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Blog of Adam Daifallah -- author, journalist, law student. Lover of politics, writing, golf, curling, fitness, fashion, bacon and maple products -- not necessarily (but probably) in that order. Partisan of the Anglosphere. Contact me via email at adam@daifallah.com. This summer I am joined by Keir Wilmut and Omar Soliman.
Wednesday, March 24, 2004
CounterSpin, RIP
This isn't new news, so you may have already heard, but CBC Newsworld is discontinuing its weekly debate show CounterSpin after this season. (Read a melancholy letter announcing the cancellation by the show's executive producer, Paul Jay, here.)
To be honest, I can't say I'm sad to see it go. CounterSpin today is a pale shadow of its original self. It has gone through three different hosts and numerous format changes in the six years since it began. The show was ferociously tilted to the Left, with panels often having 3 leftwing guests (plus the host, equalling 4) against one centrist or conservative guest. It is for that reason that by its second or third year most conservative-leaning pundits refused to even appear on the program. (Today, I can count the number of rightwingers willing to appear on one hand.)
I actually liked the show in the beginning. My friend Tasha Kheiriddin was a producer, and the original host, Avi Lewis, was the best of the three. Despite Lewis' pedigree (son of former Ontario NDP leader-UN Ambassador Stephen and retired Toronto Star columnist Michele Landsberg; husband of Naomi Klein) he is nice person and was a fair host. He made his own socialist views plainly known, but allowed others to talk and respected opposing viewpoints. In those days, the show was on (I think) 4 times a week (Monday-Thursday) and it was a half hour long. The producers like Tasha (now at the Canadian Taxpayers Federation) and NDPer Macella Munro used to actually participate in the panels. I was on the show a few times, and enjoyed the experience.
But after a few years the show format changed. Avi left and the new host, Sharon Lewis, was much worse. (The third and final host, Carol Off, was worse still.) They expanded the length to 1 hour and brought in a studio audience. It gradually shrunk in frequency to once a week - Wednesdays. The studio crowd, usually composed of socialist U of T students and a couple of token conservatives, participated by asking questions and debating for the second half hour. It made watching the latter half of the show nearly unbearable. Usually it turned into a giant screamfest with no thoughtful discussion at all.
The only real downside to the show being cancelled is that it means one fewer Canadian public affairs TV program, of which there are too few already. CBC is replacing it with an interview show. But I guess it can't be much worse than CounterSpin.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 7:33 PM
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