Sunday, February 15, 2015

Return to Harperland and the Wonderful Death of Sun TV News



Well as you can imagine it wasn't easy saying goodbye to the balmy breezes of the Caribbean.

After my amazing sailing adventure where I once again showed the sea that I am its MASTER !!!

And then returning to the grim reality of Harperland and this arctic nightmare. 



But I have to admit I almost wish I could have returned sooner, so I could have watched The Sun News Network sink gently plunge suddenly to the bottom of ocean

Or in its case the big blue hole. 



Because as you can also imagine, I would have enjoyed that magic moment a lot eh?

So it distresses me to see that some in the MSM, and others who should know better, are lamenting its departure. Wringing their hands over the jobs lost, or calling it a loss to journalism.

Or in the case of David Akin, the once decent reporter who sold his soul to that depraved right-wing network, blaming it all on the CRTC. 

The first journalist hired by Sun News Network says its demise had more to do with regulatory hurdles and shrinking resources than with the size of Canada's appetite for a conservative-minded TV channel.

Akin, a veteran Ottawa reporter, said the turning point came in 2013 when the federal broadcast regulator refused the network's request for mandatory carriage, which would have included the channel in basic cable and satellite packages across Canada.


"Had we got that our way, we'd still be around," Akin said in an interview.


When in fact, as Christopher Waddell points out, the whole network was nothing but a shabby scam. 



Sun TV was really only ever about one thing: gaming the system. Had the scheme worked, it would have made some people a lot of money even if nobody watched the channel at all.

A plan to make all of Canada's cable subscriber's pay for a channel hardly anybody watched.

Audiences were minuscule; subscriber revenue couldn’t even cover the cost of running a network in a one-bedroom apartment.

And the reason it failed was because it couldn't attract enough viewers.

The few viewers it did attract were not of the...um...right kind...



Its grotesque tacky tea bagger programming was the worst pseudo-journalistic horror show this country has ever witnessed.


A never ending torrent of bullying and bigotry. 



Its bigotry is well known and well documented. It was a network that promoted racism—against Arabs, against Romani people, against First Nations — under the veil of "opinion," a disgraceful abuse of the latitude that is afforded to news commentary and columnizing.

And everyone who worked for that disgusting un-Canadian network deserved to be FIRED.

It doesn't matter how many people lost their jobs or how many young and talented journalists Sun News Network took a chance on. Everyone who accepted a cheque from the network was complicit in spewing its hatred.

For they are the only real losers, along with Stephen Harper and his foul Con regime who used Sun Hate Network for their own filthy purposes...



Their handful of moron viewers.

And of course Pierre Karl Peladeau, who let's not forget created that filthy network for the main purpose of destroying the CBC. 

And also failed miserably.

So let's just give thanks that the Sun News Network has finally gone down the toilet. So we won't have to put up this warning anymore...



Let's celebrate that Ezra Levant will now have to find other ways to pay his legal bills.

Which won't be easy...



And of course let's all remember that grubby little network's demise in the manner it deserves...



You know it's not easy coming back to Harperland in the deathly grip of a deranged dictator AND an arctic winter.

After being able to get away from it all in a place like this one...



Not when it was sixty degrees warmer than it is here eh? 

But I have to say that obit was a GREAT welcome home present. 

The Sun News Network is dead.

The Cons are next.

Long live DECENCY...

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16 comments:

Kev said...

I think they purposely waited for you to leave the country before they went off the air Simon Such spite

Anonymous said...

I always had it on my Shaw satellite but I never watched it even once in all the years. But National Newswatch is owned partly by the Andersons who are very conservative and they ran Ezra's stuff. They and the National Post will take up the slack.

UU4077 said...

I don't have cable, but I don't think there are any "all news" channels on mandatory carry, are there? If Sun News had instead launched itself as the Sun TV Network, maybe they could have claimed to be a Canadian "TV network" and got onto mandatory carry that way - like CBC, CTV and Global.

