Dangerous Spin, or Warble Me Another

I'M NOT GOING to miss Canadian Idol, because like most Torontonians, I didn't watch it. In fact, most viewers in Canada's urban centres tuned out long ago. American Idol has experienced a ratings softening, too, but the Canadian edition -- which was never as cruel or as in your face with mean Simon and crazy Paula -- had declined more.

So it's entirely proper to give the show a rest. If you skip a year or a couple, it's entirely possible that anticipation will build and the property can be brought back, same as has happened in a few other countries where the Idol formula has taken hold.

The problem I have with this is the torque that's being put on this announcement. CTV is driving, and the media is dutifully reporting -- that the reason why the show is coming back is because of the economy. So Canadian Idol gets folded into the narrative of why everything's so bad right now.

But that just doesn't track. The writing was on the wall for Idol before the Fall economic freefall. The numbers were what they were; the show's renewal was already very much in doubt. And then CTV debuted "So You Think You Can Dance Canada" -- seriously, guys, way to stretch the medium there. Maybe next you could license somebody else's Olympic cover...never mind.

The Dance Show was, in fact, a huge hit for CTV. A monster success. In the recession.

So that provided an easy final nail.

This propensity to spin everything as a result of the economy is something you're starting to see everywhere. It's disingenuous at best. CTV laid off 105 people at the former home of CHUM last month, and blamed the economy. But those job losses had long been planned as a result of reorganization in the wake of the CHUM sale.

At what point does the media, or the public, demand better accountability from these people? And not to pick on CTV, because they're certainly not the only ones doing this. It's a full blown trend. It seems like every business failure or layoff now is only happening because of the economic slowdown. Oh really? "Oh, it's 'cause of the economy!" cannot be the answer to every business decision you make these days whether it is actually recession-related or not. Never mind the fact that it takes a bad situation and makes it look worse. The number one thing that is going to get us out of this mess is a return of investor and consumer confidence.

Blaming something you were going to do anyway on the softening economy doesn't get us there. It's actually downright unpatriotic.

And yes, this is probably the most that I've ever thought about a reality tv show. So there.