Will Sun TV News be Good or Bad for Canadian Democracy?

[shelphs]

The Canadian Sun News TV channel has been dubbed Fox News North and when it debuts on January 1, 2011, it will duplicate the Fox News 24-hour news channel format of news/opinion programming, which is a type of programming that has never been done before in Canada.

Stations that are labeled “24-hour news channels” should not have news/opinion programming in which a host is featured and his/her political opinions are not only known but celebrated and continually presented and constantly defended by the host and guests.

Hosts associated with news programming need to be moderators for fair and balanced programming to exist. The pseudo-news featured on Fox by its opinion personalities is so far removed from being informative and factual that its format label – “all-news channel” – is a ridiculous and unfunny joke.

The news/opinion format that includes opinion personalities in place of moderators is destructive to democracy in how it panders to ratings above all else. Though it would be nice to have highly entertaining and lively news, it is not a necessity; rather, relevant, unambiguous facts, and informative opinions are far more valuable than the bickering of polarized and, usually, uninformed people.

I support Sun TV News if it does not reflect the above negative attributes that accompany news/opinion programming, but how likely is it that the new news network will put meaningful and unambiguous reporting ahead of ratings and entertainment?

Vote in poll that asks the question - Is news/opinion programming good or bad for democracy? - by going to the following link: http://shelphs.wordpress.com/

To vote on your view of Sun TV News’ intentions, go to the following link: http://shelphspolitics.wordpress.com/

To watch a video on Sun News entitle 'Sun TV News...Fox News North?' go to the following link:

Edited December 11, 2010 by shelphs

[bush_cheney2004]

How ironic...if one doesn't agree with the programming model and content, sally forth and shut them down regardless of freedom of expression.

"We see an opportunity in offering Canadians something new, something better, something distinct. It is time to shake up the current players of the Canadian broadcasting system," Peladeau said in a statement.

Heading the new channel will be newly hired Quebecor vice-president Kory Teneycke, a former staff member at the Prime Minister's Office, who said Canadians have tuned out traditional news channels that are

"boring, smug and condescending."

"CBC News Network and CTV News Channel have had respectively 21 and 13 years to get it right and they've failed to win over viewers," Teneycke said.

"Canadian TV news today is narrow, complacent, and politically correct," he said, adding that Sun TV News will be "different," with hard news reporting during the day and "straight talk" opinion journalism at night.

"This will not be another network catering to elite opinion and ignoring stories important to many Canadians."

[shelphs]

How ironic...if one doesn't agree with the programming model and content, sally forth and shut them down regardless of freedom of expression.

I have in no way stated that the news network has no legal right to exist, but I have commented on how beneficial would a Fox News style network would be for Canada and Canadians and the function of news stations. I do feel that opinion programming and opinion personalities have nothing to do with news and they do not belong on a network that is categorized as being a 24-hours news station, for opinion programming has nothing to do with news or honest debate. however, it does not have to be that way, it just is.

Opinion programming belongs on a network categorized as, lets say, 'opinion politics'. the word news should in no way be associated with opinion shows that feature hosts whose views are not only known but celebrated and continually presented and constantly defended. that is not news in the tradition of journalism and news reporting, which was designed to inform the public with facts.

[bush_cheney2004]

.... that is not news in the tradition of journalism and news reporting, which was designed to inform the public with facts.

Your premise is obsolete...and by your own admission there is no such legal or regulatory requirement for "news reporting" to be sanitized in such a way. Why are so many Canadians watching the American 24 hour news channel format?

[shelphs]

Your premise is obsolete...and by your own admission there is no such legal or regulatory requirement for "news reporting" to be sanitized in such a way. Why are so many Canadians watching the American 24 hour news channel format?

They're watching it because it is good at being what it was designed to be - entertaining. Entertaining is fine, but when the entertainment value is more important than providing unambiguous facts and meaningful opinion to the public discourse, there is a problem. I simply don't want to see that problem replicated in Canada.

An example on how negatively influential news/opinion programming can be iss the level of distrust with Obama's health care reform and the number of people that truly believe or believed 'death panels' were a reality in the legislation and the number of people who saw the likelihood that health care reform that brought USA closer to universal health care could only be a bad thing. This was made possible due to Fox News' very smart and powerful media blitz on the issue.

[Evening Star]

Your premise is obsolete...

Why?

[bush_cheney2004]

They're watching it because it is good at being what it was designed to be - entertaining.

Then it follows that if Sun is successful with the format, Canadians will be equally "entertained".

