Yay! I plan to use my share of the returned tax dollars to buy a video game.

Well, more seriously, Darren Barefoot asked a serious question: he was wondering how Conservatives (which, rightly or wrongly, he seems to be imagining as opponents of the CBC in general.

Well, I guess I’ll do: pretty definitively conservative (both upper- and lowercase “C”), and I don’t think much of the CBC.

When I started to think about this note, I came up with the first three good Canadian TV shows I could. The list was Corner Gas, Trailer Park Boys, and HNIC.

The first two air on CTV and Showcase, respectively. The third consists of content by the NHL, Cherry and MacLean, and whatever standard-def cameras they deem Vancouver worthy of. If the whole thing was moved to TSN, the main change I’d expect is that on Saturday nights, I’d have half a chance of seeing the Canucks play in HD. I’m pretty sure Don Cherry will be on TV no matter whose tubes the NHL travels to get to my eyeballs.

Regarding the absurd arguments around “media concentration,” “lack of viewpoints,” “Foxification” or Clear-Channelization, I can say only this: when is the last time you watched a TV newscast? Except for Greek-language newscasts while at my in-laws, I can’t remember. Compared to the immediacy, diversity, accessibility, depth, and breadth of news from text-based sources (mainly but not exclusively online), The TV can’t compete with text, because I (and almost certainly you) can read faster than a reporter can speak. For those rare moments which are decisively visual, the web is pretty good at moving short video clips these days.

So the CBC’s entertainment shows are unmemorable, I don’t watch anybody’s TV news, it galls me that I’m paying taxes for this, and it has ads as well. What, exactly, is the argument in favour of CBC? What is the argument for the CBC that argues against a state-funded newspaper? As a marginal use of tax dollars, the output of the Corpse ranks somewhere between giving away Canadian flags and magazine subsidies.

I’d hesitantly concede that CBC Radio may be able to make a case for its existence, as a marginal-value proposition. It’s much cheaper than the TV network, and I am an audience of one who is personally highly susceptible to the charms of programming consisting of classical music and talk radio. It’s two of the three stations I’m most likely to listen to in the car (because I can’t safely read while driving). That’s not an argument for a subsidized radio network, it’s more an argument that CBC Radio is attractive to a certain set of middle-class aesthetes. Thus Canadian unity?

So here’s my deal for the CBC: give up on TV now, and you can keep the radio network and website until they start sucking.