The Bad Example

Washington's TV quiz confessional (see SHOW BUSINESS) had a telling impact in Canada as the newly created, all-powerful Board of Broadcast Governors opened hearings last week on a strict set of ground rules to keep television in Canada as Canadian--and hopefully as pure--as driven snow. The Ottawa hearing had barely begun when an electrifying whisper raced through the room: "Van Doren has confessed." Any lingering hope for easy rules went up in smoke.

The B.B.G. will soon put up for grabs licenses for new private TV stations in the major Canadian cities, which at present have only one station each (some privately and some governmentally owned, but all affiliated with the government network, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.). Under its proposed code, the new stations--as well as the old--would be required to provide 55% Canadian programing, stay off the air until noon, reserve two hours of prime evening time for programs of which the governors approve. Private broadcasters see this code as deadly to profits, arguing that 55% Canadian programs would necessarily be of such poor quality that viewers would be driven en masse to tuning in neighboring U.S. stations instead.

This commercial-minded argument fell flat in the wake of the U.S. scandals. Snapped one private broadcaster: "Van Doren has done more damage to free enterprise in Canadian broadcasting in an hour than the CBC in 20 years."

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