Entertaining is fine, but when the entertainment value is more important than providing unambiguous facts and meaningful opinion to the public discourse, there is a problem. I simply don't want to see that problem replicated in Canada.

Why would it be a problem? The existing boring-to-tears format would remain, no? It is one thing to ban American media content from crossing the border (CRTC), but quite another to insist that government financed mouthpieces (i.e. CBC) be given preference over other (competing) possibilities from within Canada.

An example on how negatively influential news/opinion programming can be iss the level of distrust with Obama's health care reform and the number of people that truly believe or believed 'death panels' were a reality in the legislation and the number of people who saw the likelihood that health care reform that brought USA closer to universal health care could only be a bad thing. This was made possible due to Fox News' very smart and powerful media blitz on the issue.

Single payer reform failed in the US because it never had a chance in the first place. President Obama knew this going in based on the Clinton experience 15 years earlier. Fox News (and other media outlets) echoed and reinforced the politically obvious.

[Evening Star]

Why would it be a problem? The existing boring-to-tears format would remain, no? It is one thing to ban American media content from crossing the border (CRTC), but quite another to insist that government financed mouthpieces (i.e. CBC) be given preference over other (competing) possibilities from within Canada.

When has the CRTC banned US media content (unless you're talking about commercials on US TV shows)? Is there any country more saturated with US media than Canada?

[bush_cheney2004]

Why?

Because the history of "journalism" is filled with examples of bias and nefarious purpose going back to the days of Pulitzer vs. Hearst. Powerful interests owned and influenced media just as they do today. Only a fool would pretend that keeping Sun TV off the air or cable systems assures Canadians of pure journalism.

[shelphs]

Then it follows that if Sun is successful with the format, Canadians will be equally "entertained".

And my point is not entertainment value but instead the most important part of news, which has nothing, ultimately, to do with entertainment for its own sake.

News' entertainment value derives from the entertainment gained from learning about something happening on the domestic or international stage. It has to do with factual reports about something happening and not someone's subjective opinion about it.

[shelphs]

And my point is not entertainment value but instead the most important part of news, which has nothing, ultimately, to do with entertainment for its own sake.

News' entertainment value derives from the entertainment gained from learning about something happening on the domestic or international stage. It has to do with factual reports about something happening and not someone's subjective opinion about it.

anything labeled news or a news program that does not adhere to the above is regretful and a disservice to the people in which it is inflicted upon.

[bush_cheney2004]

When has the CRTC banned US media content (unless you're talking about commercials on US TV shows)? Is there any country more saturated with US media than Canada?

See CanCon Rules and Howard Stern! This thread is even more curious because it proposes that even a certain format (not specific content) is not acceptable.

[bush_cheney2004]

anything labeled news or a news program that does not adhere to the above is regretful and a disservice to the people in which it is inflicted upon.

Nonsense...it is not "inflicted" upon anybody choosing to change the channel. What are you so afraid of when it comes to diverse views and ways to present same?

[Evening Star]

CanCon rules don't ban anything. I will look up the Howard Stern issue. No one on this thread has advocated banning SunTV. The question was just whether we think it will have a good effect.

(You have a reasonable point that journalism has always been slanted. At least everyone knows what Fox's slant is.)

[bush_cheney2004]

CanCon rules don't ban anything. I will look up the Howard Stern issue. No one on this thread has advocated banning SunTV. The question was just whether we think it will have a good effect.

Actually, the question posed concerns chances that "unambiguous" news content will flow from Sun TV, when we all know that no other current news outlet can meet such a high standard either.

Why pick on Sun?

[shelphs]

Because the history of "journalism" is filled with examples of bias and nefarious purpose going back to the days of Pulitzer vs. Hearst. Powerful interests owned and influenced media just as they do today. Only a fool would pretend that keeping Sun TV off the air or cable systems assures Canadians of pure journalism.

I do not advocate that the station be kept off the air, I simply say that opinion personalities have nothing to do with news, which they factually do not, for they are not obligated to provide any facts. Personalities are precisely that, and they say what their personality thinks. simple. this is no way remotely close to news aside from the fact, sadly, that they are on a station that is categorized as a news station.

Anyone can turn on a computer and record themselves and their views on a webcam and that is equal to a news personality in content. The only real difference, and it is so very important and comedically tragic, is that, if you may pretend, your own webcam post is a daily element of a show on a 24-hour network that is classified as a news network.

