Categories: Canada

Shaking up the news world

WELLS: With the PM’s former press czar at the top, will “Canada’s Fox News” be conservative? or Conservative?

by Paul Wells with Martin Patriquin and Philippe Gohier on Friday, June 18, 2010 9:00am - 285 Comments

Photograph by Blair Gable

The evidence of your eyes deceives you, Kory Teneycke was saying the other day.

It’s true that only a year ago the boyish, flint-eyed 35-year-old spent his days trying to push news out of the Prime Minister’s Ofﬁce—where until July he was Stephen Harper’s communications director—into the nation’s newspapers and broadcasts. And it’s true that now, suddenly, he is in charge of finding news to fill the political pages of Sun Media’s newspapers and that he plans within months to have the same role at a new news-and-talk cable TV channel. What does his old job have to do with his new one? “I think it’s neither here nor there.”

It’s true he was with Harper when the Prime Minister met Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes, respectively the owner and the programming brain behind U.S. cable juggernaut Fox News, for lunch in early 2009. But “that was, like, months before I left the PMO,” Teneycke says. So does the lunch have anything to do with his frequent statements around Ottawa since last autumn that he’d like to launch a Canadian equivalent of Fox News? “No. No.”

Will the new channel be conservative? Or Conservative? “Well, I’m not even sure I know what that means,” Teneycke told Maclean’s.

“Do I think that the market space for political commentary is more oriented toward conservatism for the most part? Yeah, I think it probably is. But I think that’s for the same reason that talk radio in Canada tends to orient itself more toward conservative opinion than not: because it’s a jumping-off vote for a brasher, less politically correct discussion of issues.
“Do I think that there will only be conservative views represented? Absolutely not. It’d be bad television, it would be uninteresting for anyone to watch.”

And if there’s anything Teneycke is actually eager to admit, it’s that he wants to make interesting television. That’s the dream that has made him the new “vice-president of development” at Quebecor, the Montreal-based media conglomerate that Pierre Karl Péladeau has built from a sleepy, family-owned tabloid newspaper chain. And that’s what took the two men to Toronto on Tuesday to announce they will rebrand Sun TV, an underperforming Toronto cable station, as “The Sun TV News Channel,” a Canada-wide network offering “hard news and straight talk” in a package that, if the CRTC consents, will be offered to every cable subscriber beginning Jan. 1, 2011.

“We’re taking on the mainstream media,” Teneycke said at the launch event. “We’re taking on smug, condescending, often irrelevant journalism. We’re taking on political correctness. We will not be a state broadcaster offering boring news by bureaucrats, for elites, and paid for by taxpayers. We’ll be unapologetically patriotic.”

What he’ll be doing is injecting about $20 million per year from Péladeau, cable subscribers and, he hopes, advertisers—plus a sizable dose of his own pugnacious personality—into a troubled Canadian media landscape that has seen more retreat and decline than new ventures in recent years.

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Tags: communications, Fox News North, Kory Teneycke, political commentary, Quebecor, Stephen Harper, Sun Media

http://intensedebate.com/people/amherstvw amherstvw

Thank you for clarifying the detail that these free-booters want a bootstrap subsidy … a TV tax … from all cable viewers.

Lindsay Blackett has probably seen more of this style of political debate than those of us in post-Harris Ontario. I'm sure we'll soon be more sympathetic to his statements.

s_c_f

In post-Rae Ontario, and hopefully soon to be post-McGuinty Ontario, we will soon be witnesses to the fact that there really was room for improvement in Canadian TV!
http://intensedebate.com/people/RobinBC RobinBC

Don't talk about TV tax unless you want to discuss the CBC. And we pay that even if we don't watch TV, never mind cable.

http://intensedebate.com/people/muskeg muskeg

Too bad Harper didn't appoint Cory to head up CBC. As I am a conservative taxpayer that funds the CBC I would like to see some balance in their programing. Why is a liberal or NDP never challenged on the outrageous statements they say. If a Saskatchewan Conservative had said what Libby Davis ranted about Israel it would have been on CBC for weeks. Never heard a thing on their political commentary. It's not biased is it. Why is it never heard on CBC any counter arguments to global warming. If CBC represented all political stripes equally there would not be a market for another news channel. As CBC only captures about 12% of the viewing public it won't be hard for Sun to get a bigger audience.

Oliver

Because the opposition doens't usually say anything stupid, it's the government that does.
You seem to have a short memory, the CBC wasn't that nice with the Liberals while they were in power in the 1990's. It's always good press to complain about the people in power.
Besides, it's much easier to be in the opposition than in government.

