Fox news makes stuff up - no surprise at all

FOX NEWS INSIDER: “Stuff Is Just Made Up” | Media Matters for America
And this is why Stephen Harper stacked the deck of the CRTC and is pushing for changing our broadcast regulations so he can have his own station of lies - Fox News North - be able to broadcast bald lies and propaganda.

Worth Repeating: CRTC Becoming Conservative Central

Let Freedom Reign: It's not just the courts Harper is stacking with partisan hacks: CRTC becoming Conservative central.
Excerpt:

NDP heritage critic Charlie Angus noted that the job notice for the vacancy listed a range of qualifications that Pentefountas does not have.
"This appointment stinks," he said.

"This government has intervened and undermined again and again at the CRTC. In the case of Mr. Pentefountas, they not only broke the vetting process, they did it with the direct intervention of the PMO. So now we have the political strings of the prime minister directly at the senior level of the CRTC."

Harper government would like to be able to lie to you even more

Globe & Mail: CRTC plan to lift ban on false news prompts political investigation
Excerpt:

NDP MP Charlie Angus noted that the proposed change precedes the start of Sun TV, a network that has been shepherded in large part by Kory Teneycke, the former director of communication to Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

“We all know our Prime Minister well enough to say we don’t have to be in the realm of conspiracy theory here,” Mr. Angus said at a news conference on Monday. “We can draw our conclusions and they are pretty clear.”

Behind the scenes, officials say the timing is purely coincidental, the PMO had nothing to do with it, and that the CRTC simply realized it eventually had to answer the concerns of the regulatory committee.

But Mr. Angus persuaded the Commons committee on Canadian heritage to initiate a study of the CRTC proposal. And he urged Canadians to let the commission know how they feel about it before the Wednesday deadline.

“What’s disturbed us with this [proposed] regulation change is that it’s happening very quickly and there’s very little awareness of it,” Mr. Angus said.

“It seems astounding that the CRTC would consider such a move at a time when we see the growing backlash in the United States to the poisoned levels of political discourse in the American media.”

This may be why the Conservatives overturned the UBB ruling by the CRTC

Canadians demand more than “truthiness” | NDP
The Conservatives may have overturned the CRTC ruling on User-Based-Billing to take our minds off another CRTC decision that they WANT to stay - to allow misleading or inaccurate news to be published so long as it did not "endanger the lives, health or safety of the public." The Conservatives want this so their new Fox News North station can broadcast lies to the public, like Fox News does in the USA, where the news publishing standards allow this already.

Victory for Canadians and Avaaz - No Fox News North!

From Avaaz:

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:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/crtc_report_back/?vl

Just 3 weeks ago, our campaign caused the resignation in disgrace of SunTV chief and former Harper spin doctor Kory Teneycke (after we pressed for an RCMP investigation into the sabotage of our petition by people linked to Teneycke). While significant, Teneycke was just replaced by another scandal-ridden spin doctor for another conservative Prime Minister.

But the decision to abandon the forced access to our fees is a huge deal. "Fox News North" (SunTV) has admitted that, if given a free choice, Canadians won't watch it enough to make it profitable - that's why they sought a special licence from the CRTC that would force cable companies to carry them, and why the press warned that the CRTC was under pressure from the Harper government to grant this licence. So, the success of our people-powered campaign could mean the end of this attempt to bring a poisonous brand of crony-media to Canada. Hooray!

Harper's radical-right clique has launched a full scale assault on our democracy - forcing out top civil servants for refusing to be politicized, controlling press access to government like never before, even shutting down our Parliament when it suited them. A 24 hour propaganda news channel that backed their every move, no matter how outrageous, could have been a headshot to our country's democratic character. This victory is Canadian democracy's resilient response, and it's beautiful. Thank you!!

