CBC Sell off?

The Martin government's right wing swing is still in full gear. During a commercial break during the CBC news debate program Counterspin, National Revenue Minister Stan Keyes' apparently announced a plan to sell off the CBC. He seems to feel CBC Television "has become a monster". This news tidbit courtesy of the NDP website.

As of the writing of this post, I haven't found any other news item confirming this account. But I think it is worth commenting on.

Like the BBC in the UK, it is very much in the public interest to have a public broadcaster not beholden to corporate interests. As many of us have seen in the flawed American corporate news reporting on the Iraq War, it is impossible to expect a fair account of what is going on by corporate owned media. In the Iraq War case it is not in their interest, because to undermine the Bush Administration would be to undermine the most pro-corporate president in the history of the United States. Don't bite the hand that feeds you, it would be a bad investment decision, especially after all the money donated by corporate interests to get Bush elected.

Now the CBC is an imperfect beast where its reliance on corporate money is concerned. CBC Television allows advertising in order to make up for poor government funding, so it is partially beholden to corporate interests. However, because the bulk of it's funding is still public, it does manage to do a fair job representing the public interest, particularly where news and investigative journalism is concerned. They certainly could do a far better job, and likely would if their funding was at a level where they could eliminate the need for advertising.

If the NDP story is accurate, then again we have a clear signal on the significant turn to the right that Paul Martin is bringing to the federal Liberal Party. Putting any trust in him to provide for the greater public good is gradually revealing itself to be a grave error.