The advertising denigrating Radio-Canada news has never seemed more indecent to me than since the war in Ukraine and the conflict between Hamas and Israel.
After seeing the shocking images of a house that has just been leveled by missiles, how can we accept that the advert follows a happy and carefree family in their beautiful Laprise home? After seeing dozens of dismembered bodies on the screen, destitute hospitals where we have to leave the injured to die for lack of medicine and staff, do we have to endure promotions from Stat, a fictional hospital where we lack nothing?
In Gaza, thousands of unfortunate people fled under the bombs in overloaded, rickety cars, others in a donkey-drawn cart, and the poorest on foot, carrying on their backs everything they could carry in a threadbare blanket. The next moment, the ad has us happily driving through the pristine and peaceful Quebec countryside in a shiny Subaru car. A transition that is almost obscene.
A Palestinian living in Gaza City casts a blank stare into the kitchen of his home. The table is set for dinner, but the plates are empty. Also the fridge. The mother and two children left hoping to find something to eat and drink. Dad stays to take care of the house. The ad that follows quickly makes me forget these harrowing images by reassuring me that I can find something to stuff myself with at IGA, the Métro or Provigo. Then it’s a promotion for 5 chefs in my kitchen or for La Cuisine d’Isabelle and Ricardo.
Promutuel is here!
Then I learn that a Russian missile has hit a residential building in Kharkiv, Ukraine. In the smoking ruins and among the torn sofas and furniture, I see a father looking for his wife and children. But immediately afterwards, other images calmed me down. Promutuel is there, there, there! Then another ad shows a father telling his mother after returning from work that her children are well hidden. So they can relax in their beautiful Tanguay furniture and watch another part of the news while they wait for the promotion of “Silence we play”! After all, three or four minutes of bad news in a row is enough to keep you going.
One of the rare state televisions
Radio-Canada is one of the few national television stations in the world that intersperses its newscasts with advertising messages. As if that wasn’t enough, Radio-Canada adds numerous promotions to this wealth of news. In their last election manifesto, Justin Trudeau’s Liberals promised to eliminate advertising on CBC/Radio-Canada’s news and public affairs programs. We don’t talk about it anymore.
The two Radio Canada stations would be willing to agree as long as we increased their annual budget by $400 million, but they will fight tooth and nail not to do so unless they get more money. As if Radio-Canada was pulling the devil by the tail! In addition to the 1.2 billion in parliamentary funds that our state television receives, there is also around 500 million in advertising and funding from the media fund, from which it benefits thanks to independent production.
Don’t argue that there is also advertising on the TVA newscast, which is not a national television station and might abandon it if Radio-Canada had the decency to do so. .
