The naysayers who say we’re twiddling our thumbs at Radio-Canada should know Marc Pichette.
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Marc Pichette does not appear in any series or host any talk shows.
There’s even a good chance you’ve never seen him on the small screen or in the halls of the new home on Montreal’s Papineau Avenue.
First Director of Promotion and Public Relations of Radio-Canada, Mr. Pichette spends most of his days at his modest desk. Or he is on the phone or in front of his computer to publicize the achievements of his employer. Or, more importantly, to excuse the ineptitudes of their bosses or correct the “falsehoods” propagated by certain thoughtless columnists, myself included.
In addition to being on the lookout for all the inaccuracies to which his station may be subject, this tireless guardian of Canadian radio orthodoxy must demonstrate great sacrifice. In serious cases that can secure its reputation, it must be done alongside its CEO, Catherine Tait. It was she, for example, who presented a tearful apology Alone, a love story, the podcast that the CBC dubbed Paris because Cecil Fernandez, its Toronto producer, doesn’t like the French spoken in Quebec. Ms Tait, it must be said, has extensive experience in apologies.
LESSONS FROM MRS TINTIN
This week it was again he who had to sweat blood and water to explain to my colleague, Sophie Durocher, why Madame Tintin, “head” of diversity and inclusion at Radio-Canada, had sent all the managers of the company the eight commandments for an inclusive Halloween party.
It is not easy to justify such a childish note… Well! he bluntly explained that it was just “an awareness initiative”.
Since the tentacles of Toronto wokism joined Radio-Canada, Marc Pichette has been so busy that I regret causing him trouble, last Tuesday, by writing that Radio-Canada is “state television.”
He was in all his states, poor thing. He immediately sent me a long e-mail explaining that we must say “public television”, even though the CEO, the chairman of the board and all the directors of Radio-Canada are appointed by the governor in council and that the State provides more than 65% of the funding.
Having said that, it is true that Radio-Canada enjoys inviolable independence (even if Pierre Poilievre doubts it) from the government. I can attest to having served as chairman and board member.
To allow Marc Pichette to catch his breath, I promise from now on to always write “public television”, although it is not wrong to speak of state television, as the French and British tend to do for France Télévisions and the BBC which have nothing to envy the independence of which Radio-Canada is so proud.
ERRATUM: THE NEWSPAPER AND ADVERTISING
In my Tuesday, October 24 column titled The indecency of the SRC news, I mentioned the name of Maisons Laprise among the companies that present advertisements in Téléjournal. This is not the case. My excuses.
