CBC: Death by 1,500 Cuts

The news about the harsh cuts of up to 1,500 jobs with the CBC doesn’t really come as a shock to me.  The Conservatives and those who hate any sense of equality or opportunity have hated this public institution and have never really made much of a secret of this.

That said, Canadians have a choice to make:  we can accept the slow and deliberate destruction of Canada’s public broadcaster; we can run Hubert Lacroix out of town; or … we can try to organize something a little more effective than just rebroadcasting sports and narrating PR stories from Canadian Press.

I choose the latter.

Let’s face it:  the CBC has always been OK for many, but never great for all.  I can’t stand two-thirds of their radio shows, I’ve never been much of a fan of their TV programming and I really only tune in to the radio to hear what’s up in the world of PR and mass-media manipulation from the PMO.

The cuts are much bigger than any of us seem willing to admit.  However, we must finally experience the inevitable elimination of something that was never really set up properly in the first place.

We need to collectively begin to understand that our future as a nation relies on having an effective tool for sharing our thoughts and ideas.

See, when it comes to public broadcasting and media, there are four options:

1. Do nothing – be brainwashed by private media and see what happens to the future of humanity
2. Create content – the failed model of the ‘old’ CBC
3. Enable content – possibly the intended model of the ‘new’ CBC
4. Distribute content – shift its mandate so that it helps all Canadians access and distribute content

I believe that the CBC’s future should be as a distributor of content.

I’d like you to join along in this new chorus.  Canadians should demand a platform of internet services that would rival the monopolies in this country.

We need to finally understand that a government-run business should NOT be in the content creation business.

Instead, the CBC needs to act as a public utility delivering internet services that would acknowledge digital access as a right and not a yoke.

The time has come.