Foxnews NORTH?

[grainfedprairieboy]

A couple of quibbles aside (the Indians in prison joke simply isn't that funny...but I guess it's matter of taste

Yup....before we get too wrapped up in this you need to know I've still got one toe in the reservation so to speak. Doesn't make me a hero or special or some authority on the subject but when I'm dissing indians I do it for a good reason. I made the prison quip because ndns and Metis comprise less then 10% of the population of the prairies now but constitute more then 50% of the inmates.

[dre]

"I" was implicitly included in the "we." So, done and done.

Fun, sure, and a banal slogan, as I'm sure you agree. The Obama campaign won an advertising award for best marketing job of the year--that alone speaks volumes. (Though why advertisers/marketers get awards rather than the death penalty, no one has yet explained.)

But just to be fair, perhaps you noticed that the McCain/Palin ticket, presumably out of deperation, virtually plagiarized the Obama campaign style, running on banal platitudes of "change"?

Pretty embarassing stuff. As if one bout of empty sloganeering weren't enough.

Every challenger to encumbant government in history has used to form of that same slogan. Obama just did it better. "Change" was a codeword for "No more George Bush style government". And he would have been crazy not to push that and try and tap into Bushs low approval ratings.

[Pliny]

Every challenger to encumbant government in history has used to form of that same slogan. Obama just did it better. "Change" was a codeword for "No more George Bush style government". And he would have been crazy not to push that and try and tap into Bushs low approval ratings.

I thought it was code for, "Same old. Same old. At an increased progressive pace."

It would have been crazy to reveal his true plans.

[dre]

I thought it was code for, "Same old. Same old. At an increased progressive pace."

It would have been crazy to reveal his true plans.

Why? What is it you think his true plans were... more government participation in health care? No duh... he campaigned on that. All the bailouts and stimulus? You cant really blame Obama for that... he didnt invent Keynesian economics. This is how literally every government in the world responds to a recession or depression. They try to increase liquidity by dumping money into the system directly, or by taking less out in taxes, lowering interest rates and so on.

So what are these "true plans" that the Obama administration didnt reveal exactly?

[Pliny]

Why? What is it you think his true plans were... more government participation in health care? No duh... he campaigned on that. All the bailouts and stimulus? You cant really blame Obama for that... he didnt invent Keynesian economics. This is how literally every government in the world responds to a recession or depression. They try to increase liquidity by dumping money into the system directly, or by taking less out in taxes, lowering interest rates and so on.

So what are these "true plans" that the Obama administration didnt reveal exactly?

He campaigned on health care reform not health care with a single payer system or government option which is what he wanted but never said. Need more?

I suppose you can't blame Bush for his financial dalliances either since he didn't invent Keynesian economics. All was going really well until the crash, ask any Democrat in office, like Barney Frank or Nasty Pelosi they admit to no participation in the economy whatsoever - but they didn't invent Keynesian economics either, can't really blame them. Even though Barney was up to his ears in NINJA mortgages at Fannie and Freddie.

[dre]

He campaigned on health care reform not health care with a single payer system or government option which is what he wanted but never said. Need more?

I suppose you can't blame Bush for his financial dalliances either since he didn't invent Keynesian economics. All was going really well until the crash, ask any Democrat in office, like Barney Frank or Nasty Pelosi they admit to no participation in the economy whatsoever - but they didn't invent Keynesian economics either, can't really blame them. Even though Barney was up to his ears in NINJA mortgages at Fannie and Freddie.

He campaigned on health care reform not health care with a single payer system or government option which is what he wanted but never said. Need more?

Youre just flat out wrong about that. Obama campaigned a public option, and government run insurance exchanges.

The policy that got implemented was actually far LESS socialistic and government oriented than what he campaigned for.

The "hidden agenda" you accuse him of having was actually a major and very public plank of his election campaign. Did you just not pay attention?

If theres any evidence of a hidden agenda it points to the opposite conclusion that you have reached... It suggests that Obama campaigned on a public insurance option to get votes, then once he was elected signed legislation thats really nothing more than corporate welfare for the insurance companies.

Heres a summary of Obamas healthcare promises during the 2008 campaign.

http://usliberals.about.com/od/healthcare/a/ObamaHlthCare.htm

I suppose you can't blame Bush for his financial dalliances either since he didn't invent Keynesian economics.

I DONT blame Bush for his part of the bailouts/stimulus/tarp etc. Bush and Obama are both light weights in terms of economics. When the system looked like it was crashing they did what their eonomic advisors told them to do, which was the same thing most of the worlds economists advocated and the same thing that virtually every other country did.

[scribblet]

#2 is very bothersome,from an email they sent out - talking about smear, their petition was a smear with misinformation and innuendo, really short on facts. How many of the names on that petition were Canadian, how much of their money was Canadian?

