The Globe and Mail did a follow-up news story covered the changes at CBC News, but I gotta say that most of the commentary has not been flattering towards the Corpse.

If anyone comes across some commentary that does have a kind word about it, please send me a link, either by email or comment.

Until that happy day, here's more round-up of reaction.

From the Oct. 31 Globe and Mail:

Regular CBC News viewers across the country could be forgiven for doing a double take this week when tuning into what used to be Newsworld, the all-news channel now restyled as the CBC News Network, or CBC NN. That name … Doesn't it strongly resemble that of a certain American cable news network?

And then there's the network's new look: busier, brighter sets festooned with huge TV monitors; a greater emphasis on star reporters; multiple, ever-changing camera angles; and news anchors talking directly to those monitors as they chat up reporters delivering their missives from the field.

CBC executives say the changes – part of a massive overhaul of news operations across the network's television, radio and online services – not only give the news more immediacy, but make the news-gathering process itself more transparent. “Transparency” is the new buzzword at CBC News.

To that end, the CBC is attempting, among other things, to break down the old familiar format in which a Walter Cronkite-like authority figure reads the news, while reporters discretely file segments from the field. On the CBC News Network, there's lots more conversational banter happening between anchors and reporters, part of an attempt to show viewers what reporters know – and what they're still trying to find out. As well, reporters are filing shorter, punchier news hits throughout the day, as stories develop.

The idea, say CBC executives, is to give the broadcasts the same feel as a news special or election coverage. Reporters injecting themselves into the reporting, and, for instance, referring to what politicians told them or what they learned, “is deliberate,” says Cynthia Kinch, director of CBC News Network. “This is far more news as it breaks, as it develops. And we move the story through in a conversational way, and pull the curtain back on the editorial process.”

Critics note that CNN pioneered just that kind of reporting years ago, its news team taking to the air whenever new details become available on a story. Ditto the practice of more onscreen graphics, and what appears to be a greater focus on younger prime-time anchors – in CBC News Network's case, the most prominent among them being Evan Solomon and Mark Kelley.

“Those of us who think public broadcasting has a role to provide something distinct from private broadcasting were just taken aback by this,” says Jeffrey Dvorkin, former managing editor of CBC Radio and one-time head of news at U.S. National Public Radio.

Richard Stursberg, executive vice-president of CBC English services, has long made it clear that he wants to reach the widest possible audience, even though, as some critics argue, that risks introducing a certain sameness between the CBC and private broadcasters.

“For the last four or five years, the news [industry] has gone through a convulsive change,” Stursberg says. When CBC polled Canadians about how they consume news, respondents said they expect to get headline news instantly, any time of day, Stursberg notes. Indeed, that's precisely what has led the CBC to make available an online 10-minute version of The National hours before the newscast hits TV screens.

Stursberg adds that the relaunch of CBC News had been in the works long before the industry faced a slump in advertising, and CBC instituted job cuts, earlier this year.

Jennifer McGuire, CBC News's general manager and editor in chief, said the use of interactive screens is designed to get the anchor closer to the news. She's very annoyed by the focus on the standing anchor.

One of those having some fun with it is the Globe and Mail's Tabatha Southey:

Would someone please get Peter Mansbridge a chair? CBC news has been changing things on The National this week and someone's taken away Peter Mansbridge's chair and now Peter just stands there telling everyone the news.

He's making me nervous. How can I relax with Peter Mansbridge standing there?

I keep expecting Peter to say, "Hello, I'm Peter Mansbridge and, oh no, no, no, I'm not staying."

Southey suggested the interview with retired Gen. Rick Hillier made it look like Mansbridge and his subject were standing at a deep space bar.

She also had a bit of snark about some other pillars of the redesign:

Why are we this averse to gravitas? The new National is loaded with Daily Show-esque stories, banter and street interviews. Sure, it's bouncy. But why, in the world of 24-hour news, does every show have to be a morning show?

The news is currently marketed to us extremely aggressively (it's the "information" needed to "empower" us so that we succeed over others) yet with an almost saccharin presumption of intimacy about our supposed personal needs and desires. It's as if the news were a brand of magic yogurt.

CBC news assures us that with "customizable" news we'll be told "only what matters" to us.

To me? Really? Yes. Ideally one day I'll be able turn on the TV and have Peter tell me, "Nonie and Sandy have your electric sander. Goodnight and thanks for watching." Or perhaps I'll have this information shouted at me by a bike courier as he hurls past.

Globe and Mail TV critic John Doyle was pretty snide about the razzle-dazzle stuff -- and touched on the bar aspect in a Tuesday column:

... the Pastor went behind the counter of the bar that is now the National set. He played bartender. Among those playing customers were Amanda Lang and former chief of the defence staff, retired general Rick Hillier. Nobody got a drink. The beer taps and liquor bottles were missing. Hillier looked like he could use a beverage. Me too. Watching all that standing up made me tired.

Am I wrong here? Is there not something farcical and fatuous about the standing up, the orange screens and the belief that this is, somehow, a better way to deliver the news? I'm asking you.

Doyle's readership didn't let him down.

Following his first look at the new show, Toronto Star entertainment writer Greg Quill wrote:

... While it's too early to judge whether the program is short-changing us with news of substance, the lingering impression is one of compression and pace at all costs.