Here’s why Pierre Poilievre is so afraid of the CBC

No wonder Pierre Poilievre wants to defund the CBC. The public broadcaster has barely shown him any deference.
Let’s start by noting that, contrary to the Conservative Leader’s claim, the CBC is not “the propaganda arm” of the Liberal government.” Overall, its reporting appears balanced. Now that doesn’t mean that the CBC treats climate denial as a legitimate point of view — rather than what it is: the rejection of well-established science.
Clearly, Poilievre would like the CBC to be more like the nation’s private media, particularly the Postmedia newspaper empire, which serves up lots of climate denial, along with other right-wing messaging and lots of favourable coverage of Poilievre.
Indeed, it’s hard to imagine that Poilievre would be so far ahead in the polls without Postmedia — the nation’s largest newspaper chain with 130 outlets across the country — helping him repackage himself as the workers’ friend.
Postmedia includes some of Canada’s most prominent newspapers, including the National Post, Vancouver Sun, Calgary Herald, Ottawa Citizen, etc. Yet it isn’t even Canadian-owned. Since 2016, its major shareholder has been Chatham Asset Management, a U.S. hedge fund based in New Jersey, with close ties to the Republican Party and Donald Trump.
(Trump associate David Pecker, the tabloid mogul who helped Trump arrange hush money payments for Stormy Daniels, sat on the Postmedia board from 2016 to 2018.)
Postmedia, which grew out of Conrad Black’s creation of the National Post in 1998, has always been right-wing. But under hedge fund control, it has moved farther right. It’s also been restructured, with the company loaded up with debt that must be repaid to the hedge fund.
Indeed, Postmedia has paid about $500 million in debt charges to Chatham (and other U.S hedge funds), according to Marc Edge, author of “The Postmedia Effect.” With such hefty debt payments to be paid off the top, Edge notes that Postmedia has little left for things like paying journalists, resulting in layoffs, diminished local coverage and a serious decline in the journalistic quality of its newspapers.
Readers were surprised to discover the front page of the venerable Halifax Chronicle-Herald, recently taken over by Postmedia, consisted of an Alberta government ad attacking Ottawa’s energy policy.
Postmedia has stayed afloat in recent years largely because it receives federal government subsidies, of about $30 million a year. This suggests Canadian taxpayer dollars, intended to support Canadian journalism, are being siphoned off to New Jersey for debt payments.
Given the dismal state of the private Canadian media and its domination by right-wing billionaires, we shouldn’t be so quick to toss out the CBC, with its mandate to serve the broader public interest.
The CBC grew out of Canadian anxiety in the 1920s that radio was dominated by big U.S. broadcasters whose stronger signals blocked out Canadian signals.
Canadians expressed opposition to this at public hearings held by a royal commission that travelled to 25 cities across Canada. The commission recommended the creation of a public broadcaster, with one commissioner explaining that if there was to be “broadcasting in the interests of the nation, it cannot be left to private enterprise.”
Even Conservative prime minister R.B. Bennett backed public ownership of the airwaves, telling Parliament in a powerful 1932 address: “I cannot think that any government would be warranted in leaving the air to private exploitation and not reserving it for development for the use of the people.”
Apparently, Bennett didn’t foresee the coming of Pierre Poilievre.
At its best, the CBC has produced excellent programming like its 17-episode TV documentary series “Canada: A People’s History,” which became the most watched documentary series in Canadian history.
Instead of properly funding the CBC, so it can produce more important documentaries, Poilievre wants to defund our public broadcaster, which would leave millions of Canadians relying mostly on a media conglomerate whose main focus is making payments to its demanding hedge fund owners in New Jersey.