CBC: Not the public’s broadcaster

With the CBC’s TV ratings down 40% to a specialty channel-like 5% share of viewers even before it lost its NHL contract, according to Canadian Media Research, it’s worth asking again what has gone wrong with the Mother Corp and what should be done about it? The answer to the first question is that it no longer represents ordinary Canadians to themselves in a way they like or even recognize. So when its funding comes under scrutiny, it is not surprising that most Canadians collectively yawn while watching any of the myriad other channels available to them on various media platforms.

Someone recently observed that the CBC is not about Canadian programming but programming Canadians to its enlightened view of how the world should work. Look at the litany of in-house CBC stars and ask if any are representative of ordinary Canadians and their values? Carol Off lets As It Happens serve as a platform for endless cries for social justice here and around the world. Recent events revealed the sulphurous Jian Ghomeshi as a sexual wolf dressed in progressive clothing (his photo still graces Q’s Podcast, a thoughtless oversight by the CBC bureaucracy). Peter Mansbridge championed Naomi Klein’s latest rants about the evils of capitalism as the book of the year; try and imagine the host of CTV News taking such a position. Michael Enright on Sunday Morning took a break from advocating tax increases to question why no bankers had been jailed after the financial crisis. The answer is easy — here they did nothing but manage their affairs in a quintessentially prudent Canadian manner...