One would have to be in “airplane mode” to have
missed the recent developments surrounding Don Cherry’s
comments on the November 9th segment of Coach’s
Corner on Hockey Night in Canada (HNIC). Mr. Cherry’s rant during the first
period intermission broadcast on the CBC English-language
television network exploded on traditional media (see here, here and here) and on social media, ultimately culminating in Cherry’s termination by Rogers. This
incident even garnered international media attention (see here and here).
The focus of this post is not on the content of Mr.
Cherry’s Coach’s Corner rant, but rather on wherein
lies editorial responsibility for such comments from the standpoint
of media/content regulation. Clearly, the public demands
accountability. The Canadian Broadcasting Standards Council, which
oversees complaints relating to broadcaster programming standards,
was technically unable to process the virtual torrent of complaints
from the public about the
