Sun of News

Dad would be so proud ...

As Jim Ross used to say when Stone Cold Steve Austin would come storming into the ring, 'Business is about to pick up.' Quebecor, the media giant whose holdings include the Sun chain of newspapers, twenty-nine other papers in Ontario, Le Journal de Montreal and Quebec, television stations, French cable stations and half of Mystery TV. They're big. Did you happen to know that Brian Mulroney is the Chairman of Quebecor World? Unless you looked it up as I did, that's probably news to you. I haven't seen it printed or reported anywhere else.

Which is surprising, given the context of the story. Quebecor has applied to the CRTC for a licence to offer a 24 hour, English-language TV news service. With Stephen Harper's former spokesman Kory Teneycke as Vice -President of Development (i.e. creating new shows), it appears from all reports that the Fox is migrating north. In fact, this is precisely how Fox News did it. Their programming director and evil genius is Roger Ailes who once upon a happy time was a prewss flack for Richard Nixon, working alongside the ever-jovial Pat Buchanan. 

Well, talk about putting the country into a tizzy. The retired dean of CBC Parliamentary reporters Don Newman put up a column on the CBC website saying that such a right-leaning news network was, 'The absolute last thing the country needed.' Personally, Ill take a bad TV channel over famine or flood any day, but Newman's point is interesting in a twisted yet logical way. He fears that such a channel would make Conservative MPs 'more rabid' and would oddly cause the Liberals to be more polarizing. I don't look at the latter as a bad thing. At least if the Liberals consistently jousted against something it might cause the argument to congeal into a platform, something that got left in a trunk someplace along with Michael Ignatieff's charisma. 

But if Don Newman over-reacted, the reaction from Quebecor was a shrieking war cry. Mr. Teneycke promptly Twittered that Don Newman was Canada's answer to Helen Thomas. I'm not sure if he meant to imply senility or fascism but I do look forward to the explanation. 

A further curiousity is some of the reporting. The Toronto Star, not preternaturally disposed to supporting project offerings of the Sun said the whole enterprise as conceived would be doomed. Advertising dollars might be difficult to find since market research finds that the right-wing viewer tend to be older and down market. One can hear the banjos twanging in the trailer court from here. 

So, a fun week in other words. I can dine out on this story for weeks. Thing is, loathe as I am to admit it, it is going to succeed. And I am loathe to admit it but I cannot add my sandbag to the barricade attempting to block or damn the prospectively titled Sun News. I'm much too on the record for not believing in the fairy tale of unbiased news to step back from my principles now. I just look mournfully at the left and wonder why they are always chasing after the right in terms of electoral smarts and media manipulation. And CRTC approval is a given. Don't waste your breath petitioning. 

And there is a market for it because CBC News Channel is just absolutely dreadful. There was a good special on the Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders on TSN last week. CBC News has imploded like the Raiders - proud champions for decades - now a mess. This makes Peter Mansbridge and a very few of the others like Howie Long and Tim Brown, the last connectors from the glory days to the wretched present. For instance, my love of sporting metaphors aside, I don't need sports stories cluttering up my newscast. If somebody wins something, great, report that. But I don't need two minutes of a 52 minute newscast taken up with people in Vancouver feeling upbeat because the Canucks got through to the second round. 

So one down and one to go for Sun News. CTV I tend to think is all right. It is the sturdy, Headline News network for busy people who want to know what's important now. But there is a huge market around that core audience. Quebecor did not get so big by being so dumb. If they put out a bright, engaging product that also gets the substantive headlines out there, I expect them to lead the three news services in ratings within six months. We live in interesting times. Be seeing you.