By Stephen Vance, Editor
Established in 1936, The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is Canada’s internationally respected public broadcaster, however it has also become a popular modern-day punching bag for many.
That the CBC has become a punching bag is unfortunate given the quality journalism and programming provided by the crown corporation on radio, television, and the internet.
I felt compelled to write about the much loved, and much hated, CBC after overhearing a fellow journalist spewing what have become modern talking points for CBC haters.
It’s not the first time I’ve heard criticism of the CBC, and I find it interesting that many people with whom I’ve debated the merits of the publicly funded broadcaster simply don’t watch, listen to, or read the CBC news and documentary programming. They have no idea of the programming on CBC’s Radio-Canada because they’ve never tuned in, yet they certainly have an opinion about the CBC.
So let’s address some of the criticism.
The CBC is a big waste of my tax dollars. The $1.1 billion that the CBC receives in government funding is astronomical and unfair to Canadian taxpayers.
Yes, $1.1 billion is a lot of money. But those that throw that big number at CBC defenders rarely take the time to do some simple math.
Canada’s population is roughly 35 million people. The $1.1 billion provided from government coffers to the CBC represents a measly $31 per year for every man, woman, and child in the country. So an average household of four is subsidizing the CBC to the tune of $125 per year. $125 doesn’t buy much for a family, but it certainly buys access to quality broadcasting and news reporting for everyone in our country no matter how remote their location.
Additionally, as was pointed out in December by one of CBC’s vice-presidents, William Chambers, those ‘private’ broadcasters that CBC haters hold in such high regard receive annual government funding to the tune of roughly a billion dollars.
“What we call ‘private’ Canadian broadcasters collectively receive direct and indirect benefits and subsidies from the taxpayer amounting to about $1 billion annually. And why do they receive Government assistance? Because, while private broadcasters make money airing American television, there is no viable commercial model to consistently make Canadian programs available to all Canadians at a profit,” wrote Chambers in response to a recent opinion piece in the Ottawa Citizen.
So our ‘private’ broadcasters also dip into the government till, but are not seen by the CBC haters as suckling from the government teat because, after all, they are ‘private’.
But where do ‘private’ broadcasters get the rest of their money? From the same pockets as does the CBC – from all of us. Sure, it is advertisers who fund CTV, Global and so on, but the money still comes from all of us because we buy the products that are advertised.
Okay but, the CBC is incredibly biased.
I’ve heard this a lot as well, and I have searched high and low to find the ‘bias’ that CBC haters – particularly those of the right-wing political persuasion – claim is present, but I haven’t been able to find that corporate-wide bias.
If anything, the CBC is painfully centrist in its reporting, though I was able to come up with a couple of CBC personalities with a definite right-wing bias – Rex Murphy and Don Cherry. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, and certainly some CBC personalities exhibit left-leaning tendencies, but I haven’t found an institutional bias with the CBC at all. And even if some show hosts or pundits on CBC radio and television have an individual political bias, there is value in hearing the views of those that might not align with our own.
The right complains that the CBC has a liberal bias. How could that be possible given that the Conservatives have held court on Parliament Hill for nearly a decade?
The CBC is wasteful. They show up with an overly large crew to report on stories.
Uh-hunh. And that’s a problem because?
Is it a problem because too many journalists are gainfully employed, and pay their taxes so that part of their taxes can help support their ‘private’ counterparts?
Is it a problem because the CBC arguably provides Canadians with top-notch, world class reporting?
Is it a problem because as a result Canadians are very well informed, and frequently boast (or perhaps gloat) about how knowledgeable we Canadians are about the world around us as compared to our American friends, who are commonly characterized as painfully ignorant about anything beyond U.S. borders?
You don’t have to love the CBC. You don’t even have to like the CBC. And while constructive criticism and debate is always healthy, it is much healthier without the inaccurate talking points commonly put forward by the haters.
