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It’s Hard to Survive on $1 Billion!
By Dave Hodson | May 24, 2008
Apparently, making ends meet at the taxpayer-funded CBC is a difficult exercise. Already the recipients of over $1 Billion per year in taxpayer cash, CBC President Hubert Lacroix is asking for about 20% more! Lacroix made no mention of any efforts to trim his bloated budgets. In his world, more subsidies are the only answer!
The following quotes by Lacroix perfectly illustrate his typically Liberal attitude of entitlement to taxpayer cash.
“We are currently condemned to rely on advertising revenue to balance out our budgets. Consequently, we have no choice but to keep a close eye on ratings,” he said. “Pretending otherwise would not accurately reflect our daily reality.”
Condemned to rely on advertising revenue? Isn’t that what all other media organizations do? Pardon me if I don’t feel any sympathy for you. Other broadcasters are able to not only balance their budgets, but actually turn a profit (another evil word to CBC-types), and they don’t receive $1 Billion in annual taxpayer funding!
No choice but to keep a close eye on ratings? Again, that’s what broadcasters do. If people are not watching what you produce, then you should be producing something else. As long as you’re sucking up my tax dollars, the least you could do is give me something back that I might want to watch!
For someone who says he has no choice but to keep a close eye on ratings, he’s not doing a particularly good job. Perpaps Lacroix says he doesn’t care about ratings because he’s looked at them, has seen that CBC ranks at the very bottom of the ratings list, and is just trying to save face after getting a dismal report card from viewers?
In an “ideal world,” Lacroix said, the CBC could free itself from its dependency on advertisers. The current setup, however, does not make those allowances, he said.
Not only does Lacroix feel the CBC should not need to use advertising to prop up his bloated and wasteful budget, he actually wants more taxpayer cash so that advertising revenue is not needed at all! According to Lacroix, and ideal world is one where his every need is paid for in grand style by the taxpayers. His ideal world is one where there is no accountability or responsibility required. I think Lacroix should wake up and consider joining the real world.
It’s bad enough that the Canadian government is in the business of propping up a broadcaster with limited appeal to Canadians. It’s bad enough that the Canadian government is funding a business in direct competition with private Canadian broadcasters. But if we are going to continue with this wasteful cancer known as the CBC, we must give the taxpayers a partial break and take advantage of advertising revenue wherever possible.
Taxpayers need to start treating the CBC like a drug addict. Giving them more money will not fix their problems. We must start cutting them off of taxpayer funding, year by year, until they eventually sink or learn to swim on their own.
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Topics: Media, Politics, Subsidies |
May 24th, 2008 at 11:43 am
Why should we worry about giving the CBC more cash? We know they will put it to good use.
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May 24th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
A little known fact is that the CBC is the majority shareholder in a “private” company that does not have to publicly report it’s financial statements.
This company is Sirius Satellite Radio Canada.
I believe the company was created during the Chretien years.
Now I wonder just how many Liberal Party members have employment with that entity?
Are they entitled to generous non-audited expense accounts?
The CBC assets should be sold off in pieces and the funds returned to the taxpayers, it’s time to stop the waste.
May 24th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
Boy, I’m glad you tackled this one. I read the article this morning and I couldn’t bring myself to write about it. It just makes me too angry.
May 24th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
[...] Prez Hubert Lacroix is starting to get quite the lambasting from conservative bloggers for his appeal for more taxpayers’ [...]
May 24th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
It is time to stick a pin in the CBC, it’s done. Over 50 years ago, it was needed as the only source of Canadiana. Now in the 500 channel universe it is a total waste of money. If the downtown Toronto socialistas want it, let them pay for it by subscription. As it is, every station identification should carry the warning that $ 1 billion a year in taxpayer dollars are flushed down the toilet by the CBC. Time to close down the artsy fartsy trough.
May 24th, 2008 at 3:46 pm
Maybe if the CBC stopped trying to compete with the open market on things that can be provided by anybody else (i.e. sports events) and concentrates on what Canadians supposedly “need” from a public broadcaster, then they wouldn’t need so much money.
I don’t see how repeated showings of Bowling for Columbine sits amongst the goal of promoting Canadian news and culture. But, they seem to have money to spend on that!
May 24th, 2008 at 6:26 pm
If you look in the Charter, in the back in the small print, it guarantees us the right to stupid sitcoms, idiotic game shows, biased news, and elitist crap all at the taxpayers expense.
May 25th, 2008 at 12:12 am
What the CBC is saying is that by responding to ratings they still need $1 Billion plus grants besides advertisers fees to produce inferior crap at hopefully a break-even point vs the other broadcasters that do it with no grants and generate profits?
May 27th, 2008 at 9:04 am
[...] the upside, we may have the answer to CBC President Hubert Lacroix’s lament about the need to increase ratings . The plot is already there - it just needs to be fleshed out [...]
June 17th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
Let’s face it: even in terms of producing Canadian content, the CBC has been trumped by private broadcasters (in that particular case, Showcase).
But without the CBC, there are significant portions of Canada that would have no news broadcast to them without the CBC.
The CBC remains necessary, but it must start operating within its means. Asking for a bigger budget everytime the preconcieved notions of the executive director are threatened is no way to operate a public enterprise.