Weekly Note to Supporters of the Citizens Centre
from Link Byfield
January 5, 2004
TITLE: How to turn the CBC into a public broadcaster
Like most people, I don't hate the CBC. I just don't watch it. And I resent paying for it.
It costs each taxpayer across the country $50 a year to keep Peter Mansbridge delivering his patronizing, left-liberal bromides each night, whether we want them or not.
According to a story in the National Post this week, the CBC has discovered through an internal study that a great many of us (it didn't disclose how many) find the public network stuffy, arrogant and biased.
CBC editor-in-chief Tony Burman rejoined that the public think all media are biased, not just the CBC.
The big difference, however, is that nobody is forced to pay for the bias of Global and CTV, just the CBC's.
Unfortunately, at this point the debate always slides into a stalemate between those who would give the network more money, so it can be more sanctimonious and CBCish than ever, and those who want it sold off.
We should find a more constructive solution.
Canada has no need for more private American entertainment programming and more cheap state-mandated Canadian equivalents. In news and current affairs, Canada's private broadcasters are even more lackluster and politically correct than the CBC. Private stations are driven by consumer advertising, and advertisers need programs that lull large audiences into an unthinking, almost comatose state of mind.
The question is whether there are legitimate national television needs apart from the consumer market.
I would say that in a country as fragmented as ours there plainly are. The hard part is figuring out how to fill them. The CBC certainly doesn't. It is merely the private communications network of our tax-funded governing class, of which the CBC itself is a charter member. As such it is not a "public" broadcaster at all.
If private broadcasters answer to the advertisers, to whom does the CBC account? Not to the state. It is (quite properly) protected from political interference. And not to the public, for we are forced to pay for it whether we watch it or not. The answer is, to nobody. It is a sealed corporate culture, self-selecting, self-perpetuating and self-serving.
As a result it is snotty, preachy, predictable, aloof and dull.
If the CBC is ever to become a "public" broadcaster it must become accountable in some way to the public.
Suppose, for a moment, that the national government shifted the CBC to a funding formula which was one-third public donations and only two-thirds tax-funding. A notice appears on tax forms explaining that for every dollar it gets in tax-deductible donations, the CBC gets two more from the government. And that's all it gets.
A formula of this sort, phased in over five or six years, would force the CBC to canvas high and low for public interest subjects and audiences--on the left, on the right, in the biggest cities and in the remotest regions.
For every David Suzuki yammering about "climate change" we'd get at least one Tim Ball refuting it. For every Naomi Klein calling us to the WTO barricades we'd get a Michael Walker calling us to our senses. We'd see Gwen Landolt or Ian Hunter get equal billing with Michelle Landsberg and Clayton Ruby. We'd see Ted Morton, Garry Breitkreuz, David Mainse, Brian Lee Crowley, Bill Gairdner, Walter Robinson and Tanis Fiss get fair and equal billing with CBC's nonstop parade of left-lib equivalents.
For this I'd willingly toss in about $100 a year, instead of $50 unwillingly. Add the matching government grant and it's $300.
If by appealing to individuals, churches, business and professional groups and nonprofit organizations, across the spectrum and across the country, they can build a strong national audience, well and good.
And if they can't, why are they there?
- Link Byfield
Link Byfield is chairman of the Citizens Centre for Freedom and Democracy contact@citizenscentre.com
Citizens Centre for Freedom and Democracy
Suite 203, 10441 - 178 Street
Edmonton, AB T5S 1R5
Phone: 780-481-7844
Toll Free: 1-866-666-6768
Fax: 780-481-9983
contact@citizenscentre.com
from Link Byfield
January 5, 2004
TITLE: How to turn the CBC into a public broadcaster
Like most people, I don't hate the CBC. I just don't watch it. And I resent paying for it.
It costs each taxpayer across the country $50 a year to keep Peter Mansbridge delivering his patronizing, left-liberal bromides each night, whether we want them or not.
According to a story in the National Post this week, the CBC has discovered through an internal study that a great many of us (it didn't disclose how many) find the public network stuffy, arrogant and biased.
CBC editor-in-chief Tony Burman rejoined that the public think all media are biased, not just the CBC.
The big difference, however, is that nobody is forced to pay for the bias of Global and CTV, just the CBC's.
Unfortunately, at this point the debate always slides into a stalemate between those who would give the network more money, so it can be more sanctimonious and CBCish than ever, and those who want it sold off.
We should find a more constructive solution.
Canada has no need for more private American entertainment programming and more cheap state-mandated Canadian equivalents. In news and current affairs, Canada's private broadcasters are even more lackluster and politically correct than the CBC. Private stations are driven by consumer advertising, and advertisers need programs that lull large audiences into an unthinking, almost comatose state of mind.
The question is whether there are legitimate national television needs apart from the consumer market.
I would say that in a country as fragmented as ours there plainly are. The hard part is figuring out how to fill them. The CBC certainly doesn't. It is merely the private communications network of our tax-funded governing class, of which the CBC itself is a charter member. As such it is not a "public" broadcaster at all.
If private broadcasters answer to the advertisers, to whom does the CBC account? Not to the state. It is (quite properly) protected from political interference. And not to the public, for we are forced to pay for it whether we watch it or not. The answer is, to nobody. It is a sealed corporate culture, self-selecting, self-perpetuating and self-serving.
As a result it is snotty, preachy, predictable, aloof and dull.
If the CBC is ever to become a "public" broadcaster it must become accountable in some way to the public.
Suppose, for a moment, that the national government shifted the CBC to a funding formula which was one-third public donations and only two-thirds tax-funding. A notice appears on tax forms explaining that for every dollar it gets in tax-deductible donations, the CBC gets two more from the government. And that's all it gets.
A formula of this sort, phased in over five or six years, would force the CBC to canvas high and low for public interest subjects and audiences--on the left, on the right, in the biggest cities and in the remotest regions.
For every David Suzuki yammering about "climate change" we'd get at least one Tim Ball refuting it. For every Naomi Klein calling us to the WTO barricades we'd get a Michael Walker calling us to our senses. We'd see Gwen Landolt or Ian Hunter get equal billing with Michelle Landsberg and Clayton Ruby. We'd see Ted Morton, Garry Breitkreuz, David Mainse, Brian Lee Crowley, Bill Gairdner, Walter Robinson and Tanis Fiss get fair and equal billing with CBC's nonstop parade of left-lib equivalents.
For this I'd willingly toss in about $100 a year, instead of $50 unwillingly. Add the matching government grant and it's $300.
If by appealing to individuals, churches, business and professional groups and nonprofit organizations, across the spectrum and across the country, they can build a strong national audience, well and good.
And if they can't, why are they there?
- Link Byfield
Link Byfield is chairman of the Citizens Centre for Freedom and Democracy contact@citizenscentre.com
Citizens Centre for Freedom and Democracy
Suite 203, 10441 - 178 Street
Edmonton, AB T5S 1R5
Phone: 780-481-7844
Toll Free: 1-866-666-6768
Fax: 780-481-9983
contact@citizenscentre.com