The Harper Government are masters of this ruse. They keep trying it...and we fought back. Remember when they tried to bank-roll the Canwest/ Global network of the Aspers which was floundering as they were sooo biased. We stood strong and they backed down.
Well now here goes another attempt. I wont go into details but just paste the e-mail I got from Avaaz which is a progressive organization well worth joining IMHO. If you do not want to subsidize a right-wing corporate elitist outfit, now is the time to say so.
For those of you who will point at the CBC and Knowledge Network as examples of our subsidies at work. Thank goodness for them- is all I can say... or we would be fed a constant diet of US sit-coms and reality shows...no proper news, no analysis of Canadian events, no Nature of Things, no programs which the advertisers will take offence to.
Our great media which was so biased and right wing they called one of the greatest Canadian ever, taliban Jack, funny how they pulled the article off line now.
Anyway here it is:
Dear friends,
On Monday, a CRTC hearing will consider whether Canadians want to subsidize Sun News or "Fox News North"- a media outlet set up with the help of a top Harper crony. Both Sun News and Avaaz will appear before the hearing. We won this battle last time, but now Sun News has worked nonstop building a petition of 53,000 people over the course of months. Let's blow that out of the water in just days, with double that number saying no to paying for crony-media that corrupts our news and poisons our democracy: |
After Harper and his top spin doctor Kory Teneycke met secretly with Rupert Murdoch, Teneycke was involved in modelling Sun News after Murdoch's Fox News, the political propaganda network that has poisoned U.S. politics. It's Canadian crony-media -- run by a political crony, pushing a political agenda, and now seeking to be funded by a government handout, asking the CRTC to force it onto our basic cable packages.
Sun News have been pushing their petition non-stop for months. If we can double it in a few days, it will send a powerful signal to the CRTC about where Canadians stand -- click below to sign and share this email with everyone who cares about Canadian democracy:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_
The CRTC is the government agency that implements and enforces Canada's broadcasting laws. Among other things, it has the power to require all Canadian cable providers to carry certain channels. But it rarely does this because it would prefer to let consumers choose what channels they want. Canadians aren't choosing to pay for Sun News, and it's losing millions of dollars. So Sun is asking the CRTC to order all cable providers to carry Sun News and pass the cost on to us -- even if we don't want it!
In 2010, tens of thousands of us banded together and helped stop "Fox News North" from getting a similar deal -- even contributing to Harper's aide, Kory Teneycke, resigning as head of the network! But then, the network sneakily hired him back and now they are launching a similar application, hoping we won't speak up while they try and recoup their $17 million in losses from our pockets!
Fox News fuels hate. While constantly claiming to be “fair and balanced,” it has allowed hysterical anchors like Glenn Beck to compare President Obama to "Hitler." Bill O’Reilly, another anchor, has threatened to boycott Canada, and Anne Coulter has said on its network that Canada is lucky the US allows it to "exist on the same continent.” The network has cunningly fuelled the tea party movement in the US, a mobilisation of the fringe right with members who threaten violence upon its opponents and wear guns to political rallies.
This is a fight for the soul of Canadian democracy. Our media is not perfect, but a ‘news’ network that slavishly serves a political agenda through mass manipulation and fear threatens the fabric of our democratic society. And while such a network has the right to offer its views, it doesn't have a right to demand we subsidize it.
Canadians don't like watching "Fox News North", which is why they are losing millions and need a sweet government deal to survive. But we can stop the CRTC from taking money from our pockets to pay for right-wing news. Click below to stand with Avaaz's representative at the live hearing and help us build a big enough call to hammer home our best legal arguments:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_
"Fox News North" threatens to make the country we love look more like the U.S. Thankfully, the CRTC and their public process stands in the way -- let's use this chance to be heard and stop Sun News's grab for our dollars for good.
With hope,
Jeremy, Ari, Emma, Ricken, Mélanie, Laryn and the entire Avaaz team
SOURCES
Sun News Must-Carry Application: CRTC Sounds Skeptical About News Network's Bid (Huffington Post)
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/
Sun News On Basic Cable? CRTC Opens Hearings As Channel's Losses Widen (Huffington Post)
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/
Hating the Jew, hating the ‘gypsy’ (National Post)
http://fullcomment.
Sun News Network viewership lags on first anniversary, controversies continue (Canadian Press)
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/
Sun Media breaches Code of Ethics (Canadian Broadcast Standards Council - CBSC)
http://www.cbsc.ca/english/
Investigation into alleged racist comments against blacks (CBSC)
http://www.cbsc.ca/english/
Warning: This column contains scary Sun News scenes unsuitable for some readers (Globe and Mail)
http://www.theglobeandmail.
