Globe and Mail: Tory culture warriors target CBC 'vested interests'

[tuvor]

The Conservatives are mounting their own version of a “culture war” as they take on the CBC over allegations of Liberal bias at the taxpayer-subsidized network. And it’s getting vicious.

Stephen Harper’s campaign director, Doug Finley (who himself is subsidized by the taxpayer as he is married to a cabinet minister and was recently appointed to the Senate) has launched an anti-CBC fundraising campaign, asking for donations to fight the Liberal “vested interests” at the public broadcaster – “a Crown Corporation that receives over one billion dollars per year from taxpayers,” he writes.

And then late yesterday, Dean Del Mastro, the Tory MP from Peterborough and parliamentary secretary to the Heritage Minister, put forward a motion to the Commons Heritage committee for a probe into the CBC and its relationship with EKOS pollster Frank Graves.

The genesis of all this was a column by Lawrence Martin in The Globe and Mail last week in which he quoted Mr. Graves saying he had told the Liberals to “invoke a culture war.”

...

The Tory senator asserts this latest episode with the CBC “demonstrates – once again – that we Conservatives are up against a powerful array of vested interests. Vested interests who want to go back to the days of Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin. Back to higher taxes. Back to a weakened military. Back to political correctness. And they’re willing to support a highly divisive ‘Culture War’ to take us back.”

...

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-notebook/tory-culture-warriors-set-sights-on-cbc-vested-interests/article1547969/

[ZeitgeistObserver]

1. Anything to change the channel.

And of course they've hated the CBC for years anyway, even though it was started by a Conservative govt. As to a 'culture war', one has been going on for years.

[edwinmathews]

2. The thought

of a billion dollars being wasted on the CBC every year makes me sick . Just think what we could do with a billion dollars if we applied to health care or education .

[Spazito]

3. Uh huh, no surprise you 'feel' this way, no surprise at all n/t

[tuvor]

4. What we've spent in Afghanistan must make you 18 times as sick.

You want to talk about a waste of money that could be better applied to health care or education, here's a link for you.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/10/09/afghanistan-cost-report.html

Or, if that source is beneath you, try this.

http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=a6e5f168-2417-4184-abfd-375fec9d4ef3


My annual share of keeping the CBC up and running is $29.50. (Can you even pay for a textbook with that?) That may be too much for you, but I consider it a bargain. The $500+ that represents my share of our involvement in Afghanistan...not so much.

[edwinmathews]

6. We

should not be wasting one cent on the CBC . Pointing out a larger waste of money is a piss poor way of justifying the waste at the CBC .

[tuvor]

7. "Waste" is subjective. My meat, your poison. n/t

[edwinmathews]

8. I

am tired of paying for your meat .

[ZeitgeistObserver]

9. What party are you in?

[tuvor]

10. Nope, nope, nope. Too easy.

The dramatic pause was a nice flourish.

:rofl:

[CHIMO]

5. The Thought

Of many billions being wasted on education and health care every year probably never enters ones mind. Why does everyone need an education?
Why does everyone need health care?
Another thing, why should everyone be entitled to clean air and water?

Makes about as much sense. Why do you need to spend the money that you propose to save on education and health care?

[daleo]

11. Let's take a billion from the military instead

That should make you feel better.

[edwinmathews]

12. Cuts

in military spending are also a good idea when we are running such a deficit and it does not have to be instead it can be as well and that should make us all feel better .

[ZeitgeistObserver]

13. Or we could just eliminate govt altogether,

and then we wouldn't have to pay any taxes.