^{courtesy: The Globe and Mail}

Conservative party strategists continue to accuse the CBC of a liberal bias.

On Friday Tory supporters seized on a viewer-inspired poll that came from a former Liberal candidate.

This is the latest round in an ongoing war of words between conservative loyalists and the CBC. The whole thing started weeks ago when Frank Graves, a pollster who frequently appears on Power & Politics with Evan Solomon, admitted that he had given the Liberal Party some advice on wedge politics. “I told them that they should invoke a culture war,” he said to the Globe and Mail at the time.

That provoked Doug Finley, a conservative strategist who is often described as Stephen Harper’s political hammer, to send out a fund-raising letter to the party faithful. “This episode demonstrates – once again – that we Conservatives are up against a powerful array of vested interests,” Finley wrote.

He then pleaded with them to fight back by first writing to the CBC ombudsman, and second by making a contribution “to the Conservative Party of $200 or $100 right now by following this link. Unlike the Liberals, we can’t count on the vested interests.”

Some Conservatives took Finley’s appeal to heart.

John Walsh, president of the Conservative Party of Canada, sent a  letter to the CBC ombudsman suggesting that the CBC’s relationship with Frank Graves, the pollster, is improper, because the CBC hasn’t acknowledged his political affiliations. Over the last few years Graves has donated $11,000 to the Liberals.

The whole thing then landed on Jennifer McGuire’s desk. She’s the boss of CBC News.

McGuire said the CBC uses Grave’s polling firm because it won the selection process. She said one of the criteria of that process is that polling firms have to “make a specific declaration that they were not affiliated with any political party.” She also said that the CBC confirmed that Graves has no client relationship with the Liberal party, but “we do not require firms or individuals to report on their voting history or donations to political organizations.”

“We believe that his commentary… is within the bounds of normal political analysis and discourse,” McGuire said.

Whether you agree with McGuire or not, it’s worth remembering one thing.

The CBC has become a lightning rod for both the right and the left.

And in both cases the cycle is essentially the same: furious accusations closely followed by fund-raising.

The whole ordeal reminds me of previous efforts from the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting.

The last time they rattled the cup, they said they’d learnt of secret Conservative plans to slash the CBC budget. Only a donation could save the CBC.

It’s essentially the same tune this time, a Goliath of well-funded vested-interests up against a flat-broke David. And once again the CBC is stuck in the middle.

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