John Doyle of the Globe and Mail must really think his readers are idiots.
In his most recent article, found here, Doyle chronicles ten things “you should know” about Sun TV (or rather, some fictional news channel known as “Fox News North”.)
Remember, friends, SunTV has yet to actually go to air, so everything people are saying about its editorial content is conjecture, supposition, innuendo, and terrorism.
I don’t usually bother directly addressing the works of others, as I prefer to concentrate on my own material, however John Doyle needs a response, so here goes, point by point.
1. Margaret Atwood won, Kory Teneycke lost. Doyle claims Atwood made some sort of connection between the CRTC, government hostility towards arms-length federal bodies and Sun TV’s application. Uh, no, John, she didn’t. Avaaz made that connection, and Margaret Atwood fell for it. Hook, line, and sinker. The CRTC’s Konrad von Finckenstein himself sent a letter to the Globe and Mail – categorically denying being the recipient of pressure from Stephen Harper, the PMO, or the government. Of course, the Globe and Mail buried it deep in the Letters to the Editor section, after covering the sensational “HARPER PRESSURES KINCKENSTEIN” story on Page One, but the Globe and Mail can’t possibly have a bias. Oh no. Not the Globe and Mail.
2. Allegations of media bias are irresponsible hooey. Hooey. Sure. What did I just point out at the end of Point One again?
3. The CBC is not shoved down anyone’s throat. A democracy has a public broadcaster, paid for by all citizens. This is categorically incorrect. The US is a democracy. The US does not have a public broadcaster paid for by all its citizens. The PBS is viewer-supported, true, however support is voluntary, which explains the annoying “beg-for-money” drives the PBS engages in now and again. While I’m not forced to watch the CBC (and I don’t) my tax dollars subsidize them, and their Liberal Party of Canada propaganda.
4. Nobody is “afraid” of Sun TV News. Yeah, right. That’s why you’re trying to prevent them from getting licensed to broadcast.
5. There is always context for every news story. Yes there is, so what? Teneycke declined to answer questions regarding his battle with Avaaz. Again – so what? That’s his prerogative. Refusing to answer a question is not an admission.
Points 6 through 10 aren’t “points” at all. They’re merely fluff and filler to bring John Doyle’s points to a “top ten.”
Doyle claims to be a TV critic. Perhaps he should go back to doing what TV critics do – criticizing television programming, rather than criticizing non-existent television stations. He might do better.
If this is the level of the Globe and Mail’s journalism, then I’m glad I don’t have to pay to read it.
His ‘a democracy has a public broadcaster, paid for by all citizens’ comment is all one needs to prove this guy is an idiot. Which democracies, exactly? Cuba? The Soviet Union? China? Yep – shining examples of democracy, all.