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What’s behind the attacks

on

the

CBC?

BET TE tn eT ee TT By HAL MILLER Ue

THE Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is an institution which

the majority of Canadian people have taken rather for granted
through the years. The impact of American-type programs, and
years of sniping propaganda on the part of private radio interests
have created the impression among many Canadians that the CBC
is highbrow and dull. The collection of a nuisance radio license
from the listening public has created negdless antagonism.

-In spite of the undeniable merit

of its musical and dramatic (pro-
grams, the comparative objectivity
of its news ibroadcasts, and the
recognition of its contribution to
our Canadian culture, the CBC
does not command the articulate
popular support which at this par-
ticular moment would be its great-
est safeguard.

The need to safeguard it has
never been greater. The thought
police of American reaction are
rampant in every field, reducing,
American culture to the level of
crime comics and soap operas, and
reaching out with greedy fingers
across our border to destroy and
police Canadian culture as well.
The danger is that they could
succeed.

It is against the background of
“what is happening in the United
States that the CBC must be evalu-
ated and its role in the growing
protest against American domina-
tion recognized. This protest has
so far found its widest expression

in the field in the popular cam-—

paign against crime comics and
salacious literature. Yet Ameri-
can radio,.and now American TV,
present a far greater and more
subtle danger to our freedoms,
our democracy and independence.
‘Today the CBC constitutes a bar-
‘rier to the complete imperialist
‘penetration of dur country — a
‘barrier that the monopolists are
‘trying hard to raze.
‘e ie

The plot to destroy the CBC
has reached a crucial stage and
like most crises it is preciptated
by the advent of a new factor in
the field. The new factor in this
‘case is television.

Television in| Canada is, as yet,
barely born. It is not surprising
that so few (Canadians are con-
scious of just how tremendous a
development in communications
TV really is, even in this age of
revolutionary technical develop-
ments. We are asleep to the fact
that it is perhaps the most potent
instrument of mass propaganda
ever invented.

The visual image added to the
audible and piped into homes puts
TV so far ahead of mere radio
that comparison is feeble. Imagine
a hockey fan at a playoff game
with his eyes tblindfolded follow-
ing the game by sound!. TV re-
moves the blindfold, It is compell-
ing as radio can never be.

If we, as a (people, are not fully
aware of the role TV can play in
our destiny, the American reac-
tionaries are. ‘They saw its power
in the Kefauver committee inves-
tigations, for example, and they

want no interference in their com-
plete control of a propaganda med-
ium unparalleled in history. They
see its potentialities even if we do
not.

In Canada, the CBC, backed up
by the Massey Commission, pro-
poses to control TV in the inter-
ests of Canadian talent and Cana-
dian culture. Let us grant that
the conttol would only be partial,
the defense of Canadianism limit-
ed, that the influence of American
imperialists and their Canadian
spokesmen would be tremendous,
still the fact remains, it would be
subject to public control.

The ‘reactionaries realize quite
clearly that regardless of its short-

comings CBC control of 'TV would °

provide a rallying point and an
assembly ground for national sen-
timent in ‘Canada. It would, im
some measure, voice resistance to
American domination as more and
more Canadian people begin to
grasp the close connection between
their desire for peace and Can-
ada’s struggle” for. cultural and
economic independence.

The forces of big business are
fully alive to this. The Canadian
people must be alerted to the dan-
ger. The CBC must be preserved
as a barrier against the full flood
of Yankee propaganda and cul-

~-tural- depravity. Surely this is
one of the most urgent tasks con-
fronting progressive thinking Can-
adians.
e

The danger signals-are as plain
as they are ominous. The dema-
gogic campaign conducted by the
.Vancouver Sun with blackface
editorial and lead articles is part

of a press campaign across the °

country. The Liberal party’s na-
tional council meeting in Ottawa
recently approved “private enter-
prise” in developing TV in Can-
ada. These interests are gunning:
for the CBC and they hope to pull
the trigger at the coming session
of parliament.

A long period of sniping at.
CBC is now developing into ‘an
offensive. _TV is: to ‘be wrested
from public control and handed
over lock, stock and barrel to
private enterprise, in other words
to American imperialism. Without
control.of TV the CBC would be
a dying influence, a horse-and-bug-

gy cultural vehicle which could! be _

safely ignored, and taken over in
good time.

Formidable as are the forces
out to grab control of radio-tele-
vision, the cultural and iprogressive
forces in Canada can be a match
for them if they are organized
promptly. Issues which reach deep

SHAKESPE

FESTIVAL

On of the highlights of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s popular Stage 51
was the Shakespeare Festival, for which the CBC Times prepared this attractive publicity.

and reflect the uncertainty and
concern that the Canadian people
are beginning to feel on the ques-
tions of peace, trade and indepen-
dence will emerge and stréngthen
their resistance to this attempt to’
scuttle the CBC. But resistance
is not a spontaneous force which’
can be left to bring itself into be-

ing. There is a clear need for

immediate action on every front;
specifically in the cultural and pol-
itical field, and in the ranks of
organized labor.

Among the great numbers of
people who are concerned with the
development.of a truly Canadian
culture, much can be done. Al-
ready many influential individuals
are speaking’ out in defense of the
CBC. Even such an influential
Canadian as Governor-General
Vincent Massey is powerfully en-
listed by virtue of his record.

Many more individuals and or-
ganizations can be moved to join
in concerted action: writers, poets,
playwrights,. amateur and profes-
sional actors, musicians, indeed
all the cultural forces of our coun-
try can be united around the de-

mand that the CBC be preserved.

Since the fate of the CBC and
television in Canada may be de-
termined at the coming session of
parliament, action on the politi-
cal front is especially imperative,
action that involves wide sections’
of the Canadian people. Such ac-
tion begins with the next door
neighbor who turns off an Am-
erican news broadcast in disgust
to tune in to ia CBC station. What
is needed is a flood of mail call-
ing upon MP’s to’ keep control of
radio and TV in the hands of the
Canadian people through the Can-
adian Broadcasting Corporation.

It is equally important in the
coming elections that the slogan
“Hands Off the CBC” should be
raised by progressive candidates
and linked up in a popular way
with the whole perspective of
peace, trade and independence.

Another line of immediate -ac-
tion is through the trade union
councils and local meetings. Can-
adian workers feel the main ef-
fects as Canadian independence is
sacrificed to American imperial-
ism. They bear the brunt of lower

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — NOVEMBER 14, 1952 — PAGE 10

living standards and limited joP
opportunities and curtailed trade

A potent force with the most
vital stake in restoring Canadia?
independence, they will not bé
slow to grasp its connection witl
preserving the CBC, Important,
too, is the fact that the trade
unions can most quickly and ef
fectively express the people’s OP!
nion and ‘bring pressure to beat at
Ottawa.

The question of defending the
CBC from the tapacious design’

of American big business thus e™

erges as an issue on which widé
sections of the Canadian peoP!®
ean converge in action. It is 4
issue which lies close to the core
of the basic problems confrontin’

the Canadian people as a whole

in this critical period when the
danger of war lies like a shado

across our country. The fight Ke
preserve the CBC can have ®

immediate and continuing in ik
ence on the will to Canadian 1?
dependence and around it in ?
small measure our struggle against
American penetration can be cry
tallized and made concrete.

a