Do Canada's Private Broadcasters Need a Can of Whoop-Ass?

With over 121,000 people petitioning the government people rallying in Sudbury, Cape Breton and other Canadian cities in support of the CBC it is almost unthinkable that the government would bail out the private broadcasters and not help the CBC.

The CBC is Canada's national public broadcaster. It is owned by and paid for by Canadians. Why would any government even contemplate give taxpayers money to private corporations but fail to help the broadcaster owned by those taxpayers? It may not make any sense but it is apparently being contemplated. The government has not actually said, at this point, that the bailout wouldn't include the CBC, they just haven't indicated that it does include the CBC either.

What is truly appalling though is that the private broadcasters, according to the Canadian press, are vigorously lobbying the government not to include the CBC in the plan. That means that private companies are telling our government that they are more deserving of Canadians tax dollars than the public company we own. I would strongly urge the private broadcasters to start lobbying hard in the opposite direction.

If there is a bailout for private broadcasters that does not include help for the CBC I will once again rally supporters of the CBC and start a campaign aimed at the private networks advertisers: A letter writing / email campaign urging those advertisers to abandon the private broadcasters (and all of their associated properties) and shift their ad dollars to the CBC. I won't even urge people to boycott the private networks, people are not the customers of commercial TV, advertisers are their customers so I'll simply urge people to watch the privates and boycott the products advertised on them.