With gratitude and excitement for all we can achieve together in the future,
Ricken, Emma, Laryn and the whole Avaaz team

Sun TV gears down licence application, The Globe and Mail:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/sun-tv-gears-down-licence-application/article1743859/

Fox News North - Not: Savour the victory, The Vancouver Sun:
http://communities.canada.com/vancouversun/blogs/communityofinterest/archive/2010/10/06/fox-news-north-not-savour-the-victory.aspx

CRTC holds public public hearing on "Fox News North " (SunTV)

Broadcasting Notice of Consultation CRTC 2010-649

Notice of hearing

19 November 2010

Gatineau, Quebec

Deadline for submission of interventions/comments: 1 October 2010

The Commission will hold a hearing commencing 19 November 2010 at 9 a.m. at the Conference Centre, Portage IV, 140 Promenade du Portage, Gatineau, Quebec, to consider the following application:

 [Broadcasting interventions/comments form]

Applicant and locality

1. TVA Group Inc., on behalf of a general partnership to be constituted or a corporation to be incorporated

Across Canada

Application 2010-1188-2

1. Across Canada

Application 2010-1188-2

Application by TVA Group Inc., on behalf of a general partnership to be constituted or a corporation to be incorporated,
for a broadcasting licence to operate a national, English-language
Category 2 specialty television programming undertaking to be known as
Sun TV News.

The proposed licensee will be formed or owned by TVA
Group Inc. (51%) and Sun Media Corporation (49%), two subsidiaries of
Quebecor Media Inc.

The applicant stated that the application is in
accordance with the Commission’s framework for competitive national news
services, as set out in Conditions of licence for competitive Canadian specialty services operating in the genres of mainstream sports and national news, Broadcasting Regulatory Policy CRTC 2009-562, 4 September 2009, and that it would accept the standard conditions of licence set out in Conditions
of licence for competitive Canadian specialty services operating in the
genres of mainstream sports and national news – Implementation of the
Accessibility Policy and other matters, Broadcasting Regulatory Policy CRTC 2009-562-1, 18 June 2010.

However, the applicant is seeking an exception to Broadcasting Regulatory Policy 2009-562 by applying for mandatory access.

The applicant argued that Sun TV News requires short-term
and time-limited mandatory access by broadcasting distribution
undertakings for a maximum period of three years to effectively expose
and promote its programming to viewers across Canada.

The applicant stated that it was not seeking mandatory
basic distribution, but only to be made available on cable and satellite
distribution undertakings, allowing the public to have access to Sun TV
News without any obligation to choose it.

Additional information may be placed on the public
examination file as it becomes available. The Commission encourages
interested parties to monitor the public examination file and the
Commission’s website for additional information that they may find
useful when preparing their comments.

How Fox North became Harper's priority

How Fox North became Harper's priority | rabble.ca
Excerpt:

The Globe and Mail's Jeffrey Simpson doubts Fox News North is going
to "make or break or even influence the shape of Canadian politics,
whatever the ideological fervour of Kory Teneycke" but author and
Toronto Star columnist Linda McQuaig disagrees.

"There's been a tendency in the Canadian media to dismiss the threat
of a Fox News transplant on the grounds Canadians wouldn't fall for that
sort of nasty, right-wing extremism," she writes. "But that comforting
notion may be naïve." Most people don't have time to follow politics in
detail, she continues. "If they hear constant sound bites suggesting
global warming is a hoax or public health care just doesn't work, after a
while the message starts to seem believable."

She points out the media already blasts Canadians with a steady
chorus of right-wing ideas. "A Fox-style network here - if Harper gets
his way - would turn that into a deafening cacophony."

It all makes soldiers with guns on Canada's streets more plausible with every passing day.

See also:
Stop Harper's Hate Media Channel - Sign The Petition

Stop Harper's hate media channel - sign the petition

Canada: no taxes to fund hate
Prime Minister Harper is trying to push American-style hate media onto our airwaves, and make us all pay for it.

His plan is to create a "Fox News North" to mimic the kind of hate-filled propaganda with which Fox News has poisoned U.S. politics. The channel will be run by Harper’s former top aide and will be funded with money from our TV license fees!

One man stands in the way of this nightmare -- the Chairman of
Canada's Radio and Telecommunications Commission Konrad von
Finckenstein. He's rejected the plan as a violation of CRTC policies, so
now Harper is trying to force him out. Let's urgently send a massive wave of public support to von Finckenstein.


See also:
Globe and Mail: Is Stephen Harper set to move against the CRTC?

And, from AVAAZ:

Dear friends,

Prime Minister Harper is trying to push American-style hate media onto our airwaves, and make us all pay for it.

His plan is to create a "Fox News North" to mimic the kind of hate-filled propaganda with which Fox News has poisoned U.S. politics. The channel will be run by Harper’s former top aide and will be funded with money from our TV license fees!

