Friday, June 13, 2008

Some thank-yous and some explanations

At the risk of sounding ingratiating, I can't all of you enough for taking the time to read my side of the story. Whether you agree with my points or not, it just feels good to know that I've been heard out. Everyone has a right to their point of view. I know that my mother feels the same way.

A special thanks to Adrian who blogged my post to kingdom come.

To Anonymous who pointed me to Scott Feschuk's blog. What a brilliant writer that guy is. I'm now madly in love with him.

To Steve who hasn't seen me in a while. Good lord, Steve who????

To Anonymous whose site is www.standonguardforcbc.ca. Please, be my guest.

On the "little guy screwed the big guy debate". I really don't feel good to know that anyone was "screwed". It's a lousy feeling.

To Arecibo. As far as I know, my mother isn't planning to pursue any lawsuit with CBC. Lawsuits are really the last move when 'cease and desist' fails. The point of it was always to force them to abide by the license agreement. Now that they no longer have one, it seems a little pointless, doesn't it?

To John Ciccone. Good lord! You found it! Notice I linked to you? Any writer in search of an agent who doesn't bang at your door is insane. And again, thank you for sticking with us, and standing by us through the grim, miserable times, John. You're one in a billion.

To Blaise Alleyne. The CBC never offer one million to buy the song. I have no idea where that number is coming from. By the time they offered to buy the theme, for a good deal less than that, my mother was pretty convinced that they were wanting to buy it to bury it.

To NJ. The CBC has the right to spend money on whatever they feel is best for the CBC. However, they don't have the right to bully and threaten people. I know it's popular for people to pride themselves on being tough negotiators and "up for a good fight", but there is a limit to how "tough" you can be before no one can do business with you. If you get too rough in your tactics, the person you negotiate with is just likely to shrug their shoulders and leave the table.

To Anonymous who said "everyone knows that it was about money on both sides of the table". I'm not going to repeat what I said in the first post, because the more I deny that it was about money, the more false that is going to ring. So, if that's what you believe, you are absolutely entitled to your opinion. However you wrote: "It is also pretty ridiculous that you are blaming an entire network for what happened instead of the few individual people I am sure hand their hand in it." You know what? You're absolutely right. There are many, many people working at the CBC, and the vast majority of them are brilliant, wonderful people who do a fantastic job on, by all accounts, tiny budgets. You are absolutely right to point out that I was tarring many people who didn't deserve it with the same brush and I apologize profusely.

At the same time, I don't just want to lay the blame wholly at the door of Scott Moore, because he has superiors who are clearly supportive of his style, his methods and his decisions. I don't know who those people are. All I know is that they work at the CBC.

When Scott Moore spoke to the press, on his own television network and other places, he talked on behalf of the "CBC". I addressed my response in the same way, but that was clearly not fair.

Again, thanks to all of you who commented here. For those of you who were critical, I appreciate the fact that you criticized in a civilized and straightforward manner.

Madeleine

2 comments:

Adrian said...

Thank you, Madeleine.

I’m a music-lover, a hockey lover, a CBC-lover.

In each sphere one can witness the infiltration of the political animals - those people whose speech we euphemistically, and too generously, call spin.

My Mom always said: “Truth will out”. Some times it’s immediate. Sometimes it’s years. It can take more than a lifetime.

But as long as people listen and care, and they do, it will always be so.

all the best to you and yours, Ad

Anonymous said...

hi madeleine - no need to post this comment - i just wanted to thank you for the very kind words about my blog. it must have been a very strange experience to be at the centre of a national storm - but your family handled itself with real grace and class.