HA! “Left-wing”?! HARDLY! The CBC is a right-centrist, neo-liberal apologist/official organ of the Liberal Party of Canada (although, of late it *has* taken to a certain amount of self-interested genuflecting toward the Harpokon regime, in recognition of who currently controls the purse-strings).

But “left wing”? The only reason it would appear so is because most of the rest of the Canwest/Global Bell Media/CTV media oligarchy is so drearily, depressingly and unrelentingly a vacuous right-wing echo chamber that parrots the maunderings of such corporate shills as Tom d’Aquino (of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives — formerly the ‘Business Council on National Issues’) in the most toadying and obsequious manner possible.

The CBC may predominantly be an apologist for the Liberal Party of Canada, but it is no more “left wing” than the Liberal Party itself is. Just as the Liberal Party places self-interest above ALL other considerations, the CBC has shown itself to be most concerned with pimping itself out to whoever is in command of its budget allocations. Historically, that has been the Liberal Party, but as the last few years under the “Dear Leader” Harper has shown, the CBC can even accommodate itself to kissing a prodigious amount of Harpokon hiney.

They continued to appear, they twirled and spat our words but along side the characteristic beep emerged a distinct whine. Harper’s robots had outlived their usefulness and were left to join the pile of outdated wasteful junk.

Someone might experience the CBC as communist, and someone else might experience CanWest Global as neoliberal screed. These are debatable interpretations of what are likely much more complicated and nuanced tapestries of ideology, entertainment and information. What is less debatable for those interested in robust democratic cultures, is diversity of media. Democracies thrive in diverse media environments. The CBC costs very little in the grand scheme of things, about 7 cents per day for each Canadian. What we get in return is an admittedly imperfect but valuable addition to public culture in Canada. I am sorry to see such anti-democratic comments in response to the proposed CBC cuts. Lack of diversity in media is a signpost of cultures with diminished democratic accountability.