If nothing else, Twitter has become a lot more interesting since being taken over by billionaire Elon Musk.
Drama ensues almost daily and can be just as unpredictable as the mid-April weather in Napanee. Such was the case this week when Musk announced he would brand the Canadian Broadcast Corporation’s Twitter account with a ‘government funded media’ tag. Before this editorial could even be typed up, news broke that Musk had reversed course-as he’s been known to do at a moment’s notice-and announced the tag would be removed.
When first informed of the label, CBC responded by ‘pausing’ its Twitter activity as a way of protest. At the time of writing this editorial, the account remains paused as CBC spokesperson Leon Mar told the Toronto Star they would be “reviewing this latest development” before re-joining the Twitterverse. Although technically correct in that the CBC is government funded-the corporation received $1.2 billion in government funding in 2021-22-the tag carries with it some heavy connotations. The fact that the CBC receives funding from the government isn’t a secret however, it always has and if it is to survive, always will. Canadians are already well aware of where a large portion of its funding comes from.
Twitter’s placement of the wording ‘government funded’ is a bit misleading in that it could easily be interpreted as though the CBC is some form of public relations department for the Canadian government. Though there are Canadians that would certainly disagree, there’s no actual evidence that suggests any funding the CBC receives in contingent on putting a positive spin on the government. That said, the writers at the CBC are human after all and Conservative Party of Canada leader Pierre Poilievre has stated several times that if he were in power, he intends to slash funding for the CBC. That would almost certainly mean a loss of job some of its staff. At the very least there’s incentive to sway voters away from Poilievre’s camp. Incentive doesn’t automatically equal intent however.
It’s also worth noting the CBC isn’t the only media outlet that has received government funding in the last five years-far from it. The media business was far from immune from the fallout of the pandemic and many media outlets relied various subsidies to help get them through the darkest hours. News is often free to consume but never is it free to produce. As such, a government subsidized media is somewhat of a necessary evil.
Though that will open the door to questioning the motives behind a particular slant behind any given article, that’s not always a bad thing. Readers should always take everything they read with a grain of salt anyway because human bias will always exist-intentional or not. The alternative to allowing media outlets to fall by the wayside is even worse. Never are fewer media voices a good thing.
-Adam Prudhomme