And really, can anyone blame them? All that private money from Quebec billionaire Pierre Karl Péladeau funding a competing media enterprise must make them sick to their stomachs.
Although this story has already been distorted and misrepresented, this is not an expansion of Fox News into Canada, nor would the station necessarily copy the same style that causes fits for the left.
Let’s face it. CBC and CTV have been given free reign over the news message for years in English speaking Canada. And whether the left would like to admit it or not, there are plenty of viewers who don’t want to tune into CBC news specials on the perpetual “tipping point” of the climate change cliff while the network is busy ignoring Mount Climategate.
The objections I’ve heard to a conservative news network have ranged from the fearful to the absurd. The primary concern is that the channel would “lie like Fox News”, and mislead people about important issues which apparently aren’t misled on stations like CTV and CBC.
The left are nothing if not insecure about the whole idea. When former Conservative Party spokesman, Kory Teneycke, was hired by the CBC to provide a balancing counterpoint to the multitude of leftwing pundits and commentators on the network, some people were so upset by the idea of having any infusion of conservatism into the CBC that they actually complained to the CBC ombudsman about it.
Some people can handle free speech up to a certain point, and it’s usually a point at which their pre-conceived opinions are no longer validated.
Quebecor media has since snatched up Kory Teneycke to become a vice-president of business development, while today David Akin quit Canwest to become a TV personality for the news show.
The application to the CRTC involves a “must-carry” licence, which would guarantee the channel would be on every basic cable package like CBC and CTV, but it’s unlikely that would succeed, meaning that Don Newman can lay off the heart medication for now.
Don’s main objection to the new news channel seems to be that because he believes Fox News is conservative “propaganda” in the United States, it will provide the same fodder for the Conservative Party in Canada. But since it’ll likely be a subscription channel, I don’t see what the problem is. Nobody will be forcing Don to watch it any more than they force him to read Adrian MacNair.
The problem as I see it, is that Don’s simply looking out for his own neck. The show would likely be hugely popular in Canada, and I completely agree with Kory’s assessment of the market potential. As the new channel siphons droves of viewers from the CBC, it would inevitably decrease the market share of the taxpayer-funded giant. Decreased viewership would mean decreased revenues, and more whining for more cash. And when it finally dawns on the public that there isn’t a need to publicly fund a broadcaster that loses $1.1 billion a year, there could be some heavy cutting going on.
The amazing thing is that the CRTC approved the licence for al-Jazeera, and nobody batted an eyelash.
ALSO SEE
A little healthy competition never hurt.
I thought it was unprofessional of Don MacLean to be so readily opposed to the idea. Yes, the station will hurt Canadian journalism, yes it will hurt Canadian politics. But it’s not the CBC’s place to whine.
Sun Media wouldn’t know journalism if it punched them in the face, but in a market with too few options already, it’s no time to be complaining about a new voice.
The only thing even slightly remarkable about this story is that its taken sooo long for some savvy media players to finance this thing. Remember that FOX TV is firstly a commercial enterprise, if there were no market for ‘conservative’ news it would’ve gone broke. Similarly if ‘Conservative TV Canada’ can’t find subscribers I’m sure its run will be short. CBC institutional fear is amusing and telling but I think Mansbridge and his bias is safe for a few years yet.
GREAT NEWS….where do I sign up. I am sick to death of CBC & CTV.
To amend a well-known quote: Subscriber payments if necessary but not necessarily subscriber payments. Either way I’m on board!
Do you want facts or do you want to continue to subscribe to the leftist mantra that anything that isn’t left of centre is RIGHT-WING Hate Speach ?
My goodness, all the dollars pumped into Air Amercia as a privately funded left-leaning station proved completely futile as they went bankrupt while Fox News continues to grow and expand. Yes, there are some obvious conservative’s out there who can generally see no right in what a Democrat can do, but they were also hard on President GWB as he tried to appease dems with Immigration, Medicare(?) and other social programs. He was a huge financial supportor for Aids in Africa, and didn’t veto nearly enough of the spending bills that accounted for deficits, especially when the Dems took over the senate and house.
Good grief there’s ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, The View and almost every other Pro-Obama news outlet doing nothing but sticking up for Obama & the Dems, yet they are all worried about Fox News. The White House and Gibbs are so thin-skinned that they spent the better part of 2009 and the start of 2010 fighting Fox News and trying to belittle them, only to have Fox’s rating soar to record hights.
