In Monday's Toronto Star, Antonia Zerbisias profiles ex-CBC TV producer Paul Jay, who wants to start the World Independent Television Network -- funded by supporters, not advertisers.

Some excerpts:

Jay's got half a million in seed money from charitable trusts, foundations, wealthy individuals and unions. He has access to their email lists and to their memberships.

And he has a business plan (http://www.iwtnews.com) he's been labouring over for two years.

Two weeks ago, he unveiled it at the National Conference for Media Reform in St. Louis, Mo., where he was hailed as a `'visionary" for devising a way to counter a celebrity and trivia-obsessed corporate media structure focused more on the bottom line than the public interest.

Backed by a who's who of progressive and liberal supporters — including Harper's editor Lewis Lapham, writer Naomi Klein (No Logo) and Canada's former ambassador to the UN Stephen Lewis — Jay's next move is to find half a million contributors with $50 each, plus a desire for "independent news and real debate" untainted by any corporate or government spin.

"We think that, as long as you're dependent on commercials, or if you're corporately owned and you have to be concerned about shareholders and the broader corporate interest, or if you have to take money from a government that appoints your president and your chair and can cut your budget at any time, you can't really have independent journalism," he insists. ...

Jay maintains that there's a demand for independent television news coverage, free of spin, sensationalism and Michael Jackson trials. He learned that from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

"Stewart is popular because he says the emperor has no clothes," says Jay. "He says audacious things that you don't normally hear on TV. Well, we're going to have a whole network that's willing to say audacious things, that doesn't have to worry about how the advertisers will respond.

"I'm not saying we are going beat Desperate Housewives," he adds. "But if we can get a significant portion of the 20-24 per cent of the population that's already quite politicized, that's a good base.

"We'd be doing equal numbers with most of the cable channels." ...

Jay believes the time to strike could not be better, as millions are turning to alternative sources on the Internet. But IWT is not going to a "liberal" channel.

"We're going to have lots of debate and we're going to be very fair about the debate," he hastens to say.

I'm impressed with the ambition of Jay's vision and wish him well.

However, he might have to pick a bias to run with -- I don't think people are going to pay for independent, unbiased television news. They'll pay for something that reflects their biases.

People didn't give Howard Dean or MoveOn millions and millions of dollars because they thought that candidate or that group was fair-minded.

But hopefully I'm wrong.