Mother Corp Makes the Case for Her Own Extinction
It's Time to Defund the CBC
Sometimes, it's hard to let go of a national icon.
All countries confront this problem, in one way, shape, or form, eventually. And now, in 2019, Canada comes face-to-face with a reality it has long dreaded. We no longer need the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
National broadcasting is a relic of the early days of mass communication, when, in the wake of one great conflict, and on the verge of another, mobilizing national opinion had a distinctly military goal. Radio and later, television transmission was an expensive prospect, requiring the sort of outlay only governments, or extremely rich corporations could afford.
In a country such as Canada, thinly populated, and vast beyond imagining, the CBC was a necessity. Remote communities depended on it for contact with the outside world. It relayed culture of relevance to ordinary people in our far-flung lands. Hockey Night in Canada. Tommy Hunter. Wayne and Shuster.
The CBC did not preach to the choir so much as reflect it's assembled voices. And for many years, it did a damned good job at exactly that.
News item, 2019: In the middle of a hotly contested federal election, in which the CBC has been frequently accused of blatant support for the incumbent, and troubled Liberals of Justin Trudeau, the CBC has decided the time is right to sue the Official Opposition.
You heard that right. Because the Conservative party used 17 seconds of news clips detrimental to Justin Trudeau on their websites, which they took down when asked to by the CBC, Mother Corp is proposing to use taxpayer dollars to sue Canadians for using the products of a taxpayer subsidized service.
Never mind that Elections Canada has already warned broadcasters that their product is fair game at election time. Never mind that Canadians, including members of the Conservative party, bought this content with the proceeds of 1.5 billion in taxpayer dollars. No, the CBC is outraged, and so she must be avenged.
How may I say this, as a taxpayer, politely? I suppose there really is no way. So here I go: Fuck off, CBC.
I, as a taxpayer, have truly had enough. While you decide to sue the only real alternative to our present bumbling government, your journalistic "holding to account" of the liberals seems to consist of sycophants gulping Trudeau's offers of poutine, when they aren't writing his flattering biography.
And what voices can be heard in response to this? Effectively, none. Visit the CBC website these days, and you'll see a steady drumbeat of woke, social justice content. LGBTQ, Aboriginal, "Racialized," with a healthy dollop of climate hysteria. Got comments to make? Not a chance, redneck. You can't be trusted, haters. You're paying for it, but really, at the CBC, we don't want to hear it. Virtually nothing is open to public response or input now. This is a public broadcaster?
Pardon me if I can't find my wallet the next time you come groveling for more money. I think I've had enough, quite frankly.
It's not that I don't think that the people CBC continuously agitates for don't deserve a voice; no, it's that I don't think mine should be drowned out to accommodate them. You're a "national" broadcaster, right? And I have a "Canadian" passport, right? So what happened to Hockey Night in Canada? What happened to comedies that made me laugh? What happened to a perspective beyond the 905? What am I paying for?
And why, in this day and age of satellites and broadband, do we need a national broadcaster? The North can be quite adequately serviced without the CBC these days, in technical terms, and since your content doesn't reflect what southern Canadians want, I doubt that it meets northerner's needs much better.
In short, you've shown yourselves more interested in furthering the views of a certain segment of Canadian society than you have with reflecting the whole. You've bent over backwards to deny me a voice, so why should I subsidize your voice? Basically, I've done a cost/benefit analysis, and you're way more of a cost than you are a benefit, Mother Corp.
Nice knowing you. Do-doo-doo-doo-do-doo-doo-do.
About the Creator
Grant Patterson
Grant is a retired law enforcement officer and native of Vancouver, BC. He has also lived in Brazil. He has written fifteen books.
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