Where oh where would this country be without culturally protective policy in place, or, better, in places where it doesn’t belong?

Ahead of the game, perhaps. Less burdened by broadcast licence hearings peppered with suggested threats to the sanctity of press freedom, maybe.

Whatever the case, in the accelerating landscape of converging media, it is more important than ever for government agencies and the private sector alike to revisit regulatory and corporate policies that fail to acknowledge the inevitability of cross-media ownership.

In the resounding words of the pre-Socratic Greek philosopher Heraclitus, in this sensible world all things are in flux.

Likewise, the state of the media industry is in constant motion, and in the past year, it’s been moving and morphing so fast, in most cases it’s ahead of itself.

Take, for example, the recent CTV and Global licence renewal hearings, where the CRTC stepped out of bounds and harangued the broadcasters about a code of conduct that would restrict their reporters from having any form of communication with their newspaper counterparts. The suggested code, which Quebecor says it will accept, but which CTV and Global say they won’t, may make sense in ensuring that two moguls’ agendas don’t dictate the news, but completely undermines the value of convergence – a model the CRTC, among many other government agencies, is simultaneously encouraging.

What would be the point of converging media, if not to take advantage of combined resources?

And what place is it for the CRTC, whose mandate it is to enforce the Broadcasting Act (which is currently under review), to take such liberties?

Sure the Act is all about diversity, but isn’t it about diversity as it relates to the sum of its parts – that is, the Canadian broadcasting industry?

If the medium is still the message, it too is screaming ‘Get big fast.’ And while companies like CTV and Global are heeding the message in spades, the regulatory framework is lagging behind.

In defense of the CRTC, its stepping up to the plate on issues concerning the homogenization of news is perhaps a progressive move, since there really isn’t any one agency yet equipped or mandated to regulate across media.

With every broadcaster, cabler, publisher and telco fighting to be the last media giant standing, policy makers are forced to face the paradox of what they are endorsing. Grow but stay independent, go global but stay Canadian, merge but sell, distribute but don’t broadcast, broadcast but don’t produce, make commercial films but use Canadian leads…

My head is spinning, and I’m only an observer.

I can only imagine what it’s like for producers out there trying to access public funding, needing a Canadian distributor to get through the door and all of a sudden realizing that with all this consolidation there’s really only three of them left…