Still regulating after all these years

Over the years the number of decisions provided by the CRTC has caused many a listener/viewer and broadcaster/owner to shake their head in wonderment. The awarding of Broadcast licenses seemingly drawn out of a hat, regulations enforced or ignored with nary an explanation. The power of the CRTC has become an all encompassing fiefdom of cultural imperialism.
 
The likes of any programming from American sources such as HBO, SHOWTIME, ESPN or Fox News will never lighten up our television tubes on conventional cable or satellite services. Despite the demand for them, the CRTC knows what’s best for us, they’re more that willing to choose our viewing pleasures. Dare to watch a grey market sat dish and eventually they’ll come for you.
 
In the last week the CRTC has been feeling a tad empowered, having dodged the Conservative house cleaning that had been hinted about, the Commission unleashed a number of decisions sure to set a clamour about the nation. Most of the weeks work out of Ottawa is seen to be appealing to the altar of Political Correctness!
 
Radio Station CHOI in Quebec City was the first to feel the fire, when the CRTC announced that the station is to surrender its license to broadcast at the end of August. The decision comes after a long hearing process where CHOI found itself under attack for comments from its controversial morning show host. The station features a morning host Jean Francois Fillion, who apparently uses Howard Stern as a template, taking on the politically mighty as well as those struggling in society. The comments about immigrants and the mentally ill were loathsome to be sure, but to have a station taken off the air over the comments of one person seems a tad overbearing. If the comments were indeed slanderous let the courts handle him. There’s sufficient legislation in place to ensure that comments of that nature would be addressed properly. Sizeable fines to the owner of CHOI would have had more than sufficient penalizing powers. To punish the rest of the station’s staff by sending them to the Unemployment lines seems to be a stretch of the Commission’s responsibility.
 
Adding to the controversial decision is the fact the CHOI is one of the more popular radio stations in Quebec City. Which means that the CRTC has decided to deprive hundreds of thousands of listeners, a listening choice that they’ve freely made over the objections of perhaps hundreds of complainants. You can’t legislate taste even the CRTC must surely realize that. CHOI most likely would not be my cup of tea, besides a certain linguistic handicap on my part, making fun of people on welfare, immigrants and such is not for me. But who am I to dictate what others can listen to, if the station was overly offensive then the ratings would reflect that.  More importantly this decision will come back to bite them in the long term, culturally aware Quebec will not take kindly to the CRTC taking a station off the air, look for the Parti Quebecois  and Bloc Quebecois to make this a provincial rights issue in the not too distant future.
 
The other head shaker is the sort of approval for the arrival of the Al Jazeera news network, sometimes referred to as the CNN of the Middle East. Al Jazeera has been held up as a small step for the democratization of the media in the Arab world by some, demonized by others as a propaganda tool of the likes of Osama Bin Laden. Regardless, the Al Jazeera of Qatar and as seen in Israel, Egypt and other Middle Eastern countries will not be the Al Jazerra seen in Canada. In an unusual condition of transmission, cable operators will be expected to monitor the broadcasts of Al Jazerra 24 hours a day, seven days a week, altering or editing any objectionable comments. This is a process that is generally known as censorship. Interestingly enough Al Jazeera with its warts and all, is available in the USA untouched and airs uncensored in Israel as well, a nation that is frequently the subject of many of Al Jazeera’s more strident comments.
 
Cable operators basically say that the monitoring  condition is prohibitive and will result in no cable system taking the financial hit to provide the service. The net result of which will be to send those folks that wish to watch Al Jazeera back to the Grey market satellite dishes that currently provide the service. Again Al Jazeera is most likely not my brand of newsgathering, neither would be the jingoistic Fox News Channel which by the way is not available in Canada legally. But again, if they were blatantly one sided, engaged in propaganda and undermined our sense of values I’m quite sure the Canadian public would quickly render a verdict and tune them out. More importantly to understand the view of the Arab world perhaps it wouldn’t hurt to get a first hand look at how they relate the news to their own audience. Personally I think Canadians are more than capable of discerning right from wrong.
 
The Al Jazeera decision came out the same day that the Commission declined an application from RAI in Italy, the public broadcasting channel that is available on Satellite, providing comprehensive broadcasting from Italy. The decision was announced despite the appeal of over 100,000 Canadians who expressed a desire to view the best of Italy. Whatever logic was used in allowing Al Jazeera, shutting down CHOI and declining RAI has been lost to the common viewer/listener.
 
The flurry of decisions this week only goes to highlight how out of touch the CRTC is with Canadian society. With one click of our mouse, we can access the Al Jazeera website, the Fox News Website, RAI and countless others. Some provide video streaming so whatever the CRTC wishes to protect us from is out there and coming into your home as we speak. In the era of the internet and satellite communications the CRTC still treats us like a nation of tv viewers struggling with the rabbit ears on top of the tube.
 
It’s time for the CRTC to unlock our skies and let the world come on in. Bring us Bill O’Reilly at Fox, we’re not afraid.  The Al Jazeera editorials won’t frighten us and surely there is nothing on RAI that will cause us to worry for the future of the nation. If the CRTC truly feels that Al Jazeera is a threat, then why go through the farce of granting an application but with conditions. If indeed they feel it's nothing  but a nest of vipers then by all means don't grant the application, just be prepared to defend your decision with facts. 

 Then again this is a country that apparently has to be protected from the verbal broadsides of Donald S. Cherry on Hockey Night in Canada, Lord Help us should we be exposed to Fox News or Al Jazeera, we may barely survive as a nation!