Washington’s Troubles — Could an American CBC Help?

Don Tapscott is the author of fourteen books about new technologies in business and society. This is an extract from an article he wrote for The Toronto Star of July 20.

I recently attended the Aspen Ideas Festival, an annual gathering of the American intelligentsia and powerful to discuss global issues. I watched a session where Chrystia Freeland, a Canadian, was interviewing Bob Rubin, former secretary of the U.S. treasury and now chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations. Rubin gave a brilliant description of the deep and seemingly intractable problems in the United States. The country is so divided it is increasingly difficult if not impossible to get anything done. The most recent example is the current fiasco on raising the debt ceiling.

Freeland, an adept journalist, asked Rubin if he ever thought about the role a strong public broadcaster could play in the United States. She referenced the role of the CBC in Canada, not in bringing the country together, but by creating a platform whereby various points of view are expressed and reasonable discussions could occur.

The interview became one of Rubin interviewing Freeland on how the CBC works in Canada and its effects on the country. Did just a tiny elite listen to and watch it or was it broadly accessed by the general population from different communities within the country? They discussed the difference between the CBC and its impact compared with the U.S.’s National Public Radio, which is listened to by a much smaller and narrower cross-section of the population. At the end, Rubin concluded that a strong public broadcaster like the CBC could be a simple yet powerful initiative that could help the United States get out of its self-destructive funk.