Like most social/fiscal conservatives, I find the continuing tax-funded support of the CBC to be a grave insult to the simple cause of basic political freedoms. This largely stems from the innate political biases that pervade our “national broadcaster.”
Part of the bias issue is that it has become so deeply ingrained to CBC corporate culture, that it’s completely invisible to both those who work within the CBC and those who advocate our continued funding via confiscatory taxation.
The left-wing bias of the CBC has once again been pushed into the mainstream by the CBC’s own actions and once again, CBC supporters are attempting to paint conservative anger at the issue as somehow wrongheaded to the point of being “un-Canadian.”
Let’s look at the facts, though.
Only days after going public with his advice to the Libranos that they should engage in a “culture war” if they want to win more seats in the next election, pollster Frank Graves appeared on the CBC program Power & Politics to discuss issues of the day, opposite former Stephen Harper staffer Kory Teneycke.
At the onset, Graves was introduced as the president of EKOS Research, a public opinion polling firm, while Teneycke was pointedly referred to as a former staff member of Conservative PM Harper. Glaringly left out were Graves’ very strong ties to the federal Liberals.
This created the impression of bias on one side of the discussion, versus a more neutral viewpoint on the other, which was entirely false as Graves has been a fairly substantial contributor to the Liberal party, as well as an adviser. Conservatives were rightly angered and Graves was forced to acknowledge his Liberal affiliations.
This is common on CBC discussion shows.
Any guest who is from the conservative side of the divide will be identified as such. A common example is the Fraser Institute, which will invariably be described as the “right-wing” Fraser Institute, and sometimes even the “arch-conservative” Fraser Institute.
Meanwhile, the Pembina Institute, the Polaris Institute and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives are never described on the CBC as “left-wing” or “socialist” think tanks.
Again, this creates an impression of non-bias where there is assuredly a well-defined partisan position. All three of these organizations are active on the far left of the Canadian political spectrum.
By the same token, none of the CBC hosts who will openly describe Stephen Harper as a “neo-conservative” (which is a stretch) would never think of calling Jack Layton a “Marxist” (which he is).
As if to further drive home the point that the CBC remains wilfully ignorant of its own innate biases, the videotape on the Frank Graves controversy was barely cold when the CBC managed to re-open the debate.
Just a few days ago, the CBC, in conjunction with EKOS, conducted a poll based upon what it claimed was suggested by an ordinary viewer.
The truth of the matter was that the “ordinary viewer” was considerably less than ordinary, and there is no reasonable way to believe that the network didn’t know.
The supposedly ordinary CBC viewer is a two-time federal Liberal candidate, vice-president of the National Women’s Liberal Commission, and who is also very active in a radical anti-Harper group. (That would be one of the brigades in Graves’ “culture war.”)
It’s simply not feasible to think that Graves and the CBC could be unaware of all this.
More pointedly, the poll in question was of a fairly definitive political nature and bias.
Some will claim that the bias in the CBC is of no importance. After all, there is a fairly pro-Liberal faction over at CTV.
Of course some will mention the supposedly conservative bias over at Fox News in the U.S., as though that were germane to the discussion.
The problem here is that I can switch off the CTV and deny them advertising dollars. By law, I’m denied the privilege of watching Fox News, and by similar law I’m obligated to fund a CBC that is increasingly blind to its own parroting of an ideology that is increasingly hostile to mainstream Canadian values.
Simply put, if the CBC wants Canadian conservatives to continue to pay its bills, maybe it should simply quit insulting them.
Bill Greenwood is a local freelance columnist.