You know what story would've been perfect for Search Engine, the CBC Radio One show cancelled a couple of weeks ago? The one about the world-famous weblog whose readers revolted after learning that one of the editors deleted all of the numerous past references to one particular person. Particularly when that site’s highest-profile contributor has spent the past five years using that platform to relentlessly beat the drum for digital media freedom.
For those who haven’t followed the recent backlash at Boing Boing, there’s an interminable thread at Metafilter ("Boing Boing Finds 21st Century Trotsky?"), a belated attempt to address the matter at Boing Boing itself, and an attempt to distill the debate via the Los Angeles Times, which interviewed most of the BB braintrust.
Conspicuously absent from these conversations, however, has been Toronto-born Cory Doctorow (pictured), whose recent young-adult novel, Little Brother, is all about outwitting surveillance.
Boing Boing’s big debacle began last week when sex futurist Violet Blue pointed out that around 70 posts enthusiastically mentioning her work over the years were "disappeared." While all signs point to this decision being the collateral damage of a love triangle – or maybe it’s more of a love trapezoid – involving BB co-editrix Xeni Jardin, an earlier theory suggested Doctorow did it just because Violet Blue set out to trademark her stage name to prevent a fledgling porn star from trading on it.
But, literally thousands of blog comments later, the refusal of the Boingers to divulge a spefic reason suggests the divide was more bitterly personal, even if that kind of friction wouldn't have been enough to break up Fleetwood Mac.
Doctorow, while not a founder of the brand that started out as a cyber-culture print magazine, emerged early in its weblog incarnation to be its version of Lindsey Buckingham – widely credited with orchestrating its tone and shaping it into a lucrative business for the members of its partnership.
The sentiments expressed over the Violet Blue revelation cleared the way for a different consensus, though: Boing Boing, despite all the authority it has gained since the early days of blogging as "A Directory of Wonderful Things", is mostly kind of useless.
(Based on the Scrolling Eye feed reader stats, of 21.3 average daily BB posts in the last 30 days, two per cent were clicked past the headline.)
Certainly, the flap has shed unflattering light on the Cory Doctorow way of doing things, as applied last month in regard to Search Engine.
The weekly half-hour, hosted by the satirically-inclined Jesse Brown, debuted last fall in an 11:30am Thursday slot on CBC Radio One – promising to address the effect of the internet on society through his deadpan delivery and online interaction.
No one cared at first, and Brown deigned to admit as much, but the show picked up steam thanks to commentaries from Doctorow and adoption of Boing Boing-esque talking points: copyfights, Chinese censorship, and holding executive feet to the fire. The approach reached a level of sublime absurdity in February when stealth CBC management blogger "Ouimet" typed out his part in a radio debate with new CBC president Hubert T. Lacroix.
None of this was especially great radio, though, and it came as little surprise when CBC Radio’s parallel weekly Wednesday program Spark – where host Nora Young has come to approach internet-induced chatter with a tone not unlike Martha Stewart, or maybe more Marilyn Denis – was renewed, whereas Search Engine was toast.
None of this should hamper Jesse Brown’s career, given how he’s been promised future opportunities to do his thing on assorted CBC radio and TV shows, which will then be compiled into a weekly podcast. With putative claims of being the most consistently popular Canadian current affairs podcast on iTunes, the effort will surely have a formidable base of subscribers.
But reading commentaries on the CBC gave Doctorow legitimacy like no other outlet could. How could he not take Brown's reassignment personally? So, his method of complaint was a glib link to a Facebook group from those wanting to “save” the show.
What invariably follows in various places are remarks about how, due to their decision, CBC Radio isn’t anywhere as good as it used to be, oh, let’s say, around last September.
The plug was also pulled on Search Engine's national airtime just after Brown confronted, via telephone, industry minister Jim Prentice over the Conservative government’s new copyright Bill C-61. The segment ended with Prentice hanging up.
This sort of dogged quest for hyper-transparency makes for moderately amusing sport. Then it starts getting tedious. Just because Doctorow managed to cultivate an audience – and earn a living – from this schtick doesn’t mean it’s worthy of the public airwaves.
More notable are the Radio One programming shuffles coinciding with Search Engine’s end: Q with Jian Ghomeshi will put to rest the idea that Peter Gzowski’s 10am timeslot should be sacred ground for musty Canadiana. The new 2pm presenter, Aamer Haleem, is best known for hosting Bands Reunited on VH1, a show that will go down in history for failing to get New Kids on the Block back together again for the cameras because, like most folks with a marketable talent, they wanted to be properly paid.
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