Quote:
Originally Posted by rob love
If they can make a go on their own, good for them. But if they are dependent on taxpayers dollars, then I think those days may soon be over.
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Rob, the whole idea of public broadcasting is to be NON commercial. It's there to serve the public, not to return a profit. That's why it's OWNED by the public, so it can be FREE of vested commercial interests. How else can we get FREE and INDEPENDENT news and information? Without public broadcasters, the public has no voice. If we stop funding public broadcasters, we lose our voice and hand it to the likes of Murdoch. That's the end of democracy right there.
Wherever you sit on the political spectrum, you'll always find fault with public broadcasters, because it's their job to give EVERYONE a voice, particularly minorities who would otherwise have no voice whatsoever, let alone in their own language. Inevitably that puts them to the left of commercial media, whose job it is to appeal to the majority, because they're running a business.
Obviously I'm not familiar with CBC political coverage, but just like the ABC here they have to constantly strive for balanced reporting. As opposed to commercial media, which is free to represent the views of the owner, and do so vigorously, irrespective of public interest. Often when that happens we see the public broadcaster deliberately lean to the left, in an attempt to introduce some balance into public debate. Invariably they're accused of lefty influence, which is not actually the case when you look at the Board, although I agree they overstep the mark sometimes. Perhaps the Harper incidents you mention are examples of that. However, unlike commercial media, they're often seen to furiously backpedal in response to public criticism. At the end of the day they're accountable to the public, because that's who owns them.
I'm not familiar with Sun coverage either, but I agree wholeheartedly with Marc that Peladeau's entry into politics is an extremely sinister development, and you only have to look at Sarkozy to know that. You can't call it democracy when politicians control media. Nor is it democracy when media controls politicians, and there's no better example than Murdoch in the UK and Australia. He's decided nearly every election in my lifetime, and it's always about business, not politics. Over the decades he's thrown his papers behind Liberal, Labor, and Tory candidates, depending on who'll favour him more in office. He couldn't give a rats about the people or the country, he has no national allegiance whatsoever.
These media moguls have the power to subvert democracy in their own interests, and if they choose to exercise it, we as citizens have only one weapon against them, and that's public broadcasting. We don't have to watch it, but we sure as hell need it. As for the cost - a lot of people fought and died to preserve the democracy we enjoy today, so I figure the least we can do is fork out a few cents a week.