So, let’s see if I got this right: the Conservative government is pushing for a regulation that would allow news organizations to broadcast or publish “false and misleading” news. And the point is …?
News media are required to report the news in a truthful and accurate manner. Mistakes can and will be made, such as when a journalist is fed incorrect information by a source, but the media should always strive for the highest level of accuracy and quality. Why, then, would the federal government intervene to somehow prevent that from being the case?
The left, most notably the NDP, now claims that the government wants this particular rule change to make it easier for SUN TV News (or “Fox News North” as lefties call it) to spread lies and indulge in ad-hominem attacks.
Lorne Gunter takes issue with the NDP’s views, and to some degree he’s right. Banning views that are opposed to one’s own preferred ideology is never the right way of going about it, yet this is what the opponents of SUN TV News have in mind. Instead of debating the issues in front of a national audience, they’d rather sweep it all under the rug and silence anyone who isn’t well-versed in spewing socialist propaganda.
Still, the NDP does have a point when it attacks the attempt to allow false and misleading news. What Canadians need is honest news reporting as well as objective analysis of the news – none of which will be found on SUN if the station does end up copying the Fox News formula of innuendo, artificial tears and mock sob stories with religious overtones.
Regular readers will notice that my opinion of the soon-to-be-launched news channel hasn’t changed. I was against it, and its choice of “talking heads”, right from the start. Why? Because I don’t see how Ezra Levant or some of the other screamers SUN has hired can further conservatism. Levant, for example, is good only within an isolated conservative echo chamber – preaching to the choir, as it were, without having to worry about doing actual work, say, like recruiting new adherents to the cause. Those who already like him will always side with Levant and enjoy his rants, but he’ll never create new conservatives in Canada.
In fact, more moderate, small-c conservatives may actually feel put off by Levant et al., so much, in fact, that they turn their backs on conservatism. I, for one, have never cared for the SUN newspapers. I don’t read such shallow fare, because I consider it an insult to my intelligence. Give me the Globe and Mail or the New York Times, Wall Street Journal or even the National Post, thank you very much. I don’t doubt for a second that SUN TV News will feature the same kind of “quality” as its newspaper chain. Besides, SUN is more about libertarianism than conservatism, and therefore completely incompatible with true conservatism.
What commentators like Gunter overlook is that screaming or play-acting in front of cameras or microphones, even if it involves “truthful and accurate” content, may work on Americans, but only a tiny fraction of Canadian viewers will want to consume their news and opinion in this manner.
I think Mark Twain said a lot on this subject, and I know someone once said as I remembered the quote well that one is not sure we want public opinion on our side as those with the most opinions and rants often serve up the very fewest facts.
They usually appeal to a pied piper less learned audience and animate what they have to say modelled after the latest reality entertainment sphere. What use is that to free thinking and those searching for knowledge and truths as it is?
One of the things we used to have in this land was the freedom to look at the kaleidoscope of ideas and examine carefully what and where we sit in this world as a voice and reason of consciousness replaced at times by that reserved and fickle element for caution.
Is there no longer a place for reasoning and logic across a whole area of the political spectrum? So what business does this convoluted all over the place in ideology Conservative Party have at figuring out what is “false and misleading”?
People are free to make up their own opinions in that area and this CRTC have at best only alienated free thinking and speech by their actions and course of direction on this issue.
You are being too kind concerning Sun TV and Sun media in general. They try to be populist in their libertarian slant but the problem there is for years they have urged support for the Conservative Party who hardly even fit that espouse in this day and age with their current convoluted brand. Sticking to principles and ideology has been long thrown out the door so now we get a chance for a political leaning rant style Sun TV that is the political equivalent of the latest reality TV entertainment offering like a specialty channel. Tony Blair and Alasdair Campbell were correct here that political brands no longer count.
No thanks. People are more honestly served by forward thinking blogs with less dumbing down such as yours in views then the likes of Ezra Levant or Steve Janke and their whatever ilk being mere organs and mouthpieces for this convoluted Conservatism if you can call it that and we need less of that thought process in the conservative sphere.
As for the DP crowd, they are spoiled for choice but they can never grow to attract mainstream thinking in what some propose so its best left (sorry for pun) to a moderate free thinking compassionate thinking conservative stance that sticks and keeps to principles. Blogs serve that area and its too bad a mainstream media group doesn’t have you and other who share these attributes making the case for that side of the political ideology spectrum. That viewpoint is missing in this society and the current crowd hope that Canadians never demand or ever ask for that whether they live in the East or West.
The message to the propagandists bringing in this policy through the back door is this and it comes courtesy of a high ranking politician friend in Europe who was once considered for the top E.U. post “ The more one reads into the political spin and rhetoric that each party and ideology has to the voter is probably no worse then the other. But the one who tries to get their agenda in on the backdoor before it is debated properly or with reason is always the crowd that is best left out of power altogether by the smart voter or in the minority.” Doesn’t this point sound very familiar in this country now.