CBC gets kid-glove treatment

CBC gets kid-glove treatment
State broadcasting corporation doesn't want same scrutiny it dishes out

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is used to criticizing others — often, quite viciously. But it sure doesn't react well when it is the mega-corporation being scrutinized.

Last week their president, Hubert Lacroix, lashed out at critics who are asking basic accountability questions about the CBC.

To Lacroix, having to answer for the CBC's mismanagement, luxurious perks and wasteful spending isn't acceptable. In a new conspiracy theory he shared with a friendly reporter, Lacroix says questions about CBC's secrecy and lack of accountability are just attempts to "weaken" the CBC. He says it's a scheme cooked up by his competitors — and he mentions the Sun specifically.

Is Lacroix really saying that being corrupt and wasteful is a sign of strength? That if the CBC isn't allowed to hide, say, its liquor budget and its limousine budget, it won't be a strong broadcaster?

The CBC likes to ask questions about other corporations. But they don't want the same scrutiny for their own corporate mismanagement.

The CBC likes to file access to information requests against the government and they complain if their responses are slow or incomplete.

But the CBC itself is also subject to access to information laws — and according to Canada's non-partisan information commissioner, Suzanne Legault, the CBC gets a score of F for compliance.

Apparently she is part of the plot to weaken the CBC.

Lacroix disrespects the idea of openness. He also disrespects the law — he has refused to comply with court rulings demanding he turn over his expenses. He's spending millions of dollars fighting accountability.

Stories of CBC wastefulness aren't new. But what's new is how the CBC is fighting back.

Lacroix is pulling in favours from media outlets that depend on the CBC for money. He's getting other media to shill for him — other companies who take money from him.

Lacroix spoke to Jennifer Ditchburn of the Canadian Press (CP) — she's the one who lovingly reported Lacroix's conspiracy theory last week.

Why would CP — an independent, private news agency — give such a friendly forum to the CBC, their government-owned competitor?

Well, the CBC is also the Canadian Press's biggest customer. CP sells its stories to newspapers across the country. The CBC buys millions of dollars worth from CP.

Would it would be financially dangerous for CP to ask tough questions of

their best customer?

And even Ditchburn herself arguably has a conflict of interest. Nominally, she works for CP. But the CBC regularly pays her to come on their TV panels. Not only does that supplement her CP income, it gives her a bigger media profile too.

Put aside money; even for social reasons, she would never be tough on her TV colleagues.

Do you really think she could ever ask tough questions about CBC's spending – when she herself is a beneficiary of CBC spending?

Same thing with the Toronto Star, same thing with the Globe and Mail — both are co-owners of Canadian Press. So they get a lot of the CBC's

$1.1 billion in tax dollars. It makes them pull their punches.

Even the conservative-leaning National Post has been bought off. In 2009, the CBC signed a big commercial agreement with the National Post to share editorial content — and even to sell ads into each other.

And even Canada's largest private broadcaster, who you'd think would be a critic of the CBC, has been co-opted, too. CTV has now teamed up with CBC to make a joint broadcasting bid for the 2014 and 2016 Olympics.

Well, the Sun hasn't been bought off. We ask questions about the CBC's mismanagement of tax money.

Not for malicious reasons. We ask because it's our right as taxpayers to ask. And anyone who would tell us to shut up about it is disrespecting taxpayers.

EZRA LEVANT, QMI AGENCY