But what does the Sun say on this?:Article wrote:Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Sun TV News sure to shine a light on what's right
By: Brad Oswald
16/06/2010 1:00 AM | Comments: 0
* E–mail
* Share This
* Report Error
Well, it seems that Canada's proposed new right-leaning TV-news channel has a name, and with it, a reputation and a context and a political inclination that, if anything, reinforces pundits' predictions that the on-air enterprise is destined to be "Fox News North."
On Tuesday in Toronto, Quebecor Media Inc. announced its intention to launch Sun TV News, a new network that will compete with Canada's existing all-news networks (CBC News Network and CTV News Channel), which, depending on which portion of the Quebecor announcement you read, are either "boring, smug and condescending," or "narrow, complacent and politically correct."
The immediate conclusion to be drawn is that Sun TV News would bear at least some thematic similarity to the newspaper chain for which it's named -- tabloid, at the right end of the political spectrum, cheeky, and consistently in mischief mode.
Whether that means former CBC anchor/correspondent Krista Erickson -- who's rumoured to be among the new network's first hires -- is destined to become Canada's answer to Ann Coulter, a video version of Tom Brodbeck or something in between is anybody's guess; if she does, indeed, resurface at Sun TV News, she'll be expected to arrive with a boatload of attitude.
According to Quebecor's vice-president of development, Kory Teneycke -- formerly Prime Minister Stephen Harper's chief spokesman -- Sun TV News' approach to information programming will be different from its competitors', offering hard-news reporting during daytime hours and opinion-driven shows in the evening.
That's very similar to the game plan employed -- or, at least, declared -- by Sun TV News' apparent U.S.-cable inspiration, Fox News. But the fact of the matter is that Fox News, home to such controversial commentators as Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck, applies a shoot-from-the-right approach in all its day parts.
Lending credence to critics' fears that Sun TV News will emulate its southern left-bashing cousin is the presence in Teneycke's remarks of a few buzzwords that are fundamental to the vocabulary of right-wing media in the U.S.
"This will not be another network catering to elite opinion," Teneycke said, echoing a familiar Fox-y philosophy that implies that educated people (read: liberals) are somehow disconnected from regular, salt-of-the-earth, average folks and, therefore, evil.
"We're taking on the mainstream media," Teneycke also stated, reflecting an oft-restated but ill-informed conservative talking point that suggests the majority of media outlets are liberal in bias, elite in inclination and, by extension of the inevitable logic, evil.
This carefully contrived we-represent-the-underdogs characterization has been hugely successful for Fox News in the U.S., as the unapologetically right-wing network (which has, with neither a wink nor a nod, anointed itself with the slogan "Fair and Balanced") has risen to the top of the TV-news ratings, relegating once-dominant CNN to distant also-ran status.
But here's the big question, as Sun TV News makes its major push to be on the air by New Year's Day: will the Fox News formula -- shout first, ask questions later -- find similar widespread support among Canadian TV viewers?
Quebecor is betting heavily that it will. But the thinking here is that the launch of this new, skewed spin on TV-news programming might reveal some fundamental cultural differences between this nation and the one that borders us to the south.
Canadians, as a rule -- Olympic hockey moments notwithstanding -- are a more conservative lot, not so much in their politics as in their approach to life in general.
Ours is not a country as sharply polarized and vociferously at odds as the U.S.
We don't equate political discussion with the need to out-bellow and serially belittle the opposition. We do, in most cases, let facts get in the way of a good story. And we're far less inclined to declare that a specific God of a singular religion has decided that we live in the only nation He favours.
As clichéd as it sounds, we are, in matters of politics and media, still something of a kinder, gentler country.
There might be a fractional measure of Canadians who believe this nation's TV-news networks are boring, and perhaps even a bit smug, but the percentage that believes the remedy lies in around-the-clock right-wing rants is probably even smaller.
It's up to the CRTC -- and then, presumably, Canadian TV viewers -- to decide what's right, and what's right.
brad.oswald@freepress.mb.ca
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition June 16, 2010 D3
I think this is effing hilarious. The Winnipeg Sun at least has a shitty reputation for it's conservative slant and it's lower standards, mainly being read because it's smaller size makes it easier to read. And the Sunshine girl of course. So I can just imagine what this station is going to be like. Doesn't help them they have one of their editorialists harping about awesome this is for "Freedom of Choice".Winnipeg Sun wrote:‘Time for new choice’
Sun TV News to shake things up: Péladeau
By BILL HARRIS, QMI Agency
TORONTO — Dubbing itself “controversially Canadian,” Sun TV News wants its name on the lips of viewers from coast to coast.
As was announced Tuesday at a media conference in Toronto, Sun TV News is the monicker that has been given to Quebecor’s newest media project.
It’s an all-news English-language TV channel that wants to “shake up the current players of the Canadian broadcasting system,” according to Quebecor Media president and CEO Pierre Karl Péladeau.
The goal is to launch Sun TV News on Jan. 1, 2011, pending licence approval.
“Television in Canada remains a vital source of news and information for Canadians, and all-news specialty services can play a vital role,” Péladeau said.
“English Canada, however, is ill-served by the incumbent specialty news channels (CBC News Network and CTV News Channel).
“Canadians today either are watching CNN or the indistinct specialty news offerings of our Canadian competitors. As a result, far too many Canadians are tuning out completely or changing their dials to American all-news channels.
“That’s not good for Canadian television. It’s not good for Canadian democracy. And it’s not good for Canada itself. Quebecor sees this as an untapped-market opportunity. It’s time for a new choice, a new voice.”
On June 1, TVA Group — on behalf of a partnership to be constituted between TVA Group and Sun Media Corp. — submitted an application with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) for a three-year, Category 1 Specialty TV licence for Sun TV News, to replace the over-the-air Sun TV station in Toronto. The application — which is asking for a “must offer” designation for Sun TV News with regard to cable and satellite companies, as opposed to a “must carry” designation — is under review.
The “hard-news/straight-talk” formula Sun TV News hopes to use in English Canada already has impacted the French-language media, according to Péladeau. The French-language all-news specialty service LCN saw its ratings more than triple when it moved toward that formula about a year ago.
In the U.S cable-news game, Fox News tends to occupy the right and MSNBC tends to occupy the left, with both accusing the other of being too biased. Meanwhile, CNN exists somewhere in the middle, pronouncing itself as “balanced” while its rivals on the left and right accuse it of being “boring.”
In Canada there would seem to be an opportunity to fill a cable-news void on the right or centre-right. However, Kory Teneycke, Quebecor VP of development and the man who will be running Sun TV News on a daily basis, rejected the tag of “Fox News North” that has been bandied about in other media.
“Our competitors and our critics will throw all kinds of stones to try to label us, to try to have Canadians dismiss this,” Teneycke said. “We’re a Canadian company. We’re offering Canadian news, Canadian content, Canadian commentary on stories that are happening, so I just dismiss that as our competitors taking a shot.”
But will Sun TV News generally have a right-of-centre slant?
“There will be a range of opinion,” Teneycke said.
“One of the features that causes many Canadians to tune out of political debate on current all-news channels is the play fighting. It’s not real,” Teneycke said. “It avoids controversy. It is too often political spokespeople on talking points, and commentators who file all the edge off the discussion, being agreeable for the sake of being agreeable.
“Our aim is not to bore people to death. We’ll leave that to the CBC.”
bill.harris@sunmedia.ca
I am curious as to whether this station will last, however.
