Both "unrevised" and "unrepented," the speaker approached the microphone. The party he had twice served as prime minister was gathered in convention before him. Considered by friend and foe alike to be one of the finest parliamentarians in Canadian history -- on par with only the great Sir Wilfrid Laurier himself -- his address was eagerly awaited.
It was to be his final fare-well to Canadian politics. He had planned a speech to address an urgent national crisis. Shortly before his address, however, he was forced to change his topic. Quite understandably, he was angry. And, like most proud partisans, a slight like this would not be easy to forget. If it ever could be.
"You will observe that the instrument on my left is a loud speaker; it is not a radio," he thundered. "This convention, recognized universally by all classes of the Canadian people as of definite and outstanding significance, has been denied by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation ... coverage over their lines -- denied the right to carry its speeches, its arguments and decisions, or any of them, into the homes of our country. It has been forbidden access to millions of Canadian listeners, by an authoritarian Commission appointed by a Government constituted from a single party. ...
"(Our party) were not only refused free use of this radio, which is granted to every cabinet minister on demand, but, after offering to pay regular charges for time, they were again repulsed."
You could be forgiven for thinking this speaker sounds like Preston Manning or Stephen Harper at an early Reform Party convention in the early 1990s. Or Brian Mulroney, Joe Clark, John Diefenbaker, Bob Stanfield or George Drew before that.
In this case, the words came from Tory Arthur Meighen. He later included this address in his famous published collection of debating speeches, Unrevised and Unrepented, which came out to great acclaim -- even from many Liberals -- in 1949. The title of the address to the Conservative Convention of 1942 held in Winnipeg? "The CBC -- A Party Instrument."
Meighen continued, exposing a CBC policy back then that gave unfettered access to its airwaves to wartime Liberal ministers, but denied it to representatives of other parties.So if the CBC is now going to investigate it's self for bias, they need to go back decades because it seems like it's been biased in favor of the Liberals for donkey's years. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation does not speak for all Canadians. It's supposed to, as a public broadcaster and is payed for by all Canadian taxpayers.
I don't see the Corp changing course anytime soon so let's just shut it down and sell the assets to help with deficit reduction.
Everyone of the board of directors in CBC was appointed by the Harper govt,
ReplyDeletemaybe, just maybe this time, an internal investigation of bias will not be buried and actually report what we and other media outlets KNOW to be true.... CBC is bias anti-Con, and RC is actually Radio 'Quebec'
http://www.cbc.radio-canada.ca/about/directors/index.shtml
Great post.
ReplyDeleteWilson,I hope too something comes of this investigation but to tell you the truth,I don't hold out much hope.
ReplyDeleteBig Red Magnum and Tomm, thanks! It just shows you that CBC bias is not a recent thing.
I think that there may be a statute of limitations on bad journalism...
ReplyDeletefrmgrl
ReplyDeleteBeen screaming it for three decades.
frmgrl,
ReplyDeleteCBC and their advocates do not have the power to see their own biases. Comments like yours are deflected without thought.
People like me are just seen as mouth breathing knuckle draggers.
For example, Marci McDonald's book is being bandied around like it contains nuggets of wisdom. Arguing these points with people that see Harper as an evil and dangerous man is without effect.
So the CBC adds a smattering of Teneyke, Gregg, and Coyne here and there. But we're still overwhelmed by untold hours of Suzuki, Strombolopoulus, Milewski, Barton, Solomon, and every other staff reporter. The article referred to just proves the old adage, "The more things change, the more they stay the same."
ReplyDelete