The CBC Must Demand Access to Leaders Debates
In an election campaign that is extraordinary in so many ways, one of the more noteworthy changes is that there could be as many as five English-language leadership debates. More surprising and perplexing still is the way the CBC has abdicated its obligation as our public broadcaster to provide coverage of these events. Numeris estimates the audience for the first of the debates last Thursday to have been about one-third that garnered in 2011, when the events were produced and distributed by the usual consortium of CBC, CTV, and Global. The average per-minute television viewing audience was...
Read MoreAndrew Coyne’s blindspot: public goods, market failure and the CBC
Andrew Coyne, a reliably astute commentator on most issues of Canadian public policy, has an unfortunate blindspot when it comes to the CBC/Radio-Canada. He apparently thinks that the notion of public service broadcasting has outlived its usefulness, and that if we are to preserve any remnant of what was once a great national enterprise, it ought to be relegated to the digital netherland of the TV specialty channel. That way those of us who want to watch the service could pony up for it through monthly subscription fees. Here’s what he had to say in his column Saturday: As I’ve noted on...
Read MoreAbout Wade Rowland
Ranked among Canada’s leading literary journalists, Wade Davies Rowland has written more than a dozen books on subjects ranging from television journalism, organized crime, and international environmental law to his current concerns, which include communications technology, the philosophy of science, and technology and human values. Full author bio.