Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Dear Media Overlords…



Look, I realize you folks have a lot on your plates what with running your respective tax-sheltered and/or subsidized communications and entertainment fiefdoms and/or repressive media bureaucracy and/or conglomerate duopoly, but would it KILL you to hire a bunch of interns working at minimum wage to provide online transcripts of your televised political programs? This seems to be standard practice at EVERY MEDIA OUTLET in the U.S. after all. And seeing as the offering here in Canada is fairly paltry by comparison... how much effort would it take?

So come on CBC and CTV… make a small gesture of respect to your viewers who pay quite handsomely to receive your cable broadcasts and, for whatever reason (some nutty interest in democracy and politics, apparently), take interest in these unprofitable public service ventures that you’re compelled to air as part of your CRTC license agreement. Have a little heart for “the workers… the activists that are out there” or the “20 people” as Bob Fife so condescendingly referred to them, who are actually scrutinizing the stuff you post on the Intertubes, or, more specifically the stuff you DON’T happen to post for whatever reason.

Yours, etc.