www.tomgreen.com

There is an interesting development coming to the web this week. The Canadian Tom Green is hosting a live call in show worldwide over the internet this week. Recently, Bill Maher has set up a taped program that can be seen over the internet. However, Tom Green is going live right from his living room with a 1-800 number on June 15th at 8 PM Los Angeles time.

I have to say that I was not a fan of Tom Green before. He was far too gross and sometimes too slapstick. After perusing his site, however, I have laughed wholeheartedly at some of his humour and been surprised by his serious side. He did go to Iraq on a USO tour and talks candidly about his testicular cancer in his twenties - advising young men to do a check regularly. On the other hand, I will never be a fan of Bill Maher - typical Hollywood "enlightenment" propaganda.

Tom's show is broadcast in cooperation with ManiaTV which boasts various "channels" and videos by amateurs and professionals. Tom states that this new technology allows him creative freedom as there is no network control. This starts a very interesting problem for the CRTC, CBC, etc. As the internet opens up and technology and bandwidth become less expensive, content cannot be controlled. As newspapers are slowly being pushed out by blogs and online news, we may see the same sort of thing with television. It is a global marketplace out there and control over media is not going to work - thank heavens.

It is an interesting development. I will be tuning in to www.tomgreen.com to see if he is, indeed, funny and watching Canadian content because I want to, not because I'm forced to. The other thought I just had is: if CBC is the only way for Canadians to get Canadian culture, how are they going to force people to watch their channel? If nobody watches it, what is the point. I'll find my culture on my own, thank you very much.