The Sixth Estate

Last week a commenter was highly critical of my labelling of Sun TV’s token loudmouthed brat, Ezra Levant, as a loon. Said commenter referred to Levant’s seemingly solid-gold street cred as an innocent victim of our country’s totalitarian Human Rights Commissions, and even that my labelling him as loony might actually be evidence that I was loony. I pointed out that Levant is actually an intellectually deficient moron who thinks an appropriate response to Earth Day is to leap around a potted plant in his studio waving a chainsaw. So far I have yet to receive a rejoinder.

Still, in the event that some people somehow still think Levant is a credible commentator despite the infamous Chainsaw Incident, I offer his latest column as Exhibit B: a breathtaking adventure in pretzel logic and painful analogies which ought to strain the credibility even of the Levantians. “Big Brother” is after Sun TV, says Levant. Big government and its shadowy socialist supporters are plotting to haul the channel into the “kangaroo court” of the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council so that they can exact their revenge for the outing of dancer Margie Gillis as a recipient of government aid (notably less government aid than Sun’s parent company Quebecor is queuing at the trough for, but we’ll let that go for the moment, shall we?). Levant calls the CBSC “censors,” denounces their “secret” trials and unappealable verdicts, and generally gives us the impression that they’re some sort of modern-day Star Chamber.

Oddly enough, Levant does not seem to be aware that the CBSC is a private body. Here’s a list of its members, which are private companies involved in broadcasting. Sun isn’t on the list, possibly because Sun TV is to “broadcasting standards” what Robert Mugabe is to democracy, but more likely because it’s some sort of old boys’ club to which upstarts like Sun haven’t yet been invited. (I really have no idea, but I suspect the latter.) As a private association obviously it’s not a censor, or a court, or a socialist plot, or anything of the kind. In contrast, his employer had absolutely no problem running, sobbing, to Big Brother a couple months back to demand that the big government Ezra claims to hate make Bell TV share some of its toys with Sun. Which makes Levant not just a blithering idiot but a stunning hypocrite.

Oh, and one other criminally stupid point. Levant claims that there are only two news broadcasters in Canada: his channel, and the CBC, which broadcasts the “official view” which censors used to ensure was the only one permitted in Canada. He says that leftists hate Sun because they’re threatening CBC’s monopoly on Canadian news. Now, I am happy to agree with Levant that the quality of the news broadcast by certain other networks in Canada is so mind-bogglingly poor that their credibility as purveyors of professional journalism should be seriously questioned — which I do all the time on this blog, and which I encourage other people to do as well. Nevertheless, the fact that Levant actually appears to think that there was some sort of invisible monopoly held by CBC until this spring, and moreover that CBC actually presents the views of the government, leads me to wonder whether Levant actually knows anything about Canadian politics at all.

Which brings me to one final point: this continuing fear that “Big Brother” is out to get him. In this case Big Brother apparently consists of some ragtag arts fans whose grand power is — wait for it! — the ability to write whiny letters to the CBSC. That’s the grand foe Levant is fighting. Don Quixote obviously had nothing on Ezra Levant. I wonder where else we can find sinister Big Brothers just waiting for their chance to oppress Ezra by mailing a letter or scowling disapprovingly at him.

Sorry if it makes your brain hurt, Ezra, but reality is actually a little bit more complicated than what can be readily portrayed with crayons or spray paint.