Yeah, I see no problem with that. That seems natural and fair.

[eyeball]

"This will not be another network catering to elite opinion and ignoring stories important to many Canadians."

No, it'll be a new network that feeds people's sense of outrage, something that is important to an elite of a different type.

[bush_cheney2004]

....Yeah, I see no problem with that. That seems natural and fair.

Assuming your sarcasm, you are advocating for a journalism standard that has never existed. There is nothing magic or sacred about the "news" moniker or label in public or private broadcasting. If one wishes to make a case for the "public good", there is plenty of other content that fails in that regard as well, depending on who is asked.

[bush_cheney2004]

No, it'll be a new network that feeds people's sense of outrage, something that is important to an elite of a different type.

Correct...the more the merrier! No more dependence on American media...LOL!

[dre]

The Canadian Sun News TV channel has been dubbed Fox News North and when it debuts on January 1, 2011, it will duplicate the Fox News 24-hour news channel format of news/opinion programming, which is a type of programming that has never been done before in Canada.

Stations that are labeled “24-hour news channels” should not have news/opinion programming in which a host is featured and his/her political opinions are not only known but celebrated and continually presented and constantly defended by the host and guests.

Hosts associated with news programming need to be moderators for fair and balanced programming to exist. The pseudo-news featured on Fox by its opinion personalities is so far removed from being informative and factual that its format label – “all-news channel” – is a ridiculous and unfunny joke.

The news/opinion format that includes opinion personalities in place of moderators is destructive to democracy in how it panders to ratings above all else. Though it would be nice to have highly entertaining and lively news, it is not a necessity; rather, relevant, unambiguous facts, and informative opinions are far more valuable than the bickering of polarized and, usually, uninformed people.

I support Sun TV News if it does not reflect the above negative attributes that accompany news/opinion programming, but how likely is it that the new news network will put meaningful and unambiguous reporting ahead of ratings and entertainment?

To vote on your view of Sun TV News’ intentions, go to the following link: http://shelphspolitics.wordpress.com/

To watch a video on Sun News entitle 'Sun TV News...Fox News North?' go to the following link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ly7cZjiUT_4

I basically just expect more ratings driven infotainment... Fake news like CNN, and FOX, thats 22 hours a day of editorializing, and celebrity fluff, and maybe an hour of real news added up.

[Keepitsimple]

Hey guys. They on going on cable whether we like it or not. Lets see what they have to offer and then offer up our critique.

[Pliny]

They're watching it because it is good at being what it was designed to be - entertaining. Entertaining is fine, but when the entertainment value is more important than providing unambiguous facts and meaningful opinion to the public discourse, there is a problem. I simply don't want to see that problem replicated in Canada.

An example on how negatively influential news/opinion programming can be iss the level of distrust with Obama's health care reform and the number of people that truly believe or believed 'death panels' were a reality in the legislation and the number of people who saw the likelihood that health care reform that brought USA closer to universal health care could only be a bad thing. This was made possible due to Fox News' very smart and powerful media blitz on the issue.

And of course the socialist Nobel prize winning Economist replied: "Death Panels necessary"

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/14/death-panels-and-sales-taxes/

Edited December 12, 2010 by Pliny

[Shwa]

I basically just expect more ratings driven infotainment... Fake news like CNN, and FOX, thats 22 hours a day of editorializing, and celebrity fluff, and maybe an hour of real news added up.

And it will have the benefits of flushing all the mental cases out of the woodwork, thus allowing a much easier targetting method for re-education and re-integration into normal society. It won't be long before the community colleges are offering adult night courses on many 'liberal' art topics such as politics, history and languages.

So overall, SunTV will be very good for Canadian democracy.

[Saipan]

Fake news like CNN, and FOX, thats 22 hours a day of editorializing, and celebrity fluff, and maybe an hour of real news added up.

Why do you watch CNN, and FOX?

The main point here is what "news" do Canadian taxpayers are forced to pay for.

[Bugs]

And it will have the benefits of flushing all the mental cases out of the woodwork, thus allowing a much easier targetting method for re-education and re-integration into normal society. It won't be long before the community colleges are offering adult night courses on many 'liberal' art topics such as politics, history and languages.

So overall, SunTV will be very good for Canadian democracy.

You talk like a North Korean ...

I don't know why sending somebody to an institution of supposed 'higher learning' is a solution to the ignorance problem in this country. Those institutions regularly spread ignorance. They churn out a misinformed product that has more interest in Lady Gaga than in the issues of the day.