Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Get Peter Mansbridge a chair

A day ago, the national broadcaster of Canada, known as the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corp.) relaunched it's news and information channel formerly known as Newsworld. I like the new format and the graphics and of course the sets. The one thing I don't like on the set is the fact that during the afternoon news shift and the prime time nightly news program known as The National, there are no on set chairs. So, the anchor/presenter is standing along with the interviewee, if there is one. This can get tiring after a while. I witnessed this last night while I was watching Peter Mansbridge do a 1 hour show. About half way through, he started shifting his weight from left foot to right foot. No one is used to standing for that length of time to deliver the news. It's simply not done. He needs a chair. They all do. I know of at least one anchor that uses a chair and that is Mark Kelly. So why is Mark Kelly allowed to use the chair? The lack of chairs is the only thing I have found about the new format that I don't like.