I was in the CBC mothership today for a taping of George Snuffleupagus. His guest was John Bolton, and Kathy got us the tix.

Oh. My. Godless. Where do I begin? I won’t tell you too much about the Bolton interview - you can watch the ignorance on the part of Snuffy. Foreign policy is a little above his leather bar pay grade. He would attack Bolton with some snide remark, but when Bolton came out with a clear, coherent and totally logical response, Snuffy would say “I totally agree with you, but…” Anyway, watch it on Thursday if you can stomach the CBC. Bolton was very collected and knew his shtick.

Now, let’s talk about that bastion of liberal white guilt, the CBC. You walk in to the main atrium, and it’s all security. Everywhere. Ok, I’ll buy that for a multi-media studio. Fine. I stand and wait for Kathy beneath a poster for Little mosque on the Prairie, which has the tagline: The World’s Most Famous Muslims. Really? I can name 19 who were a helluva lot more famous than those people.

Our friends arrive, including Winston. It appears that our Iranian pal is the only visible minority to be found at the multi-culti CBC. Hmmm. Surely I must be mistaken.

I lean over to another pal and say, “Where is the diversity they’re always talking about around here?” Everyone was white. Seriously. We had to import our own brown guy - I’m surprised the staff didn’t make him go fetch them coffee. Camera men (men - all men), grips, assorted lackeys - all white males. There were two chicks with clipboards - they were both white.

When I made this remark to my friend, some woman who sounded like Marge Simpson’s sisters took offense and told us in no uncertain terms that there were lots of women working there, and the disabled, especially in radio. To which my friend replied “But nobody sees them if they’re in radio. It doesn’t mean anything.” The old feminist (who may have once been a guy) was not a happy camper at that.

We went upstairs to the studio where we were perhaps the best dressed people there. It seems to work in television on my dime, you don’t even have to wash your hair before coming to work. And no, I don’t mean just Snuffy - I mean all of them. A crustier bunch of pot heads I haven’t seen since high school. I wandered over to where the vending machines were to toss out my empty water bottle. Given the dogma coming out of the place, I expected to be faced with a veritable buffet of recycling options. Nada. Zip. Zilch. My fully recyclable plastic bottle went into the trash under the milk bar of the coffee counter. An hour later when Snuffy asked us if we were doing our bit for the Million Acts of Green, I told him about the lack of recycling. He stammered. Told us that the offices have recycling. Didn’t have an answer as to why my water bottle will kill a dolphin or whatever it will eventually be accused (by the CBC) of doing.

So people of Canada, I have seen inside the Mothercorp, and I am not pleased. I expected some hypocrisy, but not the level I witnessed. Bottom line talking points for your local MPs: No diversity in the workplace, and no recycling. The CBC needs to practice its own pravda.

Michael Coren receives an email from an unbalanced (read: biased… or don’t) “journalist” at the CBC who didn’t think Omar Khadr should be anything less than sainted.

Last week I wrote about the case of Omar Khadr and how I had more sympathy for the young medic who was killed when Khadr was captured than for the man currently in custody at Guantanamo Bay. I said that he should have faced a trial by now but that much of the supposed compassion thrown at him was motivated more by hatred of the United States than love for justice and truth.

Hundreds of e-mails arrived, of course. Most in my favour, but many against, which is all a healthy indication of democracy and free speech. One, however, was particularly interesting, in that it was sent by someone who is paid by our tax dollars to be objective and balanced.

“You were kidding, right? No matter. That material is about as funny as a good old-fashioned waterboarding joke. Disgraceful.” Richard Goddard goddardr@cbc.ca. o (+001) 416-205-5950 f (+001) 416-205-5731. Q on CBC Radio ONE. Canada Qs up: Afternoons 2 - 3:30, Evenings 10 - 11. Shipping Address: Office 2H109-D, Canadian Broadcasting Centre, 205 Wellington St. W., Toronto, Ont. M5V 3G7.”

Perhaps we’ll soon have another taxpayer funded, commie, terrorist fellator leaving us for the sunnier climes of the arid and evil Al Jazeera.

The Conservatives want the CBC to give them detailed costings of future endeavors before handing over any more dough. Why is this a problem? If I go into the bank and want a loan, I have to give all sorts of information - and yet it’s my responsibility to pay the money back.If I want to book a venue for my wedding, I request an estimate. The CBC wants money for nothing, no strings attached… yet it won’t even say what it’s for.

“Without having a full costing of the recommendations,” he [Ed Fast] said, “the government can’t respond. The challenge we have put to other parties and the CBC is come back to the government with full prioritized costings and full consideration will be given to the report. I hope the CBC will take up that challenge.”

Watchdog group Friends of Canadian Broadcasting said Thursday the Conservatives refusal to commit to specific funding deliberately sets the CBC up to fail. [a conspiracy!]

“The Heritage committee set out to more closely align CBC’s mandate and resources because it is widely recognized CBC resources are insufficient to meet its mandate,” said spokesman Ian Morrison. “The Conservative minority report would expand this gap, not narrow it. It calls for CBC to do more but denies CBC the required resources, It is a road map that would be extremely damaging to the CBC, especially its English television network.”

Oh, those big scary Conservatives are after us, run for your lives!

As a taxpayer who reluctantly funds this albatross, I really don’t see anything untoward with requesting a costing. It makes good financial business sense. If the CBC is actually planning on producing anything valuable, they shouldn’t have a problem with giving details.

However, if they just want to keep pork on the budget without a fight, I would see why it might bother them a little…