Uh oh. Somebody call a plumber, or a mortician. It looks as if Sun TV News, also known as Fox News North or Harper TV, won't be able to make us pay to keep it on life support. Sun News Network has been denied a guaranteed spot on basic cable TV packages in a CRTC ruling released today. Maybe. But the CRTC suggested Thursday it isn't happy with the status quo and proposed "a new approach" regarding the distribution of Canadian national news services. Which has Kory Teneycke, Harper's old flak, clinging to hope that his stinky fish might survive...
You have seen them on their grubby channel assaulting the decency of Canadians. Attacking the weak and the vulnerable, like a pack of filthy cowards. Smearing native people, Muslims, the Roma, even those who would defend bullied children in our schools. Now they're begging for money, trying to force the CRTC to make us pay for their ugly, evil programming. And look who is answering their desperate call.
Oh dear. I see some progressive bloggers still don't understand what the uproar over Fox News North Harper TV is all about.
They are all confused about the carriage question. And don't seem to recognize the threat to our democratic system.
There is no doubt in my mind that Harper would like to see a Conservative biased news and opinion station here in Canada, but I have yet to see any direct personal involvement in bringing that about.
Now I can't tell a carriage from a cadillac eh? So I had to ask John Doyle to explain how they're trying to ram it down our throats.
Nothing has happened yet except, as Bill Roberts, president and CEO of Vision TV, pointed out last week, the Sun TV application to the CRTC seems to have been fast-tracked.
Now its owners are applying for a “Category 2 specialty licence” and simultaneously asking for “mandatory access,” which essentially means it has to be presented as a choice in a minimum of one type of channel package. No such category of channel currently exists, so the Sun TV News people are, you know, chancing their arm here.
Put all the confusing regulatory language aside, ignore Atwood’s obfuscation, and you reach one conclusion – this thing can’t survive if it isn't given preferential treatment.
And as for the threat to our democratic system, may I suggest that the Kory Teneycke Fan Club read these scary words from Susan Delacourt.
On the road this summer aboard the "Liberal Express", I witnessed several occasions where Sun reporters in the regions produced a piece of paper with a question for Michael Ignatieff. They would read this query, sometimes saying they'd been told to ask the question by their bosses. Funnily enough, the questions mirrored Conservative talking points that were also sent by email to reporters aboard the bus.
Then we had stories in the paper the next day saying that Ignatieff's tour was being "derailed" by questions about his candidates. The "derailing" (which was a bit of an overstatement) came from journalists' questions, nothing else.
Because it's one thing to be bigoted, talk about "locking and loading" and suggest that ships full of desperate men, women and children be fired upon.
But when you are parroting carefully focus tested questions, to promote the sinister agenda of the Harper regime, you don't only deserve to get your licence application dismissed. Or blown out of the water
You deserve to get hauled up before a board of inquiry, and asked to explain why you are fucking with the fabric of democracy.
Oh well. The good news? Quebecor executives say if they don't get the preferential treatment they're demanding, their project will go down like the Titanic.
Glug.Glug.Glug.
And on that happy note.
We take you live to Fox News North Harper TV headquarters...
OMG !!! Somebody throw them a licence life jacket !!!!
Jumping Jalopy. I never thought that Kory Teneycke's Sun TV would ever get any kind of show on the road.
I thought the CRTC would order it into the garage, have it checked for mediocrity, and tell Kornhole to come back in ten years when he's SERIOUS.
I mean how many potential Sun TV viewers do they think they have in Canada Kanada anyway?
But then I didn't count on Stephen Harper giving that jalopy a big boost.
The CRTC chair is Konrad von Finckenstein, and his term doesn’t end until 2012. But insiders report that Mr. Harper now wants him out well before that date and replaced by a rubber stamper.
In addition, CRTC vice-chair Michel Arpin is being ushered out the door. His term expires at the end of the month; he’d like to stay on, but his request is not being granted.
Replacing the CRTC’s chair and vice-chair would pretty well seal the deal for Mr. Harper and Mr. Péladeau. Mr. Teneycke has said all along that the new station would be up and running by the start of 2011 with a Category 1 licence, meaning cable companies would be required to offer it as part of a package.
So he can have his own Con Broadcasting Network, and shape his own reality.
Oh.My.Goebbels Big Brother. And so soon after they whacked Greg Weston.
Mr. Weston, one of the most straight-shooting and incisive columnists around, broke the fake-lake story before the G20 summit. His reward? The noose.
