Eye View 

by David Charbonneau

Fair-mined Canadians will reject SunTV

 

September 16, 2010


Harper TV is gaining attention but not in the way supporters had hoped. They wanted thousands of Canadians to come to their support. Instead, tens of thousands have signed a petition protesting "Fox News North."

Spokesman for the proposed channel, Kory Teneycke, wants to bring Fox News' caustic commentary to Canada. The former advisor to Prime Minister Harper has been hired by SunTV to kick off the new channel. Teneycke is confident that Canadian viewers will enjoy the distorted world view that hate TV can bring.

Only the CRTC stands in the way. The broadcast regulator has ruled that cable TV doesn't have to carry SunTV but that's the only way it can survive. Only a reversal of the CRTC would allow the money-losing SunTV station in Ontario access to a wider cable audience.

If Harper and Teneycke can get their way, the current CRTC chairman, Konrad von Finckenstein, will be replaced by a more compliant chair-flunky. According to the Globe and Mail, the Conservatives perceive von Finckenstein as too independently minded. They plan to make him an offer he can't refuse and ease him out of office before his term is complete. Rumours are buzzing in the broadcast industry that the CRTC chair has been offered an ambassadorship to a country where he has family, or maybe a judgeship, just to encourage him to leave his post early.

I thought this whole right-wing TV saga couldn't get more melodramatic but then enters the international lobby group Avaaz.org (Persian for "voice"). They recently distributed an on-line petition calling on supporters to stop Fox News North. "Prime Minister Harper is trying to push American-style hate media onto our airwaves, and make us all pay for it through cable fees," says the petition. They depict von Finckenstein as a heroic defender of fair and balanced programming, fearlessly fighting the hate-filled propaganda which Fox News has used to poison U.S. politics.

The response to the petition has been spectacular. In only 36 hours almost 50,000 Canadians have signed, including author Margaret Atwood. In an email, Avaaz director Ricken Patel says that Sun newspapers have responded with attack pieces on Avaaz from Teneycke and urges even more to sign the petitioner for a goal of 100,000.

 

 Teneycke is clearly rattled. In his column in the Ottawa Sun he feebly attacks Canadian icon Atwood and claims that Avaaz is an American group. Not a winning argument when most Canadians would side with Atwood and when Patel is Canadian. And it's a bit rich for Teneycke to accuse others of exactly what he intends to do - - import U.S.-style politics into Canada.

Also, Teneycke has fallen into a trap of his own making. In an attempt to discredit the petition he points out that Homer Simpson and other fictional characters have signed the petition. However, the only way that he could have known that is if he, or someone he knows, entered those names - - a list of signers had not yet been released. This suspicion is reinforced by evidence uncovered by Avaaz. A number of signatures arrived from one computer shortly after Teneycke's article appeared. Now that his dirty tricks have been uncovered, Teneycke is threatening legal action against Avaaz.

This is an example of the lack of fair and balanced journalism we can expect from Harper TV. Expect even more bottom-feeding tactics. One is the use of rhetorical questions based on false assumptions. For example, "When will the CBC stop being a voice of left-wing?" The question makes an inherent assumption even though the CBC is now affiliated with the National Post; hardly a left-wing newspaper.

Then there is the attempt to create reality through repeated slogans. Prime Minister Harper complains that a coalition government made up of opposition parties would subvert his "democratically elected government." But a majority of Canadians did not vote for him. Twice the number went to other parties.

We can expect lies that are delivered with certainty so as to suggest facts. "Governments don't create jobs" is often stated despite the massive infusion of government stimulus money that clearly does create jobs (with signs that proudly advertise it). Informed citizens form conclusions from facts; pseudo-journalism creates facts from conclusions.

Judging by the response to American style mud-raking and Teneycke's tawdry tactics, fair-minded Canadians will reject Harper TV.
 


 David Charbonneau is the owner of Trio Technical.
He can be reached at dcharbonneau13@shaw.ca
 





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