The CBC: How Canada's Public Broadcaster Lost Its Voice (and How it Can Get it Back)
INTERVIEWS + REVIEWS
An interview on The CBC: How Canada's Public Broadcaster Lost Its Voice (and How it Can Get it Back) with Tara Henley for her show Lean Out with Tara Henley entitled “David Cayley on the CBC's Populist Era”:
Excerpt:
Tara: I want to end this interview by talking about your concept of pluralism and talking about how journalists, particularly at the CBC, could employ that concept.
David: If you start from the assumption that you really don’t know, if our imaginary CBC reporter opens the [convoy] truck door, with the attitude that he might find something interesting there – somebody who’s actually experienced the world, thought about the world, has a certain idea about it that you don’t already know – if you start to look at it that way, then there’s a lot to talk about. And that’s the excitement of it.
….I think there could be a sense of adventure, but it has to begin from some kind of humility, some kind of recognition that we really are in a media apocalypse, that we really have reached a whole series of frontiers…we really don’t know the answers…If you had broadcasters at the CBC…who had the breadth, and the humility to become questioners – that’s my fantasy, my dream – then you would open a space of discovery. The foundational statement is, we have a future, but we don’t know what it is. So we have to find it out.
Tara, can I thank you? That’s so nice that you’ve read the book. I’ve had a few conversations already which never went anywhere near most of the ideas in the book. It’s a joy to be read, and I’m grateful.
A review of The CBC for the Hub published on October 18, 2025 and titled “Where the CBC went wrong”
An interview with Alex Mason for CBC radio’s Mainstreet NS regarding The CBC book, aired on January 7, 2026:
An interview about The CBC book with Linda Pannozzo from June 8, 2026, just two days before David passed away at home at 80 years old:
https://lindapannozzo.substack.com/p/the-cbc-how-canadas-public-broadcaster
An article written by David for The Walrus adapted from The CBC book and published on October 21, 2025:
An interview with Brian Lilley for his show Full Comment recorded in November of 2025 and published January 5, 2026; entitled “How the CBC lost its purpose”
https://podcasts.apple.com/be/podcast/how-the-cbc-lost-its-purpose/id1561204292?i=1000743802799
A review of The CBC book by Christopher Waddell for The Literary Review of Canada published in March of 2026 and entitled “Canada Lives Here?”:
https://reviewcanada.ca/magazine/2026/03/canada-lives-here-review-the-cbc/\
A very critical post on The CBC book posted on retired Unifor staffer Howard Law’s blog MediaPolicy.ca, published September 24, 2025:
https://mediapolicy.ca/2025/09/24/how-the-cbc-should-gets-its-mind-right-david-cayleys-new-book/