It's no surprise that the left wishes to suppress opposing opinions, this only confirms it.

We did it! "Fox News North" has dropped their bid for forced access to our cable fees!

83,000 of us signed the petition, 25,000 sent letters to the CRTC and 4,000 donated over $115,000 - and last week SunTV, seeing they could not win, dropped their request to the government to force cable companies to carry them. A huge congrats to everyone on this amazing victory for Canada!

It wasn't easy -- the Sun media empire threw everything they had at us - smear pieces, legal threats, even insider knowledge of sabotage of our campaigns -- but our united voices proved more powerful than even a Harper-allied corporate giant.

Let's take a moment to celebrate this, and share thoughts for what we do next. Click below to join a nation-wide live-chat:

Did you know that they are registered as a 3rd party in Canada, spending tens of thousands of dollars aimed at defeating three Conservative candidates in three federal ridings, even though the Elections Act puts a tight limit on that kind of targeted spending to just a few thousand dollars.

I had hoped that after this piece there would be an investigation. I suggest you all write to Elections Canada and your MP asking for one.

http://www.nationalpost.com/m/blog.html?b=fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2010/09/20/kevin-libin-the-third-party-no-one-talks-about

I have only read through about a third of this thread so forgive me if this is answered already but:

1. Why should I give a damn about another news network? This has generated more objection in Southern Ontario then the Al Jezeera Canada chapter and that one even associates regularly with Bin Ladin and his ilk;

2. Isn't the fact that some American group from New York that is fighting to stop this from happening more disconcerting?;

3 Isn't the fact that influential people who comprise our intelligentsia and who make their living based on free speech and expression.....like Margarete Atwood, far more worrisome?

[waldo]

whaaa! Fair & Balanced!

Who let this guy in here?

Who am I — and what am I doing here?

How, you might ask, did a dirty rotten Liberal like Warren Kinsella get into a fine, small-c conservative institution like the Sun? Why is his latte-sipping, Volvo-driving, UN-loving, One-World-Government secular humanist mug staring up at me from the pages of the conservative paper that has been conservative the longest? And, while we’re on the subject, has Peter Worthington recovered yet?

Good questions.

Like Admiral Stockdale, I’m not entirely sure how I came to be here. After all, as Jean Chretien’s attack poodle, as someone once called me, I’m not exactly a key component of the Sun’s target demographic. I’m a Liberal, for Peter’s sake!

I am, however, an opinionated loudmouth, and the Sun Media folks apparently see some value in that. They’ve asked me to type a column for them a couple times a week — and, unlike every other paper I’ve opinionized for, they haven’t tried to tell me what to say.

And, when their TV network gets up and running in the spring, they want me to do the talking head thing there, too. It won’t be dull, but it might be fun.

Who am I, then, and what am I doing here?

Good questions. Guess we’re about to find out.

[Jack Weber]

Hey...I'm eagerly awaiting this thing!!!

Not because I'm some right wing crank in need of my daily fix of venemous vitriol,but because I can't wait until that votriol goes right over the top!!!

I'm mean how many ways and times can someone call someone else an immoral Communist sympathiser and aparatchik before it loses whatever effectiveness was intended by the insult?

As I said before,I want to watch to see which right wing dilly bar can outfirebreath everyone else with phony and empty nationalistic rhetoric and constant fearmongering.I'm still waiting for the line up of "personalities" to be finalized,Charles "I'm a fly on the wall of your conscience" Adler,notwithstanding.I'm really waiting for some really far out right wing kooks to get some air time...

eg.Charles McVety,Gerry Nichols,Michael Taube

For sane people,it'll be laughs a minute!!!

[capricorn]

I'm still waiting for the line up of "personalities" to be finalized,Charles "I'm a fly on the wall of your conscience" Adler,notwithstanding.I'm really waiting for some really far out right wing kooks to get some air time...

Will adding the likes of Warren Kinsella bring balance to the neophyte right wing newscaster?

How, you might ask, did a dirty rotten Liberal like Warren Kinsella get into a fine, small-c conservative institution like the Sun? Why is his latte-sipping, Volvo-driving, UN-loving, One-World-Government secular humanist mug staring up at me from the pages of the conservative paper that has been conservative the longest? And, while we’re on the subject, has Peter Worthington recovered yet?

Good questions.

Like Admiral Stockdale, I’m not entirely sure how I came to be here. After all, as Jean Chretien’s attack poodle, as someone once called me, I’m not exactly a key component of the Sun’s target demographic. I’m a Liberal, for Peter’s sake!

I am, however, an opinionated loudmouth, and the Sun Media folks apparently see some value in that. They’ve asked me to type a column for them a couple times a week — and, unlike every other paper I’ve opinionized for, they haven’t tried to tell me what to say.

And, when their TV network gets up and running in the spring, they want me to do the talking head thing there, too. It won’t be dull, but it might be fun.

