It’s good to hear that Canada’s publicly-funded radio network the CBC is doing its part for the mega-marketing launch of XBox 360’s video game Halo3.

On Monday morning, the CBC was running “news” reports on the launch of the video game in national and international news broadcasts.

Mixed in with pieces about political protests in Burma, Canada’s Kyoto-lite protocol and a potential strike at GM, CBC trilled about the “Hollywood-style marketing campaign” of Halo3.

There was no critical analysis on the content, no discussion on the extreme violence, death and destruction depicted in the game. It was pure hype. Free advertising. Well, free for XBox 360, but not free for Canadian tax payers who fund the CBC to bring them news, commentary and information.

No, CBC is right in there with paying corporate sponsors like Mountain Due and Burger King promoting today’s launch of this video game.

 

Any who said government philanthropy is dead?