“END THE MADNESS. Recall the committee. Defund the CBC.” Credit where it’s due to Pierre Poilievre and the Conservatives for writing for radio, as I was taught at a CBC skills course many years ago: short and sharp, three beats, implied subject-verb-object.
The Tories are mad for this gimmick: axe the tax, build the homes, bring it home, fix the budget, stop the crime. It’s addictive and direct and Trumpy, apt to “win the vote” for them, and thus presenting, among other things, a direct existential threat to the CBC. It’s a threat that, starting this month, Catherine Tait, the outgoing president, CEO, and poster-person for bloated bureaucracy, gets to pass on to her successor, Marie-Philippe Bouchard, who hasn’t ticked off anyone significant—yet.
Polviere sees trump and thinks “I could do that too”. Step one: get rid of independent journalism, can’t have facts leak out to the public, now can we?
SOMEONE has been paying to blast every CBC YouTube video with a million bots for the last decade. Whadayawanna bet PP collects from the same people.
Jesus christ, I wish Pollievre would put down the fucking fascist playbook. Canada and the CBC are highly rated and respected for journalistic integrity in across respectable sources. And that’s the problem: fair and factual reporting threatens the lies constantly put forth by the CPC. But don’t worry, once he defunds the CBC, you’ll have no choice but to tune in to privately funded news sources, where “truth” is dictated by wealth before facts!
The fact that he’s been permitted to get away with lying constantly about the role of the CBC is a perhaps the biggest fucking insult I’ve had the displeasure of watching Canadians suffer.
Conservatives have been trumping up defunding the CBC at least as far back as Harper. It’s not exceptional that PP is doing the same. We need to push back hard if he gets a majority government against them following through with it. It’s what we had to do when Harper got a majority.
It’s an old Reform Party plank. Probably predates them, too. But it goes back at least to ol’ Preston Manning.
Removing the independent watchers is half their playbook – in addition to reducing tax for the rich, it’s all about removing guardrails on food safety, work safety, and now the guardrails on politics.
‘I wish this fascist was less fascist’ is a bizarre perspective.
Of course, PP wants to defund any media his backers can’t control.
Defund PP! We’re ready for it
I’m ready for life without PP’s WACKO ideas…
Can you imagine if they actually shut down CBC radio? Never mind how many people the the polls say are “opposed” to the idea. The real question is how many old people with a radio, who still tune in every day, even those who never think much about politics, would be instantly radicalized. We do not show up in measures of “digital reach.” Try it and the revolution could start sooner than you expect. It’s hard to believe that even Poilievre could be that politically suicidal.
I’m not even old and I listen to CBC radio daily.
It’s legitimately the best source of news around.
It doesn’t drone on like a 24 hour news cycle, the updates are time boxed so you get the most important facts first, and there are local stations across the country.
One way it could happen is the CPC limits CBC resources every year, forcing it to gradually degrade, & increasingly rely on advertisers. Then when the plug is finally pulled, it won’t seem so bad, because it’s so degraded anyway. A lot of damage could be done in the span of a few years.
I don’t want this to happen, but I think it’s what might happen.
Also, consider from the article:
The McGill study says only 40 percent of rural Canadians are satisfied with their local coverage
Don’t forget about all those who live in remote regions (NWT, Nunavut, and provincial northern areas) whose only source of radio comes from CBC.
PP can go fuck himself.
Basically all of Ontario north of Barrie and west of Ottawa would lose a significant spectrum of radio broadcast.
I don’t know for CBC, never watched it, but SRC in Québec is top notch, full of good series and documentaries. But yes editorial for news is woke, I don’t watch their news.
The CBC is utter garbage these days. Hearing their “journalists” blather is like listening to people failed out of the CIA’s propaganda training, can’t even hide their bullshit. I especially love it when they’re interviewing intelligent, thoughtful people and the interviewer starts arguing with them like a butt hurt 9 year old.
Your comment applies to this shameful cbc clip:
Today I got over my aversion to TV news bullshit and watched that clip. I thought was much better than anything you’d normally see in such a context. Meslin was effective in getting his point across, despite the ridiculous doofus he was talking to, who was made to look foolish to everyone who was paying attention at that moment.
The way they (all TV news) normally distort and misrepresent things is by not inviting such people to participate at all. Bravo to the CBC for doing slightly better than the usual standard on that occasion.
Note: the linked video was from 9 years ago
Take that info with what you will
It still applies today, PR gets a lot of bad faith opponents.
Okay I have one thing to say: What the actual fuck?
This is a very good example of what I’m talking about. Why’d Hanomansing even have him on? Might as well have done the whole demonstration himself instead of talking over him. Every time they have a guest on wants to replace the RCMP in any province with a provincial force, the hosts nearly have a melt down similar.