Who am I, then, and what am I doing here?

Good questions. Guess we’re about to find out.

http://www.torontosun.com/comment/columnists/2010/10/15/15708226.html

So, Sun Media will give Liberal mouthpiece Kinsella free rein to air his punditry. All I can say is this is a great step forward for freedom of expression in this country and I hope we see more of it.

[scribblet]

Rick Mercer would be a good addition to help balance it out.

[Jack Weber]

Rick Mercer would be a good addition to help balance it out.

It'd certainly be target practice!!!

[Jack Weber]

Will adding the likes of Warren Kinsella bring balance to the neophyte right wing newscaster?

http://www.torontosun.com/comment/columnists/2010/10/15/15708226.html

So, Sun Media will give Liberal mouthpiece Kinsella free rein to air his punditry. All I can say is this is a great step forward for freedom of expression in this country and I hope we see more of it.

He's going to be the token "Allan Colmes" to "balance out" the right wing chest thumping...

Right out of the Murdoch/Ailes playbook....

It's also going to act as convenient cover when they get accused onot being a balanced "news" channel...They can say that they have Warren Kinsella,a known L(l)iberal,on regularily.Of course,we know it won't be fair,or balanced,but it's what Peledeau wants...

[capricorn]

Of course,we know it won't be fair,or balanced,but it's what Peledeau wants...

What Peladeau wants is to make money. If he thinks the US Fox News format, right wing with all the bells and whistles, accounts for Fox News' success there, as a businessman with money to burn, it makes sense for him to clone it in Canada. His underlying purpose is to reach similar success and a hefty profit.

[waldo]

whaaa! Fair & Balanced!

Who let this guy in here?

Who am I — and what am I doing here?

How, you might ask, did a dirty rotten Liberal like Warren Kinsella get into a fine, small-c conservative institution like the Sun? Why is his latte-sipping, Volvo-driving, UN-loving, One-World-Government secular humanist mug staring up at me from the pages of the conservative paper that has been conservative the longest? And, while we’re on the subject, has Peter Worthington recovered yet?

Good questions.

Like Admiral Stockdale, I’m not entirely sure how I came to be here. After all, as Jean Chretien’s attack poodle, as someone once called me, I’m not exactly a key component of the Sun’s target demographic. I’m a Liberal, for Peter’s sake!

I am, however, an opinionated loudmouth, and the Sun Media folks apparently see some value in that. They’ve asked me to type a column for them a couple times a week — and, unlike every other paper I’ve opinionized for, they haven’t tried to tell me what to say.

And, when their TV network gets up and running in the spring, they want me to do the talking head thing there, too. It won’t be dull, but it might be fun.

Who am I, then, and what am I doing here?

Good questions. Guess we’re about to find out.

He's going to be the token "Allan Colmes" to "balance out" the right wing chest thumping...

Right out of the Murdoch/Ailes playbook....

It's also going to act as convenient cover when they get accused onot being a balanced "news" channel...They can say that they have Warren Kinsella,a known L(l)iberal,on regularily.Of course,we know it won't be fair,or balanced,but it's what Peledeau wants...

I wrote exactly that and pulled it back... not thinking many would get (or remember) the Hannity/Colmes charade... the poor sod Colmes, whenever he could actually get a word in, never had a chance - of course, he finally had enough and sought sanity... from Hannity!

I am somewhat taken aback to read the heavy lifter capricorn characterizing it all as simply a Peledeau money grab... here I thought it was all about the need to attempt to counter the so-called "liberal media" bias... here I thought principles were involved... here I thought it was about a concerted Harper Conservative influenced move... here I thought..... but, money? That's it?

[scribblet]

What Peladeau wants is to make money. If he thinks the US Fox News format, right wing with all the bells and whistles, accounts for Fox News' success there, as a businessman with money to burn, it makes sense for him to clone it in Canada. His underlying purpose is to reach similar success and a hefty profit.

Well, he's not going to do it gratis, not even a socialist could do that. It won't be a clone of Fox though because he knows that there isn't a market here for something quiet that heavy. Besides, I don't think there are any Canadian commentators along the line of Beck or Hannity, unless Michael Coren would be it - Coren has mellowed from his earlier CFRB days though when he was downright rude to callers.

I can't see Kinsella being as much of a light weight as Colmes whom I never thought was a good match for Hannity.

[M.Dancer]

What Peladeau wants is to make money. If he thinks the US Fox News format, right wing with all the bells and whistles, accounts for Fox News' success there, as a businessman with money to burn, it makes sense for him to clone it in Canada. His underlying purpose is to reach similar success and a hefty profit.

