blog post Tod Maffin, Deep Inside the CBC

One of the developments to come out of last summer's CBC Lockout was the recognition of blogs as a means to convey information and enable dialogue. Within days of the start of the dispute, dozens of blogs popped up across the country. One that stood out in particular was CBC Unplugged (which is now defunct), run by radio producer Tod Maffin.

Maffin was tireless in his efforts to deliver news and to aggregate the other lockout blogs. Frankly, I don't know how he managed to do everything he did. I figured he had enslaved a team of blog elves, or perhaps had sold his soul to the devil, but in fact he's just really good at this blog thing. His personal blog, I Love Radio, has been -- and still is -- a must-read for radio geeks around the world.

Me... I'm a member of the tinfoil hat brigade, so I figured Maffin was going to find himself sharpening pencils or something once the lockout was over but, luckily for everyone involved, management saw the value of having a guy like this around. Now, one year later, Maffin is doing Inside the CBC, the Mothercorp's official blog for employees, which is also open to the public.

Tod was a pitbull on the pantleg of CBC during the lockout, and I don't really expect this to change, which is a good thing for CBC as an institution. Hey, it never hurts to have a devil's advocate, right? So if you find watching the drama of CBC as interesting as watching the actual programming, this is the blog for you.

I discussed Tod's new gig with him the other day:

R3: Do you have editorial freedom? Can you call shenanigans if you don't like something?

TM: Yes and yes. It wouldn't be a real blog if it were just a place to dump news releases, and the CBC gets that. The Corporation has encouraged me to say what I feel on here and encourage employees and the public to do the same through the comments. Believe it or not, they want the feedback!

I don't get leaked any advance CBC information or participate in any pre-announcement strategy meetings or anything like that. Likewise, I don't tell them in advance what gets posted here or how. They don't get an opportunity to review or edit or veto anything. They read what I write the same time you do. I suppose if push came to shove and they told me to take something down or edit it, I would. But having been working with these folks now for a month in beta, I can't imagine that kind of scenario.

This arms-length editorial independence is sort of the way a newspaper has a significant degree of autonomy within the confines of certain editorial policies.

R3: CBC is taking heavy fire for the decision to move The National in order to air The One. Are you going to be commenting on stuff like this?

TM: If it's relevant to the CBC and if it's what people are talking about, it will be on the blog. Period. So, yes, that would absolutely be covered. I don't expect I'd write any big essay or anything... I'd probably just summarize the controversy, put links to some examples of what people are talking about on the blogs, and open it up for comments!

R3: Do you ever secretly visit CBCwatch?

TM: Yep, and not even secretly. I subscribe to their RSS feed.

R3: What are your top three favourite blogs?

TM: This changes every week or so, but right now they are:
1. Tricks of the Trade
2. 43 Folders
3. A Pithy Mood