As part of an ongoing attack on Canada's public broadcaster, the Sun newspapers and its TV network are raising hell over nudity on a web-only TV network.

Tou.tv is an on-demand web TV network that is operated by Radio-Canada and 20 partners. Tou.tv has purchased the rights to show Hard, a program from France that the Sun calls "soft-core porn."

Because the Sun's owners have a problem with publicly-funded television such as the CBC, the chain couldn't pass up the opportunity to complain that tax money is funding porn.

The Sun's reporters made sure Heritage Minister James Moore saw some excerpts of Hard, and later the minister said "This programming cannot be defended."

He said he would ask the CBC to review all of their online content.

"This content is clearly adult in nature and should not be available to children," Moore told the Sun.

Hello? Has Moore been on the web lately? Does anyone out there think an unsupervised kid seeking thrills on a computer is going to end up watching a little nudity on foreign-language web TV?

Alberta Tory MP Rob Merrifield showed he's even further out of touch with reality than the Heritage minister.

"I don't think my constituents would like paying for any television programming made outside of Canada," he told a reporter.

So Wheel of Fortune and Coronation Street don't exist on Merrifield's CBC channel. And he'll have to stop phrasing his responses in Parliament in the form of a question because Jeopardy is gone too.

The rabid Sun folks and the kooks who have opened their mouths to complain about one show on one web channel are forgetting that TV programs are a form of expression. Like it or not, they are a form of art, and we all tune in with our own preferences.

Tou.tv has a goal of entertaining people. If Hard entertains some people, who is it being hurt?

Not everyone will like every program that CBC airs. Given a chance, a bunch of Conservative MPs would probably like to pull the plug on Nature of Things and that pesky Suzuki chap who keeps harping about rumours of global warming.

What if a CBC comedy isn't funny enough for the federal cabinet or a drama isn't quite dramatic enough for the PMO?

If all content – even stuff buried on a virtually unknown website – must meet with this government's approval, we'll all be left watching the Littlest Hobo. Maybe then the government can move on to deciding what we read: my money's on Archie comics.

When a Sun reporter approached Moore for comment – before the minister had seen clips of Hard – he was quick to sniff out the Sun's real reason for asking questions.

"I know you're in the business of going after the CBC," Moore said to the reporter.

Finally, truth in government.

If it's acceptable for a private TV network to air risqué material, why is bad if a publicly-funded network does the same? Should a media company attack the competition through "news" stories?