One man stands in the way of this nightmare -- the Chairman of Canada's Radio and Telecommunications Commission Konrad von Finckenstein. He's rejected the plan as a violation of CRTC policies, so now Harper is trying to force him out. Let's urgently send a massive wave of public support to von Finckenstein, with 100,000 Canadians encouraging him to keep standing up for Canada, and standing firm against Harper's pressure. Sign the petition below and forward this email to everyone -- we'll publish full page ads in Canadian papers when we reach 100,000:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/no_fox_news_canada/97.php?cl_tta_sign=9c8fbe249c5a1dbd20bb30b747744821

Harper hatched his scheme in a secret lunch last year with media-mogul Rupert Murdoch, the owner of Fox News. Harper's aide Kory Teneycke, who will lead "Fox News North" also came to the lunch.

Fox News fuels hate. While claiming to be “fair” and “balanced”, it allows hysterical anchors like Glenn Beck to compare Obama to "Lucifer" and "Hitler" and bully 11 year-old girls. Bill O’Reilly has threatened to boycott Canada, and Anne Coulter says Canada is “lucky the US allows it to exist on the same continent.” The network has calculatingly spawned the tea party movement in the US, a mobilisation of the fringe right which threatens violence upon its opponents and wears guns to political rallies. Even more sinister, every bit of content is calculated to appear 'unbiased' while being deeply manipulative. Objectivity is hard for any journalist, but there is a massive difference between those who try, and those who serve another agenda. Perhaps most tellingly, Fox News regularly labels Canada "communist" and "a country suffering under public health care".

This is a fight for the soul of Canadian democracy. Our media is not perfect, but a ‘news’ network that slavishly serves a radical political agenda and a particular political leader threatens the fabric of our democratic society. In Canadian media, there is no room for manipulation through fear, hatred, deceit and demonisation.

This is Harper's long term strategy to make radical conservatism the political centre in Canada, tearing down the country we love to make us look like the U.S. But first, Harper needs to convince von Finckenstein to step down before the end of his term in 2012. Insiders say he’s already been offered some pretty fancy jobs including an ambassador’s post in Chile. But we can stand up and urge him to stay right where he is -- protecting Canadians from biased news coverage and hateful pundits. Let's raise a massive outcry for Konrad von Finckenstein. Tell him to stand strong, and stay in his job:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/no_fox_news_canada/97.php?cl_tta_sign=9c8fbe249c5a1dbd20bb30b747744821

Harper is attacking Canada’s tradition of fairness and commitment to democracy. He is trying to bully through the protections we have against exactly the kind of government propaganda that is Fox News North. We can answer by exercising our collective voice and showing him and his cronies that Canadians won’t be forced to accept American hate media.

In solidarity,

Ricken, Emma, Iain, and the rest of the Avaaz team

Sources:

Globe and Mail, “Is Harper set to move against the CRTC?”:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/lawrence-martin/is-stephen-harper-set-to-move-against-the-crtc/article1677632/

CBC, “The absolute last thing this country needs”:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2010/06/10/f-vp-newman.html#socialcomments#ixzz0r6MC4p46

Globe and Mail, CRTC refuses Sun TV's bid for preferred status on dial:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/crtc-refuses-sun-tvs-bid-for-preferred-status-on-dial/article1641654/

The Star, “Harper’s foxy luncheon”:
http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorialopinion/article/851510--mcquaig-harper-s-foxy-luncheon

Mediaite, “Canada and Ann Coulter: a volatile relationship”:
http://www.mediaite.com/online/canada-ann-coulter-colleges/

Media Matters, “Glenn Beck compares Obama to Lucifer”:
http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201008040051

Media Matters, “Glenn Beck smears Obama’s 11 year old daughter”:
http://mediamatters.org/blog/201005280025

The Examiner: “Bill O’Reilly again confuses facts about Canadian health care system”:
http://www.examiner.com/political-buzz-in-national/video-bill-o-reilly-again-confuses-facts-about-canadian-health-care-system

Fox News NORTH won't be forced onto your cable package - yet

CRTC refuses Sun TV’s bid for preferred status on dial - The Globe and Mail
The CRTC has denied the application by Quebecor (owner of "Fox North" aka SUN TV) to have their news channel distributed by all cable and satellite firms. Quebeor argued that their new news channel would be a unique genre in Canada. The CRTC said, uh, I don' think so - "there was little to distinguish Sun TV from other all-news services"

Of course, Quebecor will re-apply, rewording their application.