Non-profit news already costing us

Dear editor: Re: Comfortably Dumb, Herald, Opinion, March 12

Dale Boyd gets a “chuckle seeing CEO Paul Godfrey's ranting and raving on CBC for not getting the bailout he wanted,” and well he should.

But if Mr. Boyd wants to see who got the bailout, turn on Hockey Night in Canada. Not that Rogers Media asked for a bailout, but 300 hours a year of taxpayer-supplied air time is too good to refuse.

Eh, if someone has a Lamborghini they don't know how to drive and throws in gas if I take it off their hands, ciao bella!

The CBC isn't just giving HNIC/Rogers increased ratings, it's giving them all the revenue from the commercials. What's that worth? Well good luck trying to find out what the CBC was prepared to pay to maintain its NHL rights – the public broadcaster doesn't like to make its dealings public – but Rogers is paying $436 million a year!

Peter Mansbridge was reportedly incensed by the deal, but his objections were filed under Ghomeshi.

So here's the CBC burning through a billion and a half a year giving a private corporation hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of advertising and all the federal government can come up with for local news is $10 million a year?

They could at least give Bell Media the same deal and broadcast CFL games for free.

Better yet, maybe the CBC could stop pretending it's Canada's only hope for journalism and start paying existing media for content. I realize the CBC mandate requires it to reflect Canada's regions, but are stations in Kelowna and Kamloops really necessary? The Thompson Okanagan Tourism Association seems to have figured it out.

Dale Boyd suggests not-for-profit is the future for journalism, but let's give for-profit its due – at least it pays all its bills. The CBC loses over a billion dollars a year.

Scott Robinson

Penticton