Are you ready to pay a 5% tax on your Internet bills to support the CBC?
Just speculating (maybe). Plus! Woke media bucks on the way, what a Trump win could mean for cable news and the "independent" but easily fired panel that approves qualified journalism organizations
As we all know by now, the announcement of a new CBC mandate is in a race to beat the arrival of a new baby into the life of Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge.
As previously mentioned, St-Onge’s partner is expecting early in November and the minister wants to get her vision for a revived CBC out the door before taking parental leave.
I was intrigued by the speculation posted in comments last week by a reader known to me only as DB who suggested CBC will likely be deemed by St-Onge and her panel of experts to be more necessary than ever. New, long-term funding would be locked in, perhaps even through a 5 percent tax on each of our Internet bills. That 5 percent number is pretty popular (similar levies apply to cable companies and streamers) at Heritage Canada and among its Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) appointees. With annual national Internet revenues coming in at around $12 billion, that would give the CBC a very predictable additional $600 million (and growing) annually. Its funding would increase by close to 50 percent.
So, before I take a break for a bit, what do you think?
The government’s funding of approved journalism organizations like the Toronto Star, Postmedia and the Globe and Mail took a new and disturbing twist last week. Not surprisingly, near as I could tell, only the industry publication Cartt.ca and Western Standard - one of a handful of news organizations that refuse to be compromised by government loot - reported on it. Funny how that works, eh?
Essentially, Justin Trudeau’s government is now funding media to deliver more of the content it wants you to be fed. This is the natural next step for news organizations now that they are dependent wards of the state. The Changing Narratives Fund will provide an additional $10 million annually to existing programs to “support diverse communities (i.e. Indigenous, Black, racialized, ethno-religious minority, people with disabilities and 2SLGBTQI+ communities) to share their stories, experiences, and perspectives so that their voices are accurately and authentically represented in the media.”
And when they say that, I don’t think they have folks like Rahim Mohamed, Melissa Mbarki and Chris Sankey in mind.
The Hub, which also refuses to take public subsidies, asked me to write a detailed piece on this which I think will be posted this week. Watch for it.
One of the things media is really, really bad at is correcting the record after it has been suckered in by hyperbole. So, whether it’s Y2K, bodies in Kamloops or pretty much every one of Al Gore’s climate predictions, when dire claims fail to materialize, media rarely come clean and correct the record or even do a what used to be standard practice - a friggin’ follow up
So hats off to The Free Press for its revelations last week on Black Lives Matter (you’ve still got the t-shirt, right?) and how in the wake of George Floyd’s death it raised $90 million US that was then spent “on tailored suits, birthday parties, and ‘big ass’ mansions, almost none of it went to the cause.”
I’m pretty sure you can’t get Canadian government funding for challenging these sort of narratives through journalism.
The outcome of the US presidential election could prove to be a bellwether of sorts for media.
Several weeks ago I suggested that Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre is able to diss journalists because, thanks to social media, politicians these days don’t need them to carry their messages. They can now communicate with people directly. And, let’s face it, most (not all) media are inherently alarmed by Conservatives, for whom that relationship has always been a Sisyphean task.
Erstwhile President and Republican candidate Donald Trump has largely ignored legacy organizations and gone the social media route often through podcasts such as the Joe Rogan Experience. Vice President and Democrat candidate Kamala Harris has been more solicitous of traditional media, although also a heavy user of direct engagement.
It says here that if Trump wins (and it is looking more likely than it was a couple of weeks ago) that the game is up for the Big Cable news networks as influencers. If Harris wins, it’ll prove they still have a heartbeat even though the vital signs aren’t great.
Ever wonder who decides which news organizations in Canada get to qualify for government subsidies? OK, so it doesn’t keep you up at night.
But because those getting the cash are unlikely to tell you, I will. I used to work with a couple of them.
The panel that decides is chaired by Colette Brin, professor at Laval University. Its members are: Ravindra Mohabeer, associate journalism prof at Toronto Metropolitan University; former Winnipeg Free Press and Edmonton Journal editor Margot Goodhand; former Edmonton Journal publisher and Torstar board member Linda Hughes; former Toronto Star editor Michael Cooke; Quebec community newspapers editor Brenda O’Farrell, and; last but not least, Bob Cox.
Cox retired as publisher of the Winnipeg Free Press and was appointed CEO of History Canada in 2022. He’s probably best known for his role as head of News Media Canada, the organization that successfully lobbied for the “temporary” Journalism Labour Tax Credit and the disastrous Online News Act.
This is what Cox told the Commons Finance Committee in May, 2019.
He said any assistance from politicians for his industry had to be temporary because, in the end, “we will have to save ourselves.”
“There does need to be a deadline,” Cox said. “Deadlines can also focus you and get you moving to where maybe you aren’t moving now. I think it’s important. I see this (Journalism Labour Tax Credit) as a transitional program and temporary help. I don’t like the idea of a long-term subsidy for newspapers that becomes permanent.”
Well, as Milton Friedman used to say, there’s nothing more permanent than a temporary government program. In the past year the benefits available through the Journalism Labour Tax Credit have doubled and it has been extended, likely until forever. Four years and four months after his 2019 presentation, Cox was appointed in September 2023 to the committee that decides who qualifies for the subsidy. The per diem for panel members is $325, they serve “at pleasure” which means that while their group may be called the Independent Advisory Board, they can all be removed the moment they displease the government and they know that. They report annually to the Heritage Minister.
And here is the list of news organizations the panel has approved. See if you can find your favourite outlet there and, if you are so inclined, check to see if they are being transparent about it and have a Government of Canada logo on their website.
As noted, I am taking a vacation break during which time some previously paywalled commentary will be provided in lieu of this roundup. Thanks in advance for indulging me. Oh, and as for the CBC, one last word: the only way the Mother Corp is winning back Canada’s conservatives is if it appoints Jordan Peterson to replace Chantal Hebert on Rosie Barton’s At Issue panel. Now THAT would be a show worth tuning in for.
Thanks this week to The Hub for publishing my take on the introduction of foreign investment into Canadian telecom, to Epoch Times Canada for posting my column on the challenges facing the CBC’s new president and to reporters from the Toronto Star, Canadian Press and National Post, each of whom quoted me accurately and in context regarding the appointment of Marie-Philippe Bouchard as head of the CBC/SRC.
(Peter Menzies is a past publisher of the Calgary Herald, former vice chair of the CRTC, current Senior Fellow with the Macdonald-Laurier Institute and a consultant and commentator on media and regulatory affairs)
This is your best instalment yet; everyone who reads Paul Wells, The Line, The Hub, et al., should be reading your Substack. Have a relaxing vacation.
Boy, did I receive a surprise this morning - being quoted in The Rewrite. Don't know what to say.
Now, i actually don't think the report will directly recommend a tax on ISPs. Instead it will say something like "The CBC requires diverse funding sources in order to be a leading provider of diverse diversity. Consideration should be given to having the diverse benefactors (ISPs and Big Tech) of the CBCs diverse offerings contribute to its operations."
I also predict the word diverse will appear 27M times in the report.