensive coverage of this pandemic anywhere, and much of it is intensely local. For example, in the last two weeks, we have carried more live press conferences by officials at every level of government in every province and territory than ever in the history of CBC News.”
“We will not shut down. We are an essential public service, and we will be here for Canada through it all. That is our mandate and promise to all Canadians.” – Brodie Fenlon
“We are providing this critical, essential service despite having nearly half of our Ontario staff working from home to ensure social distancing, a quarter of the staff at home in eastern and western Canada, a large percentage of news staff sick, many self-isolating after travel, and the real potential that many more will be forced to stay home as the virus spreads,” wrote Fenlon.
“In that way, we are like so many other companies around the world that are making dramatic choices — many of them halting operations, sending employees home on indefinite leaves and closing up shop.
“Unlike those companies, we will not shut down. We are an essential public service, and we will be here for Canada through it all. That is our mandate and promise to all Canadians.”
Plus, TV broadcasting is something that mostly can’t be done from home.
“On Monday, with fewer technical staff in the Toronto building, that spine was at risk of breaking,” Fenlon continued. “More importantly, we see what’s coming: more cases, more illness, more people in isolation, more restrictions on travel, more staffing challenges in all of our newsrooms. To get ahead of the curve and the enormous strain we expect it will place on our news service, we were forced to act.
“Still, it’s a painful choice,” he added. “Our local newscasts are beloved. We hope to get them back on the air as soon as possible. I assure you, they will be back.
“But the weeks ahead are uncertain because of the rapid spread of COVID-19. We are doing our very best. While we’ve since stabilized the system, we can’t do anything that puts our core service at risk. Every decision we make is about ensuring we are here for Canada with essential news and information through to the very end of this pandemic.”
