Trudeau Has a Good Old Hissy Fit

As I wrote recently, government-funded media are having right old sook about Twitter labelling them, well, government-funded media. Joining them is one of the world’s pre-eminent sooky-la-las. No, not Prince Harry: Justin Trudeau.

Prince Justin has, after all, become quite accustomed to being soft-soaped by his pet media. Every bit as Australian left-wing politicians have, by our own government-funded leftist propaganda machine. Naturally, he’s come out flailing against Twitter for having the temerity to point out a simple fact.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s hypocrisy is on full display as his government spends millions on promoting digital media literacy, yet he cannot handle a simple label on Twitter that accurately describes the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation as “Government-funded Media”.

This statement is undoubtedly true, as the CBC receives over $1.2 billion a year in government funds.

I guess Canadians can take some small consolation that, per capita, they’re not paying through the arse quite as much for the left’s pet propaganda machine as Australians do.

But it says everything we need to know that Justin Trudeau is so enraged by a factual label – and wields it as an attack on conservatives.

However, Trudeau was incensed by Twitter’s labeling and immediately tried to blame the Conservatives for delegitimizing “independent media organizations”.

“When they’re trying to attack a foundational Canadian institution, the fact that he has to run to American billionaires for support to attack Canadians says a lot about Mr Poilievre and his values,” Trudeau said on Monday.

“I think it says a lot about the Conservative Party of Canada. They’re choosing to constantly attack independent media organizations, journalists who are working hard to keep Canadians informed and support our democracy.”

Telling the simple truth is an “attack”, now? Truly, as the saying goes, in a time of universal deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act. If nothing else, telling the truth has enraged the left Establishment.

The controversy stems from Twitter’s push to label state-affiliated accounts, including government-funded media outlets, to provide people with the information they need to judge whether they’re being fed government propaganda.

Despite the seriousness of the issue, public broadcasters, including CBC, NPR and PBS, threw a collective hissy fit when asked to be transparent about their funding models.

Last week, both NPR and PBS announced they would stop using Twitter due to the new classifications. In Britain, the BBC also lashed out over being branded as “government-funded”, successfully lobbying Twitter to change its label to “publicly funded” since it relies on a TV tax rather than direct subsidies.

The Post-Millennial

Even PBS’ high dudgeon act rings hollow.

According to PBS, federal funding only accounts for 15 percent of its revenue, with the vast majority coming from foundations, businesses and, of course, contributions from viewers like you.

In most large companies, 15 per cent ownership would easily make someone a CEO. So, for all their efforts to pretend otherwise, PBS is essentially admitting that they’re run by the government.

In any case, PBS’ spluttering indignation doesn’t disprove Twitter’s label.

Government-funded media, which was the label given to both PBS and NPR, is used in instances “where the government provides some or all of the outlet’s funding and may have varying degrees of government involvement over editorial content”.

There have been calls as of late to attach the label to other outlets that receive government or public funding, such as the BBC and CBC.

The Post-Millennial

Not to mention the entirety of the New Zealand mainstream media.

They’re not called “the Team of $55 million” for nothing.