This week Heritage Minister James Moore raised the possibility of supporting the CBC through radio ads. Response has been surprisingly mild.

As reported in The Star, Moore replied to questions from NDP heritage critic Charlie Angus in a heritage committee meeting:

“Commercial advertising is an option that has been talked about for some time. I would frankly consider anything so long as the end result is to have a strong national public broadcaster.”

Ian Morrison, spokesperson for Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, was also quoted in the report:

“Ministers don’t wing it on policy issues. That Mr. Moore would consider approving commercials on CBC Radio came powerfully to our attention. He may have blurted out more than he intended. If the government and the CBC are considering this, they can expect a firestorm of protest.”

But the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting website barely featured the story in a sidebar. The latest item on the home page is a month-old story about a possible $200 million cut to the CBC budget.

And the NDP, which triggered the radio-ad controversy, has nothing about it on its own website. It does, however, offer audio clips of its own radio ads, which attack the Harper budget.

Crawford Kilian is a contributing editor of The Tyee.