propaganda
1. The systematic propagation of a doctrine or cause or of information reflecting the views and interests of those advocating such a doctrine or cause.
2. Material disseminated by the advocates or opponents of a doctrine or cause: wartime propaganda.
CBC Mandate
The 1991 Broadcasting Act states that...
"...the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, as the national public broadcaster, should provide radio and television services incorporating a wide range of programming that informs, enlightens and entertains;
...the programming provided by the Corporation should:
i. be predominantly and distinctively Canadian,
ii. reflect Canada and its regions to national and regional audiences, while serving the special needs of those regions,
iii. actively contribute to the flow and exchange of cultural expression,
iv. be in English and in French, reflecting the different needs and circumstances of each official language community, including the particular needs and circumstances of English and French linguistic minorities,
v. strive to be of equivalent quality in English and French,
vi. contribute to shared national consciousness and identity,
vii. be made available throughout Canada by the most appropriate and efficient means and as resources become available for the purpose, and
viii.reflect the multicultural and multiracial nature of Canada."
http://www.cbc.radio-canada.ca/about/mandate.shtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Broadcasting_Corporation
Public versus private ownership
Controversies within the broadcast industry will often ensue when the CBC launches new services in areas that private broadcasters are already in, or wish to be in. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), which decides which new broadcast licenses will be granted, is, like the CBC, a government controlled body.
The head of the CBC and the commissioners of the CRTC are all selected by the Prime Minister. This causes private broadcasters to suspect favouritism for the CBC.
For instance, the CBC was given the first license for an all-news specialty service, namely CBC Newsworld. As with other specialty services, that decision automatically precluded any other new service, with a similar format of news and analysis, from launching. When the privately owned headline news service CTV Newsnet launched in 1997, it was restricted by condition of licence to using a constant 15-minute news cycle. Critics of the CBC contend CRTC favouritism is shown by the fact that CBC Newsworld has not faced equal threats of sanctions over its airing of programs outside the "all-news" format, such as the BBC version of Antiques Roadshow, although such a program does technically fall within its permitted range. The CBC, was, however, forced to remove repeats of This Hour Has 22 Minutes and Royal Canadian Air Farce from the Newsworld schedule in 1997.
The CBC had directly intervened in every application by CTV to change the restrictions on Newsnet up to the final decision by the CRTC, which largely removed the restrictions in 2005. However, the CBC is not unique in this, as it is common for broadcasters to intervene against one another in licensing decisions. The Canadian market is relatively small and some broadcasters feel it cannot support the free market approach of the US. They argue it is better to favour a specific broadcaster in certain areas, so at least one Canadian channel will be able to prosper.
Other allegations of favouritism have centred around, for instance, the awarding of prized radio frequencies (i.e. for CBLA-FM in Toronto). By the same token, though, not all of the CBC's applications are automatically approved; at one point the CBC asked for use of a similarly prized Montreal frequency in order to begin a third French radio network, but was denied in favour of a private broadcaster. Moreover, most if not all groups who receive a favourable decision by the CRTC have been accused at some point of having secured favouritism from the commission.
Issue of bias
Critics, often led by private media, sometimes accuse the network of cultural elitism, liberal bias, or bias in favour of the current governing party.
The CBC is also sometimes thought to have an unfair economic advantage in the Canadian television marketplace, because it competes with private broadcasters for advertising dollars, while simultaneously receiving the subsidy of a government grant.
Many believe the CBC acts as a necessary counterbalance to what they perceive to be the big business right-wing bias of private networks, or that it preserves Canadian culture against the homogenizing influence of rebroadcast American programming. Canadians continue to poll in favour of maintaining funding to the CBC. As it was initially conceived, the CBC ensures that Canadian stations act as more than just affiliates broadcasting foreign content.
The Canadian government attempts to balance funding inequities between private and public networks by providing large subsidies for private production of Canadian content.
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So it isn't just the cost of the CBC either, as we like to give other propaganda money to the private networks to counter balance government favoritism....The CBC seems to be a big corporate welfare propaganda machine scheme thing defended by the left.