George S. (or George Stroumboulopoulos in full) is the host of CBC The Hour, a show that I sometimes quite enjoy while I always find George insightful. A friend of mine currently living in Hong Kong is also a big fan of George. So I am having a great time reading this insightful Ryerson J-school article on George. [via inside CBC] Here are excerpts from the article “A Case for George” (emphasis mine),
George is just some guy who likes his music, sports and politics mixed together in one fast, long conversation. The Hour gives that guy the chance to speak with the newsmakers of the day and interpret the news his own way. Given the roasting George has received so far, it’s suprising to see that — every so often — he delivers an original kind of television product. What is a little more difficult to calculate is whether or not it’s news programming or infotainment. [...]
The show falters most when it stays focused, because that’s when it becomes predictably journalistic. George isn’t specialized — he’s not the sports guy when he talks to hockey players or the movie guy when he talks to actors. What saves the show on any given night is the fact that George isn’t a journalist, but a quirky — albeit thuggish — Everyman. [...]
George grilled Ignatieff [K: one time Liberal leadership candidate] long enough to make the interview worth watching. Weeks later, during one of The Hour’s silent commercial breaks, he reflects on the interview with bravado that might be attributed to the fawning questions of his audience. “Whenever a politician comes on I tell them, ‘You’ve come on here because you know we’ll be fair, but if you dodge my questions, if you make me look like a punk, I will fucking kill you.’”
The George you meet off-air isn’t much different from the one you see on TV: a friendly smartass with more confidence than he knows what to do with. His badass image is well advertised and encouraged by CBC. If it’s an act, it’s one he himself believes. While the image is laughable to his critics, it can also work to George’s advantage: no one expects him to be polite, so he can skip the subtler scalpels of interviewing and just start swinging the hatchet. [...]
The Hour is supposed to add a new dimension to the news. It rarely achieves this goal to much satisfaction, but there is the odd glimmer of its capabilities. The show needs time to mature — a luxury commercial networks wouldn’t have. But even if the public broadcaster nurses the show to adulthood, there’s no guarantee it would be worth it. If George continues to scratch at the surface of issues, he’ll end up on top of the stack of failed CBC experiments. But if he adds depth to his omnivorous approach to reporting on entertainment, culture and news, The Hour could work. George comes across as everyone’s regular guy, so the question is: When does a regular guy like George grow up? The Hour will only grow if he does.
Ryerson J-school does some good reporting and this piece on George is no exception. If you want to read more of their work, here is another interesting Ryerson piece about fashion reporting that I previously linked to.
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