I WAS COACH OF THE YEAR! I TELL IT LIKE IT IS!

There has been a bit of talk about a backlash against the Mother Corp.

I think this is rooted in the failure to renew the SRC deal for Canadiens games a couple of years ago. The late 90s/early 2000s were not kind to the Canadiens and ratings were probably down in la Belle Province. SRC refused an opportunity to buy low, relinquishing rights to RDS. For the first time in my life, I couldn't watch Montreal every Saturday night on the French CBC. I still don't get RDS. Why pay for it when the pubs show the games for free?

Now that the Habs are the only option left, the CBC finds itself in unfamiliar territory: regularly broadcasting Canadiens games. They're not doing themselves any favours with the cast. To put it mildly, Cole has lost a step. With the possible exception of Glenn Healy, Greg Millen is the worst colour guy on TV. Most damning of all, Cherry comes on in the intermissions openly rooting for the Bruins.

Now the CBC sees the downside of Don Cherry. Sure, the bulk of your typical HNIC audience has a high tolerance level for his unique blend of redneck bigotry, glamorous flamboyance and outright shilling for the political right ColdFX, peppered with the occasional comment on the Leafs. Convincing working class people that their interests coincide with those at the top of the right wing food chain will go down as one of the greatest propaganda coups of our time. That sentiment lags behind in Quebec and other francophone pockets in the country, where big corporate media penetration is still less than total. You don't hire Rush Limbaugh to be the keynote speaker at a Greenpeace conference.

Cherry's not quite as much of a cash cow when they're broadcasting primarily to one of the man's most frequent targets.

Update: Don't know who this guy is, but he has an opinion too.