Apparently literary legend Margaret Atwood has signed a petition attempting to keep “Fox News North” off the air. Ms.Atwood says it isn’t the channel per se, but the idea that the Prime Minister could exert undue influence on the network and its message:
“Of course Fox & Co. can set up a channel or whatever they want to do, if it’s legal etc.,” she told The Globe and Mail in an email. “But it shouldn’t happen this way. It’s like the head-of-census affair – gov’t direct meddling in affairs that are supposed to be arm’s length – so do what they say or they fire you.
“It’s part of the ‘I make the rules around here,’ Harper-is-a-king thing,” she wrote.
But this is precisely the problem, isn’t it? I mean, the whole “I make the rules” quote is an out-of-context media contrivance that has been repeated ad nauseum for the past few days to the delight of many who remember George W Bush’s “I’m the decider” remark. Taking quotes out of context, portraying the Conservatives as interfering in independent government agencies, and repeating the scandal-stirring sound bytes is the modus operandi of the mainstream media news at present.
Injecting something new into the the media stream can only be a good thing. And a writer like Ms.Atwood should know better than that.
As for the Conservative Party unduly influencing the message of Sun TV, the executives are going to run content that they think will make money for QMI. They’re not going to offer free advertising for Stephen Harper just because the station is right wing.
And besides, with the evident editorial directives present in the CBC, Toronto Star, and Globe and Mail, would it really be that big a deal if it did have a partisan bias? It isn’t as though the channel is being offered next to CBC on the clicker. You’d still have to order the thing.
As for the online petition that Ms.Atwood signed, it reads:
“Prime Minister Harper is trying to push American-style hate media onto our airwaves, and make us all pay for it. His plan is to create a ‘Fox News North’ to mimic the kind of hate-filled propaganda with which Fox News has poisoned U.S. politics. The channel will be run by Harper’s former top aide and will be funded with money from our cable TV fees!”
Actually, no. The channel wouldn’t be bought by anybody who doesn’t want it. The CRTC made sure of that. It’s the CBC that we’re all forced to pay for, whether we think its drivel or not, running David Suzuki documentaries and providing reasoned debate and balance with the left and the farther left.
The fact that so many angry leftists are busy signing a petition to block the channel only serves to highlight how badly we really need it. What this illustrates is how comfortable people are when the news content confirms their preexisting worldview, but how quickly their thoughts can turn to censorship when that arrangement of presentation is changed.
I think the issue is the speculation Harper is trying to interfere with the CRTC so that the channel is given premier status.
Personally, I do not care if some politico turned media mogul wants to devote his entire channel to Harper love, along with his newspaper chain. I do care if the Prime Minister of Canada abuses his authority to get that channel preferred status.
Right now that is just a rumour, but if he does what the rumour suggests he will do, then I have a serious problem.
I think that boat sailed some time ago Gayle. The CRTC has already ruled on SunTV and its not getting the preferred status that CBC, CTV and others get.
Margaret Atwood’s comments are disgusting, wouldn’t you agree?
Condemning something you haven’t seen as “American-style hate media” sounds like a hysterical reaction to say the least, right?
I think the rumour is that Harper wants to replace the head of the CRTC with someone he knows will approve the application.
I do not care about what Margaret Atwood said.
A Category 1 channel is defined here on Wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category_1_specialty_channel
I don’t see anything here that says a category 1 channel has to be provided free (see the list, I know I have to pay for many of those channels if I want them) so I don’t see the problem. If anything, I can’t see why the CRTC wouldn’t grant them Cat 1. From what I understand from reading this is that a Cat 1 designation means that every company would have to carry it, that is offer it. A Cat 2 is optional carriage, so lets say that Cogeco in Ontario could just say, I don’t feel like offering this station, and they don’t have to. Making it a Cat 1 would mean that they have no option, it must be offered…. but it doesn’t have to be free.
So, what is this premier status you are so afraid of Gayle? I think, like Fox, this new station will be popular and will show how hypocritical the current media is. Again, I refer you to Wiki on what Category 1 status is, surely don’t consider IFC or bold as getting some kind of premier status.
Margaret Atwood is a fascist.
Gayle and Atwood join forces to perpetuate a lie in order to back their viewpoint.
Is anyone really suprised.
Soldiers. With Guns. On our Streets.
There’s no depth a liberal won’t plunge to gain a vote.
Atwood is a censor. and she’s been drinking her own bathwater and breathing in her own rarefied air for far too long….
Adrian it’s all Soros Fault http://www.ottawasun.com/news/canada/2010/09/01/15217151.html
The echo from the past: Margaret Atwood’s comments remind me the ideological drivel I used to hear from spokespersons for bolshevic rulers in Czechoslovakia in 1950s