A just-released poll says the CBC is not as popular with Canadians as it likes to think. A clear majority of young people would be happy to see it closed down..Its most loyal supporters, on the other hand, remember Justin Trudeau’s father as prime minister. And probably voted for him: The Spark Advocacy poll shows even today, people on the left like the CBC a lot more than people on the right. While that was a strongly held Conservative view, especially out West, the poll indicates a quarter of Liberal and NDP voters also felt the same way — even back east..Good to have that support perhaps, but it’s a shrinking demographic..Yes, it’s only a poll. But, the organization recently described by the prime minister as ‘independent media’ won’t find much consolation in its ratings: It’s not exactly Canada’s most watched channel, either..What’s an honest Canadian to make of this? What, indeed, should the CBC corner-suite be thinking?.First, the biggest surprise is not so many people thought the news was government propaganda, but somebody thought it was time to ask the question..Seriously: Would pollsters have even bothered to ask that 25 years ago? (Nobody did.) And if they had, would so many Canadians have withheld the benefit of the doubt from the CBC? (Probably not.).Something has definitely changed..Let’s acknowledge there are smart and fair-minded reporters on staff who do good journalism. Geese among the swans there may be, but generally speaking a reporter trained in the CBC will learn good technique and practice it..Let’s also acknowledge when the CBC was established nearly a hundred years ago (1936,) the population of Canada was about a quarter of what it is today (10.9 million) and distributed across the continent in the manner of salt lightly shaken over a steak. At a time when travel took days, not hours, and news spread like cold treacle rather than like greased lightning over the internet, there was an argument for having a national broadcaster that with hockey broadcasts in Toronto and regional weather forecasts could extend its unifying reach from the outports of Newfoundland to the coastal villages of Vancouver Island. It had its uses. If those things have changed, it’s not because of a bad management decision..So what’s CBC’s problem? Because obviously it’s got one..One, it's become a dull and preachy lot. Humour is a personal thing, but CBC comedy seems to be where humour goes to die. On the other hand, it’s always trying to teach you to be a better person: Casting is impeccable according to the dictates of equity, diversity and inclusion. And that goes for public affairs programs as well. One has only to spend half an hour on Fox News or even the ill-starred CNN, to appreciate the long road to equivalency the CBC has before it — should it ever decide to seek self-improvement..And by the way, why did CBC think it was its job to provide Canadians with a helpful list of words we shouldn’t say any more? Find that a little spooky? Well, that’s a word you shouldn’t even think, according to their higher minds..So it goes on. The Government of Canada could have had no more accommodating minion for its mixed COVID messaging than the relentlessly uncritical CBC. A conduit to the public, for information thought by the government to be necessary? Sure. An investigative journalism shop, probing behind the government’s messaging, asking whether lockdowns were worth the cost and just how effective were vaccines? Not so much..Preachy, predictable and distinctly un-fun..Some people like it that way, perhaps..However, here’s the big one: Having a news organization charged with straight reporting and investigative journalism paid for by a government is a moral hazard. Even if everything is above board — and there is no evidence weekly conference calls between the CBC’s programming department and the PMO ever do happen — it just plain looks bad. For one thing, no such conversations need take place. The rules are unwritten, but no less real for that. One doesn’t get to the top of organizations funded by government without knowing what’s expected..In a free society, there’s no room for government-funded media of any kind..If all the CBC did was broadcast hockey and the weather, it wouldn’t matter. However, it does so much more. And so, it does matter.
