Poking

THE CBC a.k.a. The
Corpse (oops, I meant
Corp) is an excellent
window to the national
psyche and does have
some great program-
ming.

But our $1 billion-a
taxpayer subsidized public
broadcaster is plagued by
what Conrad Black called a
“sott-group-think.~

And that’s another thing,
why the spleen about Conrad
Black?

If there isa fitmius test for
thosz at The Corpse and tor
all on the Lett, it’s the dislike
for bot the US and Conrad
Black.

Having read a Jot of what
Mir. Black writes, I'm still in
the dark as to why Canadians
seem to tum on their best and
brightest.

Blac!
thinks more close!
of those he

“Itis a myth of the Lett
and one of the well-springs of
the pervasive €
of envy that the
person implies the failure or
exploitation of someone ely

That from the mouth of
the baron, just about say
for our other pet peeve: the
U.S. Who we love to hate
speaks volumes about who we
are.

But I digress. Back to The
Corpse and its new voung-
blood.

Avi Lewis, a newcomer to
the CBC’s political scene,
spins the Counterspin top.
And Avi can really get that
gag-retles going.

Lewis hails trom that hot-
bed of political cognoscenties:
the Much Music crowd.

writes better and
than most

The CRC must have decid-

ed it would be but a small
leap from pandering to the

ces of The C

dreadtul entertainers on that
show to facilitating a prime:
ame pol al slot.

Figures.

Anyhoo, Avi has been din-
ing outon the APEC thing ad
nauseam, In his vorchful teed:

ing frenzy he has flaunted very

hittle by way ofa spirit of

“Tf there is a litmus
test for those at
The Corpse and

for all on the Left,

it’s the dislike for
both the U.S and
Conrad Black.”

a, it’s enthusias-
tic overtures for his political
kin and smug smirks for his
foes.

For him there is only one
kind of job worth protecting
and that’s a anion job.
Government should spend
more on everything and it is
decidedly uncool to mention

eument of this hap-
less show is prefaced with a
smarmy Avi-prelude which he
clots with sound-bites like:

“Do vou like politics with

your policing?” or with glib
analogies like “Cold War men-
tality.”

mark facetious tevcar [t's
hard to tell which one of Avis
“resident: Counterspunners,”
as they are pretentiously titled,
is More NOVO,

A iweedle: weedledum

art, the irks are supposed

complementary oppo
The one isa unien
sewho thinks
Micre soft. The other isa Bay
Street twpe.

Equally smug, neither
manages much that is new.

1 give this litle team top
cringe-marks for the tine
Jagyi Singh and Jotmathan
Oppenheim, the APEC com
batants, inhabited the show,
and [ mean inhabited.

Avi and his “resident
Counterspinner™ batted eye-
ashes at Singh and sang his
praise ¢ and generally behaved
like a bunch of groupies.

‘The notably brilliant John
Robson of The Orrawa

ftisen couldn't ger a word

We have it from a good
souree, talk-show host Pia
Shandel, that Oppenheim, her
co-guest on Connterspin, had
the standard agit-prop in tow:
a call for the demise of the
state plastered on his back:

So much for Avi
ston my fying tour of
The Corpse: Daniel Richler of
Big Lif

Rig Life is an avant-garde
trendy show in which Richler
religiously elevates smut to
high

‘Yo give him his due he
does run some good investiga-
tive clips.

On to Hot Tape: a literary
magazine dedicated to
“ideas.” With his gift of the
gab, the presenter Evan
Solomon manages to comer
his guests and ply them with

)-DRIVE

NEVER NEEDS A DATTERY

orpse

his dim intellectual calisthen
ies.

Imagine forcing the kick
ing and screaming Pulitzer
Pree winning author Richard
Ford to admit all his charac-
ters are clones of the promise:
Keepers.
Once the vainglorious
Solomon gets his tecth into a
notion he doesn’t let up.

The talented team trom
This Hour Has 22 Minutes
recommended programs be
Jabelled to warn of any
Benmurgui content. Little did
they know dank Ralph
Benniurgui would be retaliar-
ing by using their barb to
carry him through Noe Just

This sluggish i interlude
poses as a toruns for witty and
urbane talking heads. The
repertoire here pretty much
consists in taking, pot-shots at
the national bad- guys, throw-
ing the Reform Party into the

Phe mercenary use of This

Pandering page 9

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