They have GOT to be kidding!

So there's another petition link being passed around by the leftists/liberals I know (why is it only the left leaning folks I know that pass petitions around?  My right leaning friends almost never do, and when they do, it's in support of something (or some one), not against).  This time it's a petition to stop "Fox News North."

It's driving me nuts.  Do the folks on the left just not research anything?  Do they just automatically assume anything against the right, the CPC or PM Harper is true, so long as it paints them as evil?

I won't put the link here.  If you want to sign it, go to the Care2 site and find it yourself.  If you just want to read it, I'll save you the trouble.

This is what's on the petition, with my comments added.

First, let's just start with the name of the petition:  Keep Hate Media Out of Canada.

Okay.  Fair enough.  But what is this "hate media" they're taking about?  Here's the overview.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is trying to create a "Fox News North" -- 

Uhm.  No.  PH Harper is doing no such thing.  Despite rumours and innuendo, the PM has nothing to do with this channel.  Quebecor, a private corporation which owns Sun Media, is creating an all-news, conservative/right leaning channel called Sun TV.  They're going to combine various forms of media, including TV, print and the internet, which is something other media companies are working towards as well.  It's going to be a right-leaning station, trying to balance out all the left leaning channels we already have.  Currently, there is NO right, or even centrist, Canadian channel.  How does that make it a "Fox News North?"

similar to the kind of hate-filled propaganda Fox News displays.

Fox News is hate-filled propaganda?  Look, I don't watch tv news for a reason, but I especially can't stomach the US news channels.  CNN is every bit as obnoxious as Fox.  Any accusation made against Fox for that sort of thing can equally be made against CNN.  Or CBC, Global and CTV for that matter.  Here's some news to the folks on the left: just because something supports a position you agree with or comes from the left, that doesn't make the vitriol any less hateful then when it comes from a right/conservative viewpoint.  Personally, I'd like to see news channels just report the news, not have their anchors and reporters making rude or snide comments, or twisting stories into some made up controversy full of allegations and suspicion, but no facts or evidence - like the CBC did when trying to make a connection between anti-long gun registry people and the NRA.  One of the most pathetic attempts to manufacture a controversy I've seen in a long time.  It totally disgusted me.  Ah, well.  That's what I get for watching the news in hopes of catching a local story. 

The channel will be run by Harper's former top aide

 So?  Seriously.  Are you trying to say that, just because this guy used to work with Harper, he can't get a job in the media?  Would this also apply to any Liberal former aides?  Are they, too, banned from media jobs?


Oh, and it isn't going to be run by him.  When people made a big stink about his connection to Harper, he chose to step down rather than allow the haters (and yes, they are haters - the things being said about him have been pure poison) drag down the proposed channel because of him.  He didn't have to do that, but he believed enough in what he was doing that he gave it up.  I believe it's called integrity.  Look it up.

and will be funded with money from Canadian citizens' cable TV fees!

 No.  It won't.  The station is being funded by Quebecor.  They were applying for a specific license.  Actually, one type first, then the other.  One type of license would have Sun TV as part of the basic cable package cable companies offer.  CBC is on there, as is Global and CTV and a whole bunch of other channels we never watch but pay for anyway.  The other type, if they couldn't get the first one, would have required cable companies to have Sun TV available to customers.  The customers could still choose not to buy it, but the companies would have to offer it.   

Now, from a purely business perspective, it makes sense for a start up channel to apply for the first type of license.  It also makes perfect sense to try for the other, if they got turned down for the first.  What company wouldn't?  It would be stupid not to.  The whole point of having a tv channel is to have it available to as many people as possible.  How else are they going to be successful?

Quebecor, however, has pulled its application completely.  They're going to have to convince individual carrier companies to take them on.  This actually gives them a lot more freedom, even if it might make it harder to get carrier companies to offer them in their line up. 

Of course, pretty much all the stations are funded by our cable fees (plus advertisers, shareholders, etc).  That's part of what the fees are for, after all.   What cable tv channel isn't funded by cable fees?  The thing is, until Sun TV is actually out there and people start buying the channel, it's going to be funded by Quebecor, shareholders and advertisers, not cable fees.

One major opponent of this new media outlet is the Chairman of Canada's Radio and Telecommunications Commission Konrad von Finckenstein. As a result, Harper is trying to get him out of the job well before Finckenstein's term as chairman is up.

Well, that's just plain bull.

This type of biased, hateful media will bring no good to Canada. Show Harper that you do not approve of his new idea.
Take action -- prevent this biased media from entering Canadian airwaves!

Hold on... what biased, hateful media?  Fox News North?  There is no such channel.  Fox News?  How can people claim that a TV station that isn't even up and running yet be biased or hateful?  In fact, the only biased and hateful commentary I've seen has been coming from the people who oppose the channel.

That's the overview.  Click on a tab, and you see the letter meant for PM Harper.

Prime Minister Harper,

I am writing to express my disapproval of the proposed "Fox News North."

Note that they don't use the channel's actual name, Sun TV, at any point in this petition.  They're fixating on the Fox News connection, even though Fox News has nothing to do with this channel.

This type of biased and hateful media will bring no good to Canadian television -- and I refuse to fund and support such a program. I do not want this type of television to be aired in Canada.

Again, how can a channel that isn't even up and running yet be biased and hateful?  Because they're intending to be right leaning/conservative?  Is that really it?  If they don't want it, how does that give them the right to tell everyone else they can't have it, either?  We're all grown up enough to make those decisions ourselves, thank you very much.

 The U.S. Fox News Network has already sparked enough controversy, we do not need any of that negativity here.

Once again, it's all about Fox News.  Fox News has nothing to do with this channel.  This is not going to be a carbon copy of Fox News.  

Then there's the whole "controversy" and "negativity" comment.  Seriously?  Is this a joke?  The news - ALL news - thrives on controversy and negativity!  They go out of their way to find and report on controversy and negativity, even if they have to make it up themselves.  Since when was it anyone's job to shielf viewers from controversy and negativity?  Of all the possible reasons to ban a station from airing, they picked a couple of really lame ones, here.
 

Please spare the people of Canada this expense and type of media -- we do not want a Fox News North.

Sincerely,
[Your name here] 

You know what?  I'd rather be spared from busybodies who think they can dictate to the rest of us what "type" of TV we can watch, or what we are willing to pay for!  If they don't want to watch it, they can change the channel.  No one is going to force them to watch Sun TV, nor is anyone (despite insinuations to the contrary) going to force them to pay for it, like we're forced to pay for the CBC through our tax dollars.   

There is room for Sun TV on Canadian TVs.  There are even people eager to have an alternative station to what we have now.  Personally, I'd like to at least see it before I make up my mind as to whether or not it's any good.  Heck, I'd even prefer it to be offered with the basic cable package.  I'm already paying for a whole bunch of channels I don't want, and at least this way I wouldn't have to pay extra just to check it out.

So here we have a petition that is filled with lies, insinuations and misinformation.  A petition against a channel where they won't even use that channel's real name.  A petition against "hate filled media" that is... well... biased and hateful; the very things the petition is supposedly against.


Needless to say, I won't be signing it.


What I can't get over, however, is just how amazingly threatened the left is by this channel.  So much so, that they are willing to put up petitions full of lies like this one.


What are they so afraid of?