Monday, 25 May 2015
The Economics of "L'affaire Ghomeshi"
*
Jian Ghomeshi appears to be a predatory male surrounded by more or less idolatrous men and women and as such would likely have found prey
whatever his career trajectory. But the willingness of his employer, the CBC,
to overlook, if not actively condone, his behaviour, would have been
significantly limited were it not for their recent history as a bete noire of
right wing neo-liberal forces bent on reducing the power of the state and so
the economic and cultural comfort of any employee much to the left of favourite
CBC bland-son Peter Mansbridge .
As a
relatively young musician with a relatively successsful arts programme catering
to a relatively younger demographic than that of the mainstream CBC audience
Ghomeshi was arguably an asset too prized by CBC management to displace, or
even discipline. And however agonized his CBC managers may have been
about behaviour that seems to have been common knowledge at the broadcaster for pretty much
anybody willing to open their receptive organs, the associated lips and ears remained
sealed.
Simply
put: as many alternative voices have been affected in neo-con/liberal regimes in other Anglo-American jurisdictions in recent
decades, so too economic and cultural attacks have largely rendered gutless Canada's national
broadcaster. Can we expect any any really critical opinion from such fatally
weakened voices? The evidence is in and we cannot. The door has been
opened for alternative voices like TruthOut.com and truthdig.org
and, yes, whistleblowers.We can only hope such sources of real informational
nutrition will find their way to the many starved of real news, rather
than the "news shows", whether public or private, that currently
occupy their advertisers' chosen locations in mainstream broadcasting's 24-7 entertainment
pablum.