Harper Brings CBC to Heel - 2015-04-20
Harper Brings CBC to Heel April 20, 2015,
Unlike private broadcasting, which essentially sells eyeballs to advertisers -- and the more eyeballs the better -- public broadcasting should venture where private broadcasters are reluctant to tread, out of fear of offending. Hence, private broadcasters will more often go along to get along, producing if-it-bleeds-it-leads newscasts and primetime schedules of Procter & Gamble-approved programming.
As for "state-owned" broadcasters, at worst they conjure up images of dictators hijacking the airwaves to deliver lengthy self-aggrandizing speeches and, at best, they simply never present any programming that may rile the powers that be, be that government, military or corporate.
It would appear that Stephen Harper's government not only sees the CBC as "state-owned," it is also attempting to make it "state-controlled," bringing it to heel by stacking the board with Conservative bagmen who would never bite the hand that appointed them as well as by squeezing it by the budgetary throat.