Not sorry to see them go. But then I never watched them anyway.

Anonymous said...

Hey, they made the comment that if people didn't like them, they just didn't have to watch.
So, people like us just didn't watch and now those fascist assholes have gotten their wish and reaped their just rewards. Nice to see some actual justice in this goddamn banana republic that harper has formed once in a while.

Anonymous said...

The blame for its demise should be placed squarely on the "axis of stupidity" Levant, Lilley, Coren and the idiots running the network. Of course, they'll still be able to spew their bile in the Sun newspapers until it is hopefully sent "where the sun don't shine".
Welcome back Simon.

jrkrideau said...

Great epitah on the stone.

Since you just returned you may not have heard the interviw with Ezra on As It Happens on Friday 201502-13. The level of malevolence in his voice was, frankly, firghtening. If one wanted to discredit the Sun Network and Ezra, he maaged to do it all by himself.

Simon said...

hi Kev...you know when I think about it, I think you're right and I'm NOT paranoid. And since I foolishly revealed that I would be out of internet range for a few days, and probably bribed or hypnotized Seb to "forget" my mobile at home, they chose exactly the right moment to pull the plug. But I'm sure you and others had a hoot on Twitter, which is a consolation. Even though I still feel cheated... ;)

Simon said...

hi anon...I one watched it for several days in a row to try to count the number of porky action plan ads they were receiving, and believe me it was horrifying ordeal. By the time it was over I too felt functionally illiterate. It wasn't the predictable ideology that appalled me the most, it was the abominable mediocrity...

Simon said...

hi UU4077...I don't know if the all news channels are on mandatory carry. I have cable with a thousand channels, but I watch very little TV. But one things is for sure, Sun News was not a real news channel. It had no network of correspondents, it picked up pictures from the TVA channel in Quebec, and other news services, and revoiced them. It was almost all studio based, appallingly mediocre, and all smoke and mirrors...

Simon said...

hi anon...you're right, all their yapping about how they were going to be different and not boring turned out to be just that, barking at the moon. But then they appointed a Harper flak with no TV experience to run the operation so what do you expect? And yes, in this fascist nightmare the red glow it made as it streaked towards The Abyss was like the light of a thousand candles. I wanted to add HA HA HA on that gravestone, but I ran out of space....

Simon said...

hi anon...thanks. And your description of those responsible as the "axis of stupidity"is a good one. As I told another reader above, what appalled me almost as much as its bigotry was its moronic mediocrity. They had no vision, no imagination, no nothing. I find it really hard to believe that any Canadian who doesn't have to be watered rather than fed will miss it....

Simon said...

hi jrkrideau...thank you I'm glad you liked it. It took me a while to come up with an epitaph that satisfied me. How do you sum up such a grotesque performance, without becoming as vulgar as they were? I didn't hear that As It Happens interview, but I've heard enough of Levant to know he is a malevolent clown. He is a demagogue and a racist, who picked on oppressed Holocaust victims and those trying to defend bullied children, and is not only a rotten TV host, but also clearly a ghastly human being. I know he's still writing, but not hearing him will be a blessing...

jrkrideau said...

Simon,
I don't think you should be so nice to Ezra. He's not that nice person.

Unknown said...

So this whole thing is getting sillier and sillier? Okay the Con clown show allowed their mouth piece to be shut down? Oh and let us not forget Ezra Levant a transplanted Jew who pretends he represents Albertan's, he does not.Um EZ is on the lunatic fringe and only represents big oil and Harper stink face.

They Harper and Levant all came and were bred at the same nut case factory. The so-called "Calgary School" that is funded by American Right Wing Radicals that also fund the so-called "Fraser Institute" that was Harper's and Levant's training ground. And was are you ready? It was kiss big business's ass and be prepared to bomb other nations that is their creed.

Unknown said...

You know Ezra's not going away quietly...
http://www.therebel.tv

Marmalade said...

Welcome back, Simon........missed you.