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counterSpin Takes a Turn at Banff
 Is
TV going down the Tubes?
Canada's only televised debate show, counterSpin, brings its Town
Hall style of spirited exchange to Banff to shoot a segment during
the Banff Television Festival 2001. Avi Lewis, the show's passionate
and knowledgeable host, will lead a round table of Banff participants,
including the peripatetic Norman Horowitz and members of the Sony
International Critic's Prize Panel: Peter Fiddick, editor of Television,
the Journal of the Royal Television Society, UK; Doug Anderson,
Sydney Morning Herald, Australia; David Bianculli, New York Daily
News, US; Louise Cousineau, La Presse, Canada; Russell Honeyman,
Africa Film and Television, Zimbabwe; Pascale Paoli-Lebailly, France;
and Jeroen Te Nuijl, Broadcast Magazine, The Netherlands.
The program will be taped Thursday, June 14 at 11:00 a.m. in The
Riverview Lounge in the Fairmont Banff Springs. Paul Jay, executive
producer, says there is room for about 100 audience members, who
will form "more than half of the show." To book your place,
call 403-522-2928.
Now in its third season on CBC Newsworld, counterSpin touches on
key political and cultural issues. Each broadcast begins with a
playful but provocative rant from Lewis, then launches into an often
vigorous discussion.
Says Jay: "The whole point of the show is to get past the
normal rhetoric of political and social debate. And in deciding
what we wanted to do in Banff, we've had a lot of internal debate
on our subject. We know there are high-level industry discussions
in Banff each year. But we have to find what's accessible for an
ordinary audience. What we really think is at issue has to do with
broadcasters and producers, the people who actually make television.
Our question will be: 'Is our only responsibility to entertain,
and by that I mean make money, or do we also have a responsibility
as citizens for the kind of television we produce.'"
Jay knows the subject will be thought-provoking. "It's easy
to say that private television is only about money, and public television
is for meaningful dialogue. Part of our debate will deal with that
idea. But that lets private broadcasters off the hook too easily.
We want to ask if the people who make television under the private
roof also have responsibility for the social consequences."
And while the subject is a serious one, Jay advises that "our
show is meant to be witty, too. Meaningful isn't boring!"
Jay has been with the program since the beginning, creating the
format after five successful years as producer of Face Off. Jay
says their relationship with the CBC is an unusual one, particularly
for a news and information program, in that counterSpin is an independent
production, not an in-house CBC show. Jay characterizes the relationship
as "very arms length. They give us a lot of room to do what
we do."
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