by arthur Weinreb, associate Editor,
august 18, 2004
as is commonly known by now, Quebec City radio station CHOI’s broadcast license expires at the end of august and the CRTC has decided not to renew it. after a series of complaints emanating from some on-air comments regarding the size of a fellow employee’s breasts, letting the mentally ill die, and the sons of african dictators attending school in Quebec, the station’s license was terminated. This was the first such refusal to grant a renewal in the CRTC’s history.
The regulatory body’s actions became the subject of controversy and 50,000 demonstrators took to the streets of Quebec City in support of their station. a subsequent smaller demonstration took place in Ottawa.
The renewal or failure to renew a broadcast license is a freedom of speech issue and as expected, there were various commentaries and editorials by the media. But the comments, both pro and con, seemed to come from the unlikeliest of sources.
The National Post is at least viewed as if not in fact, a conservative newspaper. although the paper has changed since the days of Conrad Black, it doesn’t gush political correctness the way the Toronto Star or the CBC do. The Post ran a column by longtime Liberal MP and former Deputy Prime Minister of Canada, Sheila Copps, who, like the true Grit she is, was in agreement with the CRTC’s decision. While much of the column dealt with how great she was when she was Heritage Minister, the upshot of her views on CHOI was that Canadians are entitled to freedom of choice in the broadcasts that they listen to, as long as those broadcasts do not insult, denigrate or demean. The Canadian people, of course have no right to decide what is insulting denigrating or demeaning--that is left up to the nanny state by way of the CRTC to decide. There goes freedom of speech.
On the other hand, CBC radio, the bastion of political correctness in Canada, ran a commentary arguing that censoring or taking CHOI off the air was a violation of the fundamental right of free speech. according to the commentator, it is perfectly alright to make sexist remarks about a woman’s breast size and tell jokes about african students and the mentally disabled, all under the guise of freedom of speech. This commentary appeared on a network that requires its on-air personnel to use to describe people who fish as "fishers" instead of "fishermen", lest they insult a woman who happens to fish.
It seems that when the media is the subject of a story, as it is in the case of CHOI, the regular rules cease to apply.