Canada

CBC took a turn many years ago, somebody in charge wanted to treat it like a private company. So they will cater to whomever pays revenue. One example: They had some great new music channels promoting new canadian artists, it got shut down after a long run because the new leader said we don't know how many listeners we reach, and eveen with podcast downloads we don't know how many will listen (to ads) we have no way to monetize it, etc They are no longer invested in being a public system that does good for the sake of Canada.

it makes me wonder if the operators of this public broadcaster are the ones that actively want it to be eroded and eliminated

IIRC, this is largely the case with the BBC and how it's quality and relevance has diminished over the years: wolves were put in charge of the henhouse.

Eta: my point: it wouldn't be the first time a formerly respected public broadcaster had it's reputation undermined and (eventually) ruined. If we want to keep it, we have to get people out to vote: nothing we can do until the next election, but in the meantime, we can point to it and say "you enjoy the CBC? What about the radio version? D'you like knowing that such-and-such is a scam because of a CBC Marketplace piece?" (IIRC marketplace does those types of pieces)" and relate it to people on a personal level.

I know this is not your point, but it stood out to me with your choice of words: "I'm NDP" and "I support the CBC"

You're just you and you support the NDP too!

I'm sure that's what you meant anyway but it's just interesting the way we use words of identity with political parties. Eventually those words take root and it actually becomes your identity and other people become truly others.

Public media does not mean there isn't someone powerful pulling the strings. Public works aren't funded by us, they're funded by the agencies that reserve the right to pull said funding regardless of public support. We fund those agencies.