Let me just say a couple of things off the top, just in terms of my view as a consumer.
I'm not phoning up CBC every day and asking journalists there, but if I had my funding cut regularly and was assailed.... I think we're starting to get a polarized media, much like they have in the United States. If you listen to what I would consider to be right-wing shock jocks, as they call them, on the radio, you'll hear attacks on the CBC regularly. Some of these attacks come from very powerful media institutions, and I'd be a little bowed by that. I'd be a little nervous about that, particularly given that there's a lot of power there.
Where do I see that influence? I see it in programming cuts, in news and information cuts, and in a less aggressive position on some news items. So, yes, I think there is a change in the CBC because of the funding cuts and because of the environment.
The fact that we're looking at this now is partly, I hope, because there's concern about the health of the CBC. But there's also well-voiced opposition to the CBC, period, and believe me, management of the CBC is aware of that.
Monica has made the point to me that, indeed, we have a whole variety of ways of looking at programming content. The CRTC is there to make sure we're paying attention to the licences and the minister is there to make sure CBC is fulfilling its mandate. There is a complaint mechanism, and Canadians have a variety of ways, through government regulatory agencies and public complaint, to try to ensure that the CBC is fulfilling its mandate. I know of no company, though, let alone a public broadcaster, that wouldn't start feeling a bit jittery when it has continually had its public funding decreased. At the same time it has had these decreases, there has been an attack on its very existence, and it has been a never-ending attack for at least the past decade.