Source : Toronto Star

It's a sure bet that, when the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) "welcomes'' a government pronouncement, Canadian media workers aren't going to be rolling out the red carpet for it.

That's what happened last Monday when federal Heritage Minister Liza Frulla tabled her government's response to Our Cultural Sovereignty: the Second Century of Canadian Broadcasting, the 2003 report of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage.

When the response was made public, the private broadcasters' lobby cheered how its members could go on reselling U.S. programming while still enjoying regulatory protection. Meanwhile, unions representing more than 50,000 film and TV workers accused the government of pounding "the final nail in the coffin of Canadian TV drama."

For those not plugged into this long-running soap, what is at issue is the 872-page tome known as the Lincoln Report, after former Liberal cabinet minister Clifford Lincoln who headed the committee during the last government.

Unlike last week's response from the current government, it did not get the welcome-wagon treatment from many media players. But cultural types embraced the 2003 report, hoping that its 97 recommendations would reverse the damage done by a decade of media consolidation and deregulation.

Last week's response turned the tables on everybody.

Floored were the media workers who have seen jobs evaporate since the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) instituted its 1999 programming policy, which gave networks the "flexibility" to run cheap infotainment and reality TV instead of labour-intensive drama.

That's why the Lincoln Report recommended that the CRTC review its devastating policy. But the response to the report says that's "not required."

Tell that to all the unemployed performers too old to audition for Canadian Idol.

This is not to say that the response is a total gift to media moguls.

"We've moved the ball down the field on a number of important issues," says Ian Morrison of the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, a lobby group not known for its friendliness to private broadcasters.

Indeed, between the tedious lines of the report, there is hope.

But you need a microscope to find it. For example, there's vague talk of funnelling more private-sector money to Canadian production via the public benefits which media companies must offer if and when they merge and converge.

The response also discusses strengthening local news in smaller markets, been abandoned as unprofitable by broadcasters who have consolidated operations in larger centres.

One little-noticed section in the response recommends that the CRTC be able to fine broadcasters for not living up to the terms of their licence, a power it does not currently have.

Some media companies, who had been agitating for changes to foreign ownership restrictions so that they can sell out to Americans and/or boost their stock value, must be disappointed by the response's stance on foreign ownership. It says the government "is not prepared to modify foreign ownership limits on broadcasting" from the current 46.7 per cent.

At the same time, the response passes the buck by referring to the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology's recommendation that the government remove foreign ownership restrictions on telephone companies. It also talks of Ottawa's plan "to appoint a panel of eminent Canadians to review Canada's telecommunications policy and regulatory framework."

Which could mean that, if telcos get what they want, broadcasters will demand a level playing field.

Last week's response also backs away from the Lincoln report's recommendation to depoliticize appointments to the CRTC, and to CBC's board. Governments will still be free to name their political pals to these important cultural positions. (In fairness, it's been tough to criticize the three most recent nominations to CBC's board: former network broadcasters Peter Herrndorf and Trina McQueen, and Quebec culturecrat Guy Fournier.)

Probably the biggest evasion of all is on cross-media ownership. The Lincoln report called for a new policy, to preserve the diversity of media voices, and to uphold editorial independence — a big issue outside media-rich Toronto. Specifically, the report recommended the CRTC place tighter restrictions on relations between the TV and newspaper newsrooms of converged media giants such as CanWest Global and Quebecor. (In this market, CanWest has the National Post and two TV stations, while Quebecor owns Toronto 1 and the Sun.)

But the response sloughs off this political hot potato to yet another government group now going over much of the same media terrain, the Standing Senate Committee on Transport and Communications.

Trouble is, the Senate committee is making scary noises about regulating newspaper newsrooms — and the government has no business doing that. It's one thing to have the CRTC rule the public airwaves. But newspapers are private property and should remain beyond the purview of the CRTC.

If the Senate overreaches, any recommendations it makes will be slapped down. Which means that nothing would change.

More committees will be struck, more studies studied and more reports filed on the future of the media as broadcasters continue to profit from an environment that bars new players and ensures that their commercials trump U.S. ads.

That would leave the Lincoln recommendations, which Frulla herself co-authored as an MP on the committee, exactly where the industry probably wanted them to go in the first place, swept under the welcome mat, out in the cold.

© Toronto Star

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