Hard-line right wingers in the US seem to like making a big deal of the "CBC" -- the "Communist" Broadcasting Corporation, etc. I think it's ridiculous. It's just a publicly funded radio and TV station, much like NPR is a publicly funded radio station in the US. But it is a very good public station: a huge amount of effort goes into making the programs and music selection interesting and the overall station cohesive. Whenever I'm driving in the car, I almost automatically look for the CBC on the radio, because it will almost always have the most entertaining program or music. And it also supports a lot of music that a lot of people really enjoy listening to, but wouldn't necessarily bring in the most money to a radio station (for example, they have a great station that just plays classical music). So it is different than other radio stations partly because it isn't trying to make money: this is certainly needed when basically every other station is playing pop or metal, or has some very low-brow, brain dead, sexually lude program on for ratings. The CBC also is known for supporting a lot of musical and journalistic talent in Canada: a lot of musicians and reporters you probably have heard of might not have made to it where they are if it weren't for the CBC.
A lot of people in the US would criticize the CBC for being biased as a news source since it is publicly funded, but it is easy to turn that criticism around to private stations who are biased by trying to make money above all else. Also, because it's publicly funded, the CBC is more accountable than most stations.
Further, since it isn't just a news source, as explained above, any criticism for possible political bias is mostly irrelevant.
Finally, the CBC is not a monopoly in any way. TV in Canada is just like TV in the US: with most standard deals you'd get about 45 channels (FOX, MSNBC, etc), and 1 of those channels would happen to be the CBC. Since the CBC is probably better than half of the channels there, I'm glad it's included, and I think most Canadians are too. There are a lot of other Canadian news sources and groups as well: for example, the Globe and Mail and the National Post, and several TV stations. As far as politics go, while most media stations tend to have a slight liberal bias, I would say that the CBC is fairly neutral -- probably a little bit to the left of centre.
TV in Britain, and most of Europe, on the other hand, is much different. You get about 4 channels, and the BBC is one of them. I imagine the other 3 channels are better than most north american ones though.
(Joe: *cringes*. Un, deux, trois, quatre, ...). Français est ma première langue.