Exactly. Whether he does is another story. The all news format is not an easy recipe for success. Along with a limited audience, news production can be expensive, especially if it is a foreign location. The trend these days is the talk show (which in my mind is something like Evan Soloman or the Lang O'Leary file. Cheap to produce (With CBC, you never know because they don't tell you what they pay for their guests...and Chatal Hebert et al don't come cheap, but still cheaper than sending 25 people to Kabul).

CBC and CTV have a built in network of feeder stations supplying content of national interest, which shares the cost...CNN has affliate agreements with independants...so does Fox. I don't think Quebecor does so they either have to build it or buy it second hand....which is fraught with pitfalls...

[Michael Hardner]

I don't think Quebecor does so they either have to build it or buy it second hand....which is fraught with pitfalls...

SunTV has been such a waste of airspace... they fall below Rogers local coverage.

[M.Dancer]

SunTV has been such a waste of airspace... they fall below Rogers local coverage.

Probably not...but higher that the xtian channel...

[Pliny]

Youre just flat out wrong about that. Obama campaigned a public option, and government run insurance exchanges.

The policy that got implemented was actually far LESS socialistic and government oriented than what he campaigned for.

If theres any evidence of a hidden agenda it points to the opposite conclusion that you have reached... It suggests that Obama campaigned on a public insurance option to get votes, then once he was elected signed legislation thats really nothing more than corporate welfare for the insurance companies.

Heres a summary of Obamas healthcare promises during the 2008 campaign.

http://usliberals.about.com/od/healthcare/a/ObamaHlthCare.htm

I was admittedly wrong about the government option. I think most people were not taking that too seriously though, as his plan would have driven the private sector out of business and he knew that. He really wanted a single payer system.

And yes, the plan passed in congress was less "socialist" than the one he wanted as you say, and I say, far less socialist than even he would admit to having wanted.

He tried to ease concerns about his "redistributing the wealth" statement. That was a slip straight out of the socialist handbook.

What he said depended a lot on who he thought his audience was which I'm sure most politicians are guilty of but his attempt to distance himself from the "socialist" label while talking about taking from the rich and giving to the poor, redistributing wealth, and offering a public option in health care was to me a stretch.

Now certain socialist concepts have been adopted like the graduated tax system and somehow people are convinced this is fair. So no one advocates taxing the poor. There is no money there anyway. But if you are looking at equal treatment under the law then it obviously fails as treating individuals equally and that failure is an injustice.

Basically, Obama thinks government can and should provide solutions to all of society's ills and inequities, but when government starts to decide what the ills and inequities are and provide it's solutions they create more problems and historically exacerbate the ones they address, the war on drugs, the war on poverty, the war on illiteracy - failures, each and every one.

I believe the degree of social engineering and government intervention and regulation that Obama would like to see is greater than he is willing to admit to the American public. That's what I see on his agenda.

I DONT blame Bush for his part of the bailouts/stimulus/tarp etc. Bush and Obama are both light weights in terms of economics. When the system looked like it was crashing they did what their eonomic advisors told them to do, which was the same thing most of the worlds economists advocated and the same thing that virtually every other country did.

I agree. They listened to their economic advisers. There is no shortage of Keynesian economists. I note an unprecedented number of Obama's key economic advisers abandoning ship. Bernanke is going ahead with some "quantitive easing".

[Pliny]

It seems that "fair and balanced" to the left crowd here means everyone has to be a liberal.

Kinsella is a liberal and will offer the usual liberal viewpoint at which point the right will have the opportunity to analyze and counter, something that is missing in our current unfair and unbalanced media. Is Fox news unbiased? Of course not, if you want a right wing perspective on things then you can listen to it. I do not consider myself right wing politically or left wing and have my differences with the Conservative platform but I certainly enjoy seeing Liberals called to task on their platform. The left has always had the opportunity to paint the right in a negative light but the reverse has not been true. It's pretty well impossible in Canada to argue some issues like the environment.

Edited October 18, 2010 by Pliny

[Michael Hardner]

It seems that "fair and balanced" to the left crowd here means everyone has to be a liberal.

I think it would be a good thing to have a centre-right channel, but I think CTV is already that channel. My only opposition to Fox is that the continue to flout the distinction between news and entertainment, and the Sun can't be expected to improve on that.

[bush_cheney2004]

....My only opposition to Fox is that the continue to flout the distinction between news and entertainment, and the Sun can't be expected to improve on that.

So you oppose free speech / freedom of expression? Why?

[M.Dancer]

I think it would be a good thing to have a centre-right channel, but I think CTV is already that channel. My only opposition to Fox is that the continue to flout the distinction between news and entertainment, and the Sun can't be expected to improve on that.

News is entertaining....not much different than CTV news talking about the previous nights winners on Dance Canada, or the CBC news talking about battle of the blades...this had more to do with convergence, something SUN won't have (yet).

[Michael Hardner]

So you oppose free speech / freedom of expression? Why?

I don't oppose freedom of expression, but I oppose Fox.