Barbara Frum

Barbara Frum, OC, BA, LL.D (September 8, 1937 – March 26, 1992) was a journalist, acclaimed for her interviews for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Personal life

Born Barbara Rosberg in Niagara Falls, New York, Frum grew up across the river in Niagara Falls, Ontario. She studied history at the University of Toronto. She married Toronto dentist Murray Frum (1957) who later became a real estate developer. They had two children and adopted a third.

Career

After her graduation, Frum worked as a radio commentator and magazine writer. In 1971, and from 1974 with the great Alan Maitland, Barbara hosted CBC Radio's "As It Happens", a newsmagazine program which used the telephone to conduct live interviews with news makers, including the great and the good, whether premiers, actors, writers, scientists, or more affectionately, the man/woman in the street who were more likely found in a local pub. The question was whether the subject might educate and inform listeners of the day's events. In addition, she investigated the unusual and bizarre of human interest stories.

Frum's skills as a tough, incisive and well-informed journalistcite web
title = FRUM, BARBARA
first=Manon
last=Lamontagne
publisher = The Museum of Broadcast Communications
url = http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/F/htmlF/frumbarbara/frumbarbara.htm
accessdate = 2008-04-24] established "As it Happens" as one of CBC Radio's most authoritative current affairs programs, which she continued to host until 1981, and which continues broadcasting to this day, though with much more focus on entertainment at the expense of its old high journalistic standard which one now finds on such programmes as the BBC World Service's famed news programme [http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/programmes/world_today.shtml The World Today] .

Between October 1974 and July 1975, Barbara Frum hosted her own self-titled talk show.

Frum won the National Press Club of Canada Award for Outstanding Contribution to Canadian Journalism in 1975. She was named to the Order of Canada in 1979.

In 1981, CBC Television created " The Journal", a newsmagazine series which would follow "The National" each night at 10:22 p.m., and Frum and Mary Lou Finlay were hired as the show's hosts. On January 11, 1982, "The Journal" debuted as a showcase for features which delved more deeply into the day's news than the traditional newscast format of "The National".

The show included field reports, short documentaries, public forums, debates, business, sports, and arts and science news, but Frum's interviews were the show's centrepiece, and made it one of Canadian television's most popular programs. After the first year, Frum became the sole host of the program, although Finlay continued to be associated with the program as a reporter and documentarian. Frum interviewed many notable people, including British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher [cite video
title = Margaret Thatcher: Britain's Iron Lady
work = CBC Digital Archives
publisher = Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
airdate = 1983-09-27
url = http://archives.cbc.ca/dossier.asp?page=12&IDLan=1&s=entrevue
accessdate = 2008-04-24] and Nelson Mandela.

She angered many in 1989 when she refused to acknowledge that the École Polytechnique massacre by a killer who proclaimed as he shot and stabbed women, "I hate feminists!" was an attack on women and feminism. "Why do we diminish it by suggesting that it was an act against just one group?" Frum said Dec. 7, 1989 on "The Journal". [http://www.saskndp.com/cw/64.5/reframingviolencewomen.html] Such comments were typical of a brilliant woman who stretched her audience.

Frum was frequently parodied on "CODCO" by Greg Malone, whose portrayal involved the recurring catchphrase "But are you bitter?" Frum and Malone (in his Frum drag) presented a Gemini Award together. She was also parodied on "Sesame Park" (the Canadian version of "Sesame Street"), with a round, purple muppet named "Barbara Plum", host of "The Notebook". Additionally, in the Canadian animated series "The Raccoons", Frum portrayed a reporter, called "Barbara LaFrum" who interviewed Cyril Sneer after his pigs told her of his unsavory business practices.

Death

Frum died of leukemia on March 26, 1992. That evening, virtually the entire broadcasts of both "The National" and "The Journal" were a tribute to her and a retrospective of her career. Although some cultural commentators suggested the CBC use of an entire newscast to pay tribute to one of its own hosts was excessive, it was in fact one of the highest-rated individual programs in Canadian television history.Fact|date=October 2007 The tribute was one of CBC's rare display of human behaviour more normally found in the likes of the more confident, more independent, BBC.

Among the many tributes to her was an editorial cartoon depicting her at the gates of heaven with a reporter's notebook, insisting on interviewing God. Several other editorial cartoons simply depicted "The Journal"'s set with an empty anchor chair.

Legacy

Barbara's legacy was not to give the world a unique model of broadcasting. Clearly, in journalistic standards, the CBC's cousin, Britain's [BBC] , marched past the CBC even before Barbara or the CBC were born. Barbara's legacy was to stretch Canadians in a way the CBC was not otherwise comfortable doing. Unfortunately, this standard has been haphazardly followed for reasons known only to the CBC. Perhaps it is because parliament has long continued to reduce the CBC budget which starved the CBC of the finance to build confidence, high standards, and therefore the power to project an independent and authoritative voice, as can be seen in daily broadcasts of the BBC, where the British parliament has ensured the BBC is well financed whilst it has no effective power over the BBC. Ironic. But irony is a British sentiment. Canada, like America, has no such sentiment. Barbara would have been appalled.

Frum's three children were David, Linda and Matthew. Her son David was a presidential speech writer for George W. Bush and is currently a researcher with the American Enterprise Institute. Her daughter Linda is the author of a biography of her mother.

The [http://www3.cbc.ca/facilities/bfa.html atrium] in the Canadian Broadcasting Centre in Toronto was named in Frum's honour.

Shortly after her death, the North York Public Library branch (now Toronto Public Library) at 20 Covington Rd was named in honour of Barbara Frum for her accomplishments as a distinguished broadcaster and journalist.

References

External links

* [http://www.gg.ca/honours/search-recherche/honours-desc.asp?lang=e&TypeID=orc&id=576 Order of Canada Citation]
* [http://archives.cbc.ca/IDD-1-74-368/people/frum/ CBC Digital Archives - Barbara Frum: Pioneering Broadcaster]
* [http://www.avtrust.ca/mw/mw.php?display&en&84 AV Trust - As It Happens] AV Trust MasterWorks recipient 2005
* [http://www.nflibrary.ca/nfplindex/search.asp?search=1&db=5&idx=ti&query=barbara+frum Images from the Historic Niagara Digital Collections at Niagara Falls Ont. Public Library]