[gabe]

Conservative all-news channel comes to Canada!

If you revel in being up-to-date on the latest goings-on in the world, you’ll be pleased to hear that a fresh, all-news TV channel is coming to Canada.

On Friday, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) gave the go-ahead to Quebecor Media to launch Sun TV News across the country.

“[Sun TV News] will aim to challenge conventional wisdom and offer Canadians a new choice and a new voice on TV,†Quebecor Media CEO Pierre Karl Peladeau said in making the announcement.

Dubbed Fox News North, this conservative station is being modelled on the successful Fox News Channel in the U.S. It will make its debut on Jan. 1 with the moniker “Hard News and Straight Talk,†according to a press release.

It wasn’t easy for Quebecor Media to score this licence. The company faced difficulties when Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Quebecor reps secretly lunched in New York City with Rupert Murdoch and Fox News president Roger Ailes. Peladeau then had to deny any links between Sun TV News and Fox News, as well as claims that Harper’s government had conspired to bring this channel to Canada.

Additionally, the CRTC initially rejected Quebecor’s bid for Sun TV News to be carried forth on basic cable. Quebecor will now have to secure carriage for the channel from domestic cable and satellite TV operators.

Sun TV News will also face competition from Canada’s established all-news TV formats, specifically CTV News Channel and CBC News Network.

http://tvguide.ca/TVNews/Articles/101129_fox_news_north_DC.htm

 

[neuhaus]

'News', 'fresh' and 'Fox TV' doesn't go hand-in-hand.

 

[dt_toronto_geek]

"News" and "Fox News" do not go hand-in-hand! Anyone ever seen that nut-job Glenn Beck or his loopy anchor friends? On occasion, he can be quite entertaining in an Anna Nicole Smith kinda' way, but also very dangerous at the same time.

 

[gabe]

Regulators Reject Proposal That Would Bring Fox-Style News to Canada http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rober...be-moving-into-canada-after-all_b_829473.html

As America's middle class battles for its survival on the Wisconsin barricades -- against various Koch Oil surrogates and the corporate toadies at Fox News -- fans of enlightenment, democracy and justice can take comfort from a significant victory north of Wisconsin border. Fox News will not be moving into Canada after all! The reason: Canada regulators announced last week they would reject efforts by Canada's right wing Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, to repeal a law that forbids lying on broadcast news.

Canada's Radio Act requires that "a licenser may not broadcast....any false or misleading news." The provision has kept Fox News and right wing talk radio out of Canada and helped make Canada a model for liberal democracy and freedom. As a result of that law, Canadians enjoy high quality news coverage including the kind of foreign affairs and investigative journalism that flourished in this country before Ronald Reagan abolished the "Fairness Doctrine" in 1987. Political dialogue in Canada is marked by civility, modesty, honesty, collegiality, and idealism that have pretty much disappeared on the U.S. airwaves. When Stephen Harper moved to abolish anti-lying provision of the Radio Act, Canadians rose up to oppose him fearing that their tradition of honest non partisan news would be replaced by the toxic, overtly partisan, biased and dishonest news coverage familiar to American citizens who listen to Fox News and talk radio. Harper's proposal was timed to facilitate the launch of a new right wing network, "Sun TV News" which Canadians call "Fox News North."

Harper, often referred to as "George W. Bush's Mini Me," is known for having mounted a Bush like war on government scientists, data collectors, transparency, and enlightenment in general. He is a wizard of all the familiar tools of demagoguery; false patriotism, bigotry, fear, selfishness and belligerent religiosity.

Harper's attempts to make lying legal on Canadian television is a stark admission that right wing political ideology can only dominate national debate through dishonest propaganda. Since corporate profit-taking is not an attractive vessel for populism, a political party or broadcast network that makes itself the tool of corporate and financial elites must lie to make its agenda popular with the public. In the Unites States, Fox News and talk radio, the sock puppets of billionaires and corporate robber barons have become the masters of propaganda and distortion on the public airwaves. Fox News's notoriously biased and dishonest coverage of the Wisconsin's protests is a prime example of the brand of news coverage Canada has smartly avoided.

 

[GenerationW]

The writer does a good job matching Fox News for being full of it.

 

[dt_toronto_geek]

Good news!!! Thank goodness we have The National in Canada along with other good programs on CBC.
Speaking of Reagan, I just watched a fascinating and timely documentary on him two nights ago that's available on Rogers On Demand called "Regan". It's truly worth a watch. And yes, I found it to be "fair and balanced"