Back in October you may have seen this story floating around: the far-left CBC was getting extra money from taxpayers:
The Liberal government wants taxpayers to bailout the CBC after reporting abysmal advertising revenues.According to Blacklock’s Reporter, the CBC will get a 9.8% increase in funding for 2020, alongside an additional $33,733,999 grant.
Well the CBC didn't like this coverage, and insisted they take it down:
The Supplementary Estimates B, tabled in Parliament last week, document (p. 2-13) CBC/Radio-Canada's internal transfer of $33.7 million from its current capital budget to its current operating budget. As the Estimates make clear, this is an "Internal reallocation of resources for the COVID-19 impact to advertising revenues and operating costs".
The Estimates also show $36.7 million which CBC/Radio-Canada is seeking to advance from fiscal 2021–22 to fiscal 2020–21 in order to offset payments made on broadcast rights for the now-delayed Tokyo Olympics. These payments will not be recovered until the Olympics are held next summer and are described in the Estimates as "Funding for broadcasting rights for the Tokyo Olympics". In turn, CBC/Radio-Canada's appropriation for 2021–22 will be reduced by $36.7 million.
Neither of these transfers constitutes additional funding.
The first question you ask, of course, about the $33.7M that the CBC is now going to spend money on for its operating budget is what would have happened had it stayed in the capital budget? For that you'd have to delve into the rabbit hole that is CBC finances. How did that one research paper last year put it? Oh yeah:
Forum for Research and Policy in Communications (FRPC), An Analysis of CBC’s financial history from 1937 to 2019: We tried to follow the money; Frodo had it easier, Research paper (Ottawa, February 2020).
It's worth noting that Blacklocks, TNC, and Rebel all stand by the story.
In fact, earlier this week Rebel news posted their epic reply to the CBC and it's a hoot. I screamed in delight. Really. The whole article is worth a read, but here's Ezra's response to their "please correct your story" letter:
Hi Leon.
As your reporters will likely tell you, I do not engage with anyone from Trudeau's CBC state broadcaster until they first disavow the corporation's endemic culture of bigotry, including the misogynistic culture epitomized by Jian Ghomeshi and the anti-Black culture epitomized by Wendy Mesley.
As the director of “issues management”, I suspect you were deeply involved in both of these scandals, including the outrageous and likely illegal “war room” set up to discredit Ghomeshi's accusers. You also likely knew of Mesley's racism and were part of the internal cover-up.
Because I don't like to deal with bigots, I will reply to your letter only after we clear up this old business: will you renounce and apologize for the CBC's culture of misogyny and anti-Black racism?
Erin O'Toole, please take note.
Probably unrelated: CBC is infamous for stealing stories from other news outlets and not crediting the original authors of the story. They credited Blacklocks with breaking the RCMP recruitment story last summer.