Fox holds the top 10 cable news ratings and has dominated for many years, yet the leftists and Dems continue to thumb their noses at the very people who they were elected to govern.
Canada is also very left-of-centre with its news reporting, as evidenced by the stories that are brought to us with a Conservative in power as opposed to a Liberal Prime Minister.
Let the network air and the public will decide if it wants it or not. As mentioned by others, no one gave a rats you-know-what when the CRTC granted a licence to a terrorist “news” network, yet people are up in arms at the big-bad conservatives.
Disgraced U.S. Vice President Spiro Agnew once complained, that the main stream media were “”nattering nabobs of negativism”. I guess that is their job since good news only works on CTS.
The problem in Canada is that only a few negative variations of news gets out to the Canadian public via television. Most Canadians, unfortunately, get their news exclusively from television.
As a senior, I have known and watched CBC all my life. I watched the first television newscast ever on CBC. From those days to the present they have been somewhat left of even the Liberal party. Believe it or not, the Liberals were not so left once upon a time. To my shame, I once was a member and worked closely with a candidate.
CBC’s choice of adverbs and of adjectives in their news presentations reveal their colours. Their choice of special news presentations and documentaries reveal their biases too.
They are so biased that they do not even recognise the depth of their biases. I will credit them with the sincere thought that they do not know what they are doing.
I would prefer that the CBC were more balanced in their choices of news presentation. Question period at CTV is just as biased. Not surprising when one considers that Ivan Fecan, a VP at CTV, gets a leave of absence to manage campaigns for the Liberals every election. I hope that his salary and other accomodations are covered under Canada’s elections act.
Our own Canadian Conservatives are not anywhere near as right wing as the Republicans in the U.S. That is something that Canadians should know. They will not presently get that from the TV media as constituted. Our mild mannered (small c) conservative needs to get a viewpoint that is valid and not a viewpoint that is erroneously constructed by the opposition. This ought to be a channel available on basic cable. If not ruled so, then the CRTC can readily be challenged by the public and by the current government if they have the balls to do so.
The leading cretin political commentator on CTV actually called conservative supporters “troglodytes”. He ought not have the job he has when he denigrates half the population.
Owl Oliver said on Power Play today that Fox was a propaganda network………..He should know what propaganda is with Taber and company! Canada’s male Helen Thomas….
Me thinks the MSM is verrrry nervous tonight!
Brian Lilley of CFRB Toronto, fairly small “c” (see here) is also joining . He’s been pretty firm on Afstan (more here) and a friend of “The Torch”.
Mark
Ottawa
[...] [More] AKPC_IDS += "15904,";Popularity: unranked [?] Web Logs ADD COMMENTS You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. [...]
Now if they can sign up someone like Charles Adler then that would cause tectonic rumblings in the MSM. I can’t wait.
And Rob Breakenridge, CHQR Calgary, and Steve Madely, CFRA Ottawa.
Mark
With so many at cbc complaining of the cost of the summits, and the coalition of opposition doing the same, shouldn’t they be the first to cancel funding for cbc that loses more/year than the cost of the summit, year after year after year.
Perhaps in his next faux outrage Holland could bring that up in QP.
OT, but I have also compared Ollie to Helen Thomas. Boy, is she getting dumped on in the media in the USA.
Ollie’s main complaint is he would never get a job and neither would Tabor, on the new network. And who would trust any female from cbc/ctv who might be applying for a job.
And are the stories re Tom Clark and Martha Hall true. How many other employees of cbc/ctv playing hanky panky with MPs.
Craig and Helen T, sittin’ in a tree….LOL
Hey Adrian, dust off your resume, Kory may come calling!
I listen to CBC radio and watch CBC tv and I am so tired of their left wing view. I have had enough. For years I have wondered why my tax dollars are being used to keep this left wing propaganda machine going but none of my tax dollars go to right wing media with the opposing view. Whoever they are, whoever supports them, just for another view of the world I will watch their stations and listen to their radio. Bring the right.
I hope it’s a lot better than Fox news. Media biases aside, there’s a wide variation in quality in news sources. Fox can do what they like, but they’re very pretty far to the infotainment end of the spectrum. I hope we can get something a lot better.
Speaking of the CBC though, it’s still a pale imitation of the BBC. Does CBC have anything at all that can rival even the basic BBC world news podcast? Does ANY news site in Canada have anything to rival it?