A Book about the CBC; any Blogging Tories care to contribute?

A wise man once said "I get by with a little help from my friends" and as I embark on my journey writing a book about the CBC, I would like to know if any Blogging Tories would like to make a literary contribution? The objective of the book is to examine the CBC's parliamentary appropriations, revenues, ratings, and expenditures in order to determine what exactly our billions of tax dollars have been paying for.  I am starting to like the title "where have all our loonies gone?" (originally a play on where have all the cowboys gone) as loonie in this case has a double entendre as dollars spent and an accumulation of lunatics.

As I have been writing about my plans, I have received some messages from other bloggers asking if they can help. I have been thinking about it, and I would like to extend an offer; if any of my fellow bloggers would like to contribute a chapter to my book, I will put your name on the cover and agree to sign over a percentage of revenues on sales. If the book is 300 pages and you chip in 15 pages, you would be entitled to 5% of whatever share is allocated to the author(s).  The more site hosts who have a monetary stake, the more avenues there are for promotion.  Don't call me Joe the Plumber, because I'd like to spread the wealth!

For example, I would like to dedicate a chapter to Harvey Cashore and his "Gulliver's expense reports", but I am not an expert on his crusade against Brian Mulroney. Is there anybody out there who would like to chip in a few thousand words on the Mulroney-Schreiber affair or any other abuse of CBC funding or influence? How much did that entire escapade cost Canadian tax payers? If any Blogging Tories have an existing catalogue on CBC spending and bias and would like to parlay that with new material into co-writing a book about the CBC, please send your ideas to icemanthe96@yahoo.ca.

I have not yet started looking for a book deal and don't know where to start. Since I have yet to write a book, I imagine that I will have to write most of the content before I can consider finding a publisher. I already have a catalogue of material, but the meat and potatoes of my new content will depend on what I can acquire in my Access to Information request, which has been completed and will be sent in the mail shortly. To complete your own access to information request, visit this site, fill out the form, and send your request (along with $5) to :

Canadian Broadcast Corporation
Meg Angevine
Access to Information and Privacy Coordinator
181 Queen St
P.O Box 3220 Station C
Ottawa, ON, K1Y 1E4

For interests sake, here is a copy of the memo I sent along with my request.  I am planning on sending a carbon copy of my request to Stockwell Day at the Treasury Board as a hedge.

I am a private citizen and I would like to request more information about the CBC’s parliamentary appropriations, how those monies were spent, in addition to as much information as exists on ratings, revenue, and expenditures as reported by all divisions of the Corporation. I currently have the 2005 Auditor General’s Report as my base of reference. I was formerly a Registration Officer with Elections Canada. Here is a more detailed description of the information I am seeking.

1) I would like to request information on all parliamentary appropriations received by the CBC, and where those funds were distributed among the various divisions of the Corporation. The CRTC license for the CBC specialty channels states that:

24. From the time they were issued, RDI and Newsworld’s respective licenses have included conditions requiring the licensees to maintain separate accounts from the CBC's television networks. The licensees file an annual statement of accounts relating to their specific revenues and expenditures.

25. The purpose of these conditions of license is to ensure that specialty services funded largely through subscriber fees, are not underwritten by the CBC’s parliamentary grants; tax dollars intended to fund the over-the-air radio and television services. This rationale is still valid and the Commission has re-imposed these conditions.

2) I would like to request the annual statements of accounts dating back to 2005, including the annual revenue generated by Newsworld and the main channels, and the total sum of expenditures incurred by those entities.


3) What revenue is generated from each CBC franchise? I would be interested to review expense reports and operational decisions made between Newsworld and the main channels. How much does it cost to produce Power and Politics, what are their television ratings, and how much revenue does that franchise generate?


4) On the issue of television ratings, my programs of interest include: Politics with Don Newman, Power and Politics with Evan Soloman, The Mercer Report, This Hour Has 22 Minutes, Royal Canadian Air Farce, Hockey Night in Canada, and the National.

On page 23 of the 2005 Auditor General’s Report, there is a mandated list of six performance indicators that the CBC are required to track in order to maintain quality of service. These include:

1) Weekly Reach, number of people who use each service each week
2) Weekly Share, percentage of all viewing time captured by each service
3) Essential Service, the percentage of adult Canadians who agree that it is essential that the service provided by the Corporation is available to Canadians
4) Satisfaction, the percentage of adult Canadians who agree that they are satisfied with the programming.

5) I would like to request any and all information regarding these performance statistics dating back to 2005. I would like to see ratings information for all Newsworld programming to measure against revenue and cost information.


6) What information has the CBC accumulated about who is watching, are they satisfied, and how many rate the service provided as an essential service?