Free Enterprise Fund v. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, No. 08-861, for instance, concerns an issue that has engaged the court since the New Deal: at what point does the lack of presidential control over independent agencies violate separation-of-powers principles?

The case arose from the last big financial crisis, the accounting scandals at Enron, Worldcom and other companies. In response, in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, Congress created an independent board to oversee accounting firms. The board’s members are appointed and may be removed for cause by the Securities and Exchange Commission, itself an independent agency, meaning the accounting board is doubly insulated from both political pressure and presidential oversight.

The first poll is by Ipsos-Reid, and asks

Thinking specifically about the CBC…which of the following two statements is closer to your own opinion?

The poll is poorly worded, since the options are not mutually exhaustive. One might think CBC is independent, but it still matters who appoints the Board of Directors. (It reminds me of the get-out-the-vote campaign in West Wing, Season 4, where will changes one kid’s sign from “It doesn’t matter who you vote for, make sure you vote”, to “No matter who you vote for, make sure you vote”).

A similar question was asked in 1999 by a different polling group (Compass); at 35%, the percentage replying “independent” was much lower.

Granted, it’s from 1986. But still, it’s tremendously useful. I don’t know why the Fondazione Gramsci and the Fondazione Luigi Einaudi have copies, but I’m very glad they do.

They key data – on spontaneous and prompted responses to judgements on Rai – are as one might expect:

• Rai is “an instrument in the hands of the leading class” [unprompted response]: 9.3%, a marked increase over the past ten years
• Rai is “an organisation controlled by a few political parties” [prompted category]: 41.9%, five points down from ten years before;
• Rai is “an organisation of the government” [prompted category]: 24.6%, five points down from ten years before;
• Rai is “an organisation controlled by all the political parties”: 20.4%, two and a half points up from 1979, or before the birth of RaiTre
• Rai is “an organisation outside of politics”: 4.1%, a marginal increase over ten years previously

So, Italian citizens judged [quite correctly in my view], that Rai was a political organisation; that it was controlled by an agreement between some parties, and not per se by the government or the entire political class. Let’s take “outside of politics” as being equivalent to “independent from politics”. If that’s the case, then the 4.1% of Italians who judge Rai to be politically independent is much less than the 42% of Britons who judge the BBC to be politically independent.

Unfortunately, the question wasn’t asked for different channels, so there’s no direct way of telling whether journalists from France Televisions are judged less independent, say, than journalists from TF1. (One could run cross-tabs on main channel watched and perceptions of independence, but the link would be tenuous).

In general, the news isn’t good for France Televisions: whilst in 1989, 43% of respondents cited either France 2 or France 3 as their most trusted source of television information, compared to 33% who said the same of TF1, the gap has now swung in TF1’s favour, with 41% citing it as their most trusted source, compared to the joint total of 35% for France 2 and 3, with the latter gaining impressively.