It doesn’t amaze me to watch right-of-centre politicians and so-called business people complaining of the costs of welfare or medicare or whatever government spending they don’t like — which usually goes to people they don’t like — but are quick to claim their money from the government.

Take the Sun News Network, for example. They accuse the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation of sucking on the public teat — but they also have their hand in the federal till to the tune of $500 million a year. It’s just that the CBC has to justify in public how it spends its money from Ottawa while SNN doesn’t have to justify what it gets from Harper.

And what does the Canadian taxpayer get for that half a billion? Pretty low ratings, and pretty bad journalism. They don’t seem to like aboriginal people because Ezra Levant gets them confused quite easily. Then again, Ezra doesn’t appear to like gypsies, either, for some reason. And Michael Coren is … yeesh. It’s what you’d expect from a network with no ratings and a unlimited expense account …

…that’s also subsidized by cutbacks to its print division, and the probable selling off of its Alberta and Saskatchewan weeklies (the former Bowes chain). But take away that $500 million in free federal money — and the Harper’s government’s wish to have everybody pay for their propagandic swill on cable and satellite television — and then we’d find out just how good businessmen they really are.