Re: More Canadian censorship

[laurence@sprintmail.com]

On 8 Jan 00, at 13:52, Dib9@aol.com wrote:

> So you wouldn't object to the President or Congress telling NPR or PBS
> what to broadcast?

The goals for each organization is different.  NPR and PBS are set 
up to be cultural and educational alternatives to commercial 
broadcasting.  CBC's goal is to provide Canadians with an outlet for 
their own culture, as opposed to the American entertainment and 
news that floods their country.  If PBS or NPR were to become 
blatantly commercialized and entertainment-oriented (some think 
they are), I would encourage the government to remind them of 
their reasons for existence.  If the CBC strayed from providing 
Canadian oriented programming, I'd expect the Canadian 
government to reign them in there, too.

Canadian news articles point out that the government looks closely 
at programming commitments from private stations in Canada as 
well as public stations.  The regulatory climate is more like it used 
to be in the US.  When you consider what's happened in US 
broadcasting, that's not such a bad idea.

Mark
laurence@sprintmail.com