This is a very common attitude amongst the cultural elite of this country. They place a higher value on classical music than other genres. Classical music already gets most of the money from the music departments of the Canada Council and the Ontario Council - symphony orchestras are expensive! - so in effect what Russell Smith wants to do is turn all the public, tax generated funding for music over to one genre.
Unfortunately for Russell Smith we all pay for the CBC. And the rest of us think so-called classical music is important - but then so is jazz, so is world music, and so is folk-roots music. The CBC, when it gets up and running again - has to reflect these genres - or it isn't doing it's job.

With this present CBC lockout, it's difficult to see if the CBC management has any idea about what they are doing. If their strategy is to beat down the union with a six month lockout - there wont be much of an audience left when the thing is settled. (Except for Hockey Night In Canada) Do they think the audience is just gonna flow back to Andy Barrie's Radio One morning show in Toronto as soon as he shows up for work? Do they think there will be an audience who even remembers where CBC Newsword is for the crucial second season of George Stroumboulopoulos' The Hour? Maybe CBC management thinks so - I sure don't.

And returning to the NHL lockout, if the owners wanted to risk losing half their audience to other sports and entertainment activities with an extended lockout - that was their business - they owned the teams

But CBC management don't own the 'Corpse', we do, the Canadian audience, the Canadian taxpayer, the Canadian arts community who have been supplying the CBC with much of their content for years now.

So the CBC management better have a clear idea of what they are doing here and they had better start conveying it real soon

The workers aren't the problem. ...

The real test of CBC management?

No new Gzowski, no new Frum. I doubt they'd be hired today if they walked in off the street.

A national corporation whose currency is ideas cannot maintain its position of excellence — excellence is the true "edge" — with the use of disposable workers.

I think senior management is frightened by the intelligence, the creativity and the inexplicable loyalty of the workforce. I think middle management does not know how to manage talent or foster creativity

Being locked out is almost a kin to a funeral. Friends you never hear from suddenly show up in nice clothes to offer their best wishes, pat you on the back a few times and then disappear again. You won't hear from them until the next funeral.

Case in point: labour unions. There is nothing organized labour like more than worker misfortune. So it was only a matter of time before they came out in their best duds to offer us a few 'solidarity forever' chants. Today it's the Canadian Labour Congress. I don't know much about CLC boss Ken Georgetti but I sure miss Bobby White. He must be fishing up at the cottage.