Sunday, January 31, 2010

Watching the CBC so you don't have to!

I have long mused that one of my lots in life is watching the CBC so you don't have to. That billion dollar baby of tax payer’s money that you might not watch, but you bloody well pay for! During a time of economic hardship and budgetary deficits in both private homes and public governments, we need to start discussing ways to trim the fat from an aged bureaucracy that will often promote its own self-interest above the public good. Let me look into Terry Milewski's expense account before we start talking about raising the sales taxes. Can somebody tell me how to do a freedom of information act request for CBC financial records?

The CBC costs 3 times more than it makes, and it relies on a billion dollars in parliamentary appropriations to cover the shortfall. The longer that we have lived in Conservative minority governments, the more the CBC has shifted its narrative to partisan cheerleading for the political party most generous with "parliamentary appropriations." It has progressively degenerated into a group of bureaucrats lobbying for the party that pays them the most money with the least amount of oversight. As the wise philosopher Biggie Smalls used to say "shoot first, ask questions last; that's how most of these so called gangsta's pass!"

In 2000 the Auditor General report on the CBC demanded greater accountability on cost oversight. The Heritage Minister agreed, and nobody did anything about it. The Auditor General reported again in 2005; "The Corporation itself has little control over its accountability structure. We therefore brought this issue to the attention of the Minister of Canadian Heritage after completing our special examination report in 2000. The recent review of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage recognized the need to ensure the clarity of the mandates of the agencies and the programs that support Canadian broadcasting. The response of the Minister of Canadian Heritage agreed with the report of the Standing Committee on this matter. To date, no change has been made to the current accountability structure."

Cost accountability at the CBC was not a priority for past Liberal governments, so is it any wonder that the content has shifted to promoting the people in charge during the good ole days of no cost oversight? The decision to put a partisan amateur like Evan Soloman in Don Newman's old chair was a clear signal of the "strategic direction" of the Board of Directors. One of my New Year's resolutions was to get E-Solo fired. What better way than to write a book about the CBC content and finances? Whether I can get a book deal, or have to write it and publish it myself, this is it. I would like to take suggestions for a few webpolls I'd like to run this week.

Best Book Title: Thus far I have: Watching the CBC so you don't have to. Dude, where's my billion dollars? My journey to the dark side. Soloman's Bane. Auditting the CBC, where have all our loonies gone? etc

Best Chapter Title: I am fishing for ideas for specific subjects and events that I should be investigating. Perhaps Heather Mallick and the siren songs? Protest-gate 2010, a love story. Harvey Cashore, the expense account from Gulliver's Travels. Mercer and Rae, a love story. Losing the HNC theme song. Seducing Don Martin. etc

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single webpoll...

What should be the subject of the Iceman's first book?

The CBC (66%)
Environmental Marxism (30%)
Ignatieff (3%)

P.S: for those who would like me to write a book about Ignatieff or environmental Marxism, don't worry, both will be re-occurring themes in my book about the CBC agenda.  And I plan to design the book in a similar format to Glenn Beck's Arguing with Idiots, with pop up type ad ins, including various reader comments on specific issues.

8 comments:

  1. The CBC is due to a new audit in 2010. Do you think turning up the dial on the partisan-meter was an attempt to assist Iggy in his desire to overthrow the government last September in order to have the Liberals in power when the CBC is audited?

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  2. I would like to eventually do a book about Ignatieff, but I need to wait until he is overthrown by Bob Rae. Then I can do a whole narrative tying in the fall of Iggy to the fall of the Czar's regime in Russia at the hands of the Bolshevicks. Then I can compare Rae to the original communist revolutionaries and compare Iggy's incompetence to that of his bureaucratic czarist ancestors.

    I have to wait for that one, but I already have about 40,000 words or more words on the subject.

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  3. Here's my thoughts on what should be done to the CBC.

    Keep the northern TV and radio stations, in Yukon, NWT, Nunavut, Nunavik, and Labrador, which naturally run at a loss. Run local news and programming, and purchase national and international news from CTV and/or Global. I've lived in Labrador, and CBC is the only over-the-air radio and TV station in the rural parts, so I would like to see them run more localized content in music, education, and cultural programming.

    Sell Newsworld, and mandate the CRTC to allow Global to set up a Canadian version of FoxNews, as the CRTC has not allowed in the past. That way there would be two Canadian news channels, CTV & GlobalFox.

    That would basically save a 800 Million in funding. To keep the arts crowd happy through a $100 Million toward the Canadian Television & Film Fund, so there is access for competitive Canadian programing.

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  4. i will buy everyone of those books Iceman.... get writing. Canadians deserve better than to have our taxes wasted on the failure that is CBC.

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  5. It would be interesting to form a Facebook group denouncing the CBC, and end it with a march on their offices, complete with dozens of identical "grass-roots" pickets printed by Staples Business Depot and handed out to passerby's. I wonder if they would carry such a nugget on their news?

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  6. This looks like a shoo in for a Pulitzer prize Iceman! Margaret Atwood and Mallick have nuthin' on you.

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  7. Iceman - my hat's off to you. You must be a cool headed guy (wish you had not blown your top at Raging Tory though) to watch CBC without letting your blood boil to the point of bursting a blood vessel.
    Set the ball rolling, ask for the expenditures of each and every individual. That should be our right as taxpayers and they are answerable to us.
    Ask about the documentaries they show, all the ones that speak only to the Left, ask how much those cost. Ask away, ask away.
    I for one cannot stomach CBC or CTV for more than a few minutes and sometimes I keep my finger on the remote, ready and set to change channels at a moment's notice when I see them getting ready to say something so banal and stupid that it defies everything a human being stands for.

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  8. I remember when the CBC sent Milewski to Copenhagen and he got to ask Prime Minister Harper a question. Instead of asking a single question, he made a 5 minute political speech in which he asked about 8 different questions. It was an embarrassing moment as a Canadian, but I was proud at how marvelously the Prime Minister responded to the speech.

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