Talk:The Hour

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This is about 'Season One'. The new season started on November 7th, with many changes. Videos will probably start appearing on the show's website within a few weeks, after which this should be updated. (For example, the format has changed dramatically.)

During the December 14, 2005, George, talking about this article, mentioned that the show does not specifically target a younger audience, so I think it should be removed from the article (2nd paragraph I think)--72.138.175.46 01:41, 15 December 2005 (UTC)

Watch the segment again, when he referred to the show not expressly targeting younger viewers, his comments were certainly said sarcastically and meant to be taken as tongue in cheek. If the show were not meant to attract a younger audience, Don Newman would be the host. mhunter 04:43, 15 December 2005 (UTC)

I agree with mhunter and have included more on that in the last paragraph. I don't agree with taking out the point about targeting a younger audience. No matter what George says, that was CBC's intent. It should stand. Sunray 07:03, 16 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia self-reference

I've moved the following from the main article because it's self-referencing and opinionated. Feel free to try to salveage whatever might be interesting from here, but I can't find anything. Fagstein 17:49, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

In a segment of the show devoted to Wikipedia on December 14, 2005, Stroumboulopolis commented on Wikipedia articles about him and The Hour (i.e., this article). He was pleased with the accuracy of the article on himself, but took issue with the comment about the show's primary demographics being "adolescents and young adults." He might have a hard time convincing folks within the CBC itself, it seems. George is described as a "pop culture guru" on the CBC's website, which also quotes a viewer saying: "Just when the whole political scene was becoming extremely unpopular with my generation (the same age group that has the lowest election turnouts), your show piqued my interest."[1] In a humourous vein, Mrs. Enid of This Hour Has 22 Minutes, says in a clip on the same webpage: "The CBC trying to be young and hip is like an old lady wearing a thong..." Perhaps, what George was trying to point out is that the show reaches a wide audience. While this is, no doubt, true, its youth appeal is undeniable. A wide audience of tweens and teenagers is not a wide audience----check out the BBM ratings or are you too busy making love to the executive producer again?------Please how tacky is that

If you read the guideline, this is not a Wikipedia self-reference. It is, after all Stromboulopolis who refers to Wikipedia and the paragraph simply records that. The guide does state "Wikipedia can, of course, write about Wikipedia..."

 I know i am not the only one who would like to hear many of the qualified professional that question the 9-11 Commission. I'm sure Georgey knows that the teenagers that watch the show would like to be informed about this as well. Maybe George, just avoids controversy on the show or has not found the time because he is too busy interviewing ephemeral pop stars to weigh up the empirical data itself.

I also have difficulty seeing why you think it is opinionated. It simply juxtaposes his comment that the show isn't targeted towards young adults with CBC's own promotional material about the show. NPOV can involve presenting both sides. This seems to me to be an interesting item to include in an otherwise rather dull article. Could the paragraph be improved? Sure. Sunray 09:05, 24 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Viewer Response section

The section removed by Hunter1084 on February 9 2006 is a very common viewer response to this show, likely the single most common response, and it is based on the facts provided. It was not an ungrounded POV and was therefore restored. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 198.53.180.231 (talk • contribs) .

It is, however, unreferenced. From where is this information coming from? Fagstein 16:25, 9 February 2006 (UTC)

I see that you have singled out comments which were critical of the show and said nothing about the unreferenced but largely positive claims immediately above it, which I’ll quote below. Therefore I don't find this to be valid criticism and suspect that it is only an attempt to censor the piece and spin it in a positive direction, so I’ll revert back to the previous edit, at least temporarily. Here is the section the above poster left, even though it is unreferenced, while deleting my section for being unreferenced.

“The Hour has been met with a diverse response of both controversy and acceptance. It has been successful in attracting viewers from all demographics, and many viewers consider its unorthodox method of presenting the news to be a refreshing difference from the CBC's regular presentation of news. It does not simply discuss current events, it brings them into perspective and challenges various viewpoints on these events. This format is equally open to controversy, however. Often The Hour is characterized as nothing more than CBC's attempt to attract younger viewers.”

This person has unintentionally raised a good question, however. As this quoted bit here is completely unsupported it should probably be removed. I’ll see if I can find some guidelines on this and then delete it if it seems appropriate. Much of the comments I added, otoh, can be easily referenced, but quantifying the number of people who don’t like the show because of its regional character would be a little tougher.

Agreed. It's gone. If someone can find some critical analyses of the show in the media they can quote from that. Otherwise it's just people's opinions. Fagstein 07:18, 13 February 2006 (UTC)

Agreed. There is also a line at the top of the page, “The show's down-to-earth, no-spin approach to the news has attracted a diverse demographic audience, well beyond the youth audience that was the CBC network's original intended audience for the show.” which is also unreferenced and should be deleted, so I’ve done that. When I get a chance I’ll include the factual information about George’s background, noting in particular his very limited exposure to Canada and Canadian culture outside Toronto, in a section above and I’ll include references to his bio and the bios of other hosts of national CBC programs, particularly cultural programs, to show the striking difference. This is, I think, the single most important factor that the viewer needs to know about when viewing this show, and it’s one many will be surprised to find out because of CBC’s past good record at ensuring that their hosts had well rounded education and experience. Knowing this fact will, I’m sure, answer a lot of people’s questions about the show. - 198.53.180.231 Feb. 13, 2006

George’s bio itself shows just how regional he is. He was born and raised in the greater Toronto area. He went to school at Humber college in Toronto. He spent less than a year working in Kelowna before moving back to Toronto where he’s been ever since. Further, most of his working experience has been in Toronto for MuchMusic, a channel that is centred around Toronto’s Queen Street West music and pop culture. MuchMusic also has its VJ’s take on a distinctive hosting style. This style is a Moses Znaimer creation which he uses on some of his other Toronto and Toronto based programming as well. All this I would say falls into the realm of common knowledge for anyone who is familiar with the stations I’m talking about.

On the inappropriateness of a regional personality such as George as the host of a national show, CBC has had a long standing policy of hiring people with a good familiarity with different parts of the country to host its national shows. Peter Gzowski worked various places, most notably a long stretch in Moose Jaw. Peter Mansbridge worked in a number of places including spending time in the Navy and working in Churchill Manitoba, Winnipeg and Regina, and you can go down the list of other CBC national personalities and see similar, well rounded backgrounds. What the CBC has done in recent years with youth culture, however, most notably by hiring George and Jian Ghomeshi, two essentially purely regional personalities who have spent little to no time working in other parts of the country, is a radical departure. It’s also clearly very biased and the source of a lot of complaints. (CBC’s prior attention to ensuring a national voice and perspective on their national shows has earned them a great deal of good will, I should add, and many people who have seen The Hour believe that CBC will of course have taken the same care with this show and will defend it on this basis. In this case, however, CBC has let them down and is really broadcasting a culturally regional show while trying to pass it off as national show.) The first part of this is easily referenced, but if we are going to delete the above quoted unreferenced section, however, I guess I shouldn’t comment on the number of complaints without first digging up a reference. I will leave it in now, however, as I am leaving the above unreferenced section in while I hunt down the guidelines. - 198.53.180.231 Feb. 12, 2006