A Sadomasochism abusive relationship where a bully tortures the submissive in a constant stream of physical suffering, belittling their intelligence, ability and any source of pride they may have ever had, but enough of CBC’s programming cutbacks, I am here to talk about the Jian Ghomeshi being fired from the same CBC. When I first heard of he was on a break from his job, I was puzzled. First, I had to remember who he was, then to care a fig about his show, his programming or CBC. But then he was fired and while I was almost moved to care, almost. It turned out to be gas. But then, then! Jian posted his misses defending himself because he was fired for having sex. Which considering the prudish, puritanical behaviour of that corporation made so much more sense. Except, I still did not give a fig, fart or fluff. Even noted Green party Commandant Elizabeth May chimed in to support him. Could someone, anyone else have cared? With the sole exception of ex-Green Party deputy leader Georges Laraque whose very serious legal troubles actually registered on the who cares scale above both May and Ghomeshi for the briefest of seconds. This would be including his entire NHL hockey career such as it was. The whole drama it seems to me, aside from being purely Canadian and purely boring, was that anyone having sex at the CBC was to be fired. For the first clause of their contract to work there, is that anyone thinking of having fun was to be sufficient grounds for termination. Noting that they in fact had stolen the line from Ambrose Bierce’s The Devil’s Dictionary about Puritans “The haunting feeling that someone, somewhere, might be happy.”

But then a miracle occurred. When the dark puritanical empire strikes back and release the kind of sex Ghomeshi was having. Not simply into spanking and light D&D. No this was outright brutality. Punches in faces were a turn on? Oh, ok then… Nothing even remotely hot about that. Or interesting. But the door was opened. And a producer was fast to tell her tale of how when she yawned in Ghomeshi’s meeting once, rude much? He said some crudity that hurt her feelings. She alleged that he wanted to “hate f–k” her to wake her up,” she says. I merely thought she had misheard being half asleep that would “Hate like f–k for her to wake up. Either or does not amount to much. I remember once, where a vice president in serious need of anger management lost it in a meeting and when on a yelling rant for 20 minutes. When he was done, he, himself, realised just how badly he had lost it and checked himself into anger management classes. (Come to think of it, he works at the CBC now. No sex please but screaming is allowed. Or is it?)Linden MacIntyre claims that being a bully is the norm at CBC indicating both Peter Mansbridge, CBC new anchor and the late Peter Gzowski are and were also bullies. As if being the final word was being a bully. It was their name on the show, so toughen up already.
The last note sounded in the sadly Canadian story of silliness when Toronto police arrested Ghomeshi for various criminal offences. And at least, it seemed that this story was indeed real. It was no longer merely the stuff of late night talk show host comedies. It had left from being the joke after Rob Ford to now being a legitimate news story and a criminal prosecution. Except for the massive media coverage. The mere fact, this was about sex and a legitimate Canadian superstar albeit on CBC and the media went all a flutter. Not nearly as much as Ford’s own media circus but this was a legitimate news story no longer fit for the tabloids but real journalist could report on it now. Oh wait, after all this, I still don’t care, So much to do about nothing
To be sure, criminal behaviour is illegal, Sexual assault should be reported to police immediately and being a jerk seems to be the norm at CBC along with its Puritanical over moralistic better than thou Goody Prynne behaviour. All of which is nothing new or even remotely interesting. Except in Canada, where the news media starved for anything to ever report is forced to report this as hard news. When at best fit only for the back pages of some low down, back alley scandal rag.

Update March 24, 2016: Jian was found not guilty on all criminal charges.