Orson Bean

Brilliant reply, Oliver: the CBC is not biased because Conservatives are stupid and say stupid things, and Liberals and Dippers are not stupid and never say stupid things. So by portraying Conservatives in a negative light, the CBC is merely being factual. Got it.

I can't see why anyone would ever want an alternative to the CBC. They have a monopoly on Truth.

old fogey

You have a Bean for a brain.

TedTylerEzro

Perhaps you think the Opposition doesn't say stupid because you're insufferably parochial.

For example, when Martin said that Opus Dei gives him the creeps, and Duceppe said that people with socially conservative religious sensibilities should be barred from political life you probably thought that sounded perfectly sensible.

Darren

Opus Dei doesn't give you the creeps? Somewhere, Dan Brown is crying into a big pile of money.

TedTylerEzro

Meh, Dan Brown's success is just an example of what happens to people when they are uneducated about their own history and culture.

NoNameCS

The current chairman of the Board of CBC, Tim Casgrain, was appointed by the Harper government. The President and CEO, Hubert Lacroix, was also appointed by Stephen Harper.

Kinda kills the whole fun, doesn't it?

s_c_f

On Tuesday, Teneycke said the new cable channel is requesting a “must offer,” not a “must carry” licence from the CRTC, suggesting there is a difference. In fact there isn’t, according to CRTC spokesperson Peggy Nebout. “Must carry and must offer are the same,” Nebout told Maclean’s.

OK, usually Wells is good at asking the right questions, but there is a question just begging to be asked here:

If there is no difference, then why the heck are there two categories?!!

Dave

According to Quebecor, must offer means the cable/sat providers must offer the channel for an extra fee at minimum. That way the channel would be available to the entire country to those who want it.

Must carry means the cable/sat companies have to carry the channel and charge their consumers whether they want it or not.

Quebecor has applied for a must offer license

G20

Well then, those sound like two different things to me.

Val

I will look forward to any kind of decent new reporting in this country. I never watch the current fare, as it is not worth my time. Go Sun news!
wftc

PW,

I'm a ludite when it comes to cable. Never subscribed. Skipped the revolution and went directly to free offerings on the web.

We, my wife and three children and myself, live in a two channel universe of CBC and CTV main channel broadcast. We watch very little T.V. We sometimes watch sports (me — hockey and Olympics) and local news plus a very small sampling of some good U.S. entertainment. We have tried, and even more rarely succeed, watching a whole episode of Canadian Content entertainment. We usually shut it off in disgust at the political correctness. I resent the CBC TV taking our tax money and see no benefit to Canadian society as a whole. I don't see myself or my community reflected in it's broadcasting and therefore very skeptical that it could accurately reflect others or their communities. I usually only watch their news to see what the enemy is cooking up.

I welcome Kory TV. Probably no surprise to you or to Kory. I won't subscribe though. I'll be left to pick up the freebie content that will be widely shared over the internet.

Let me make a prediction. Kory TV will likely bring us the story that will bring down the Conservatives. It is the just the way politics work. It was the "mole" in the Liberal party that finally finished them off.

I take KT at his word when he says he'll bring alternate points of view. Isn't that the way the CBC works: Bring on a Conservative straw man to represent a caricature of the point of view you want to discredit? It's just that the CBC can't make it interesting. Political Correctness is like our current banking system — all the customers interest has been removed. Fox, from what I've gleaned on the net, works because it gets at a grain of truth every now and then and it beats up on easy targets: political correctness and big government.

I add my name to any others that are nominating you for an argument — counter argument segment on the channel. You against, say… Anne Coulter.

Cheers!
denis p

It looks like the regular Liberal trolls are scared of actually hearing a different position on politics. Canadians are getting sick and tired of watching panelists on Solomon's show on CBC, all agreeing, no matter what the subject, as long as it's used to bash the Conservatives. Kory's comment on patriotism is right on. Remember the Winter Olympics? The MSM tried with all their might to denigrade the Olympics at every turn, turning up little picky things. Then, low and behold, Canadians began to show more and more patriotism, until the media had to jump on the band wagon, or start looking like worse fools than they already were. Canadians need the patriotism Sun News can bring forth. The patriotism of Canadians is bubbling just below the surface, waiting to get out. Go Kory!!!

Mike T.

I am not afraid of diverse opinions.

But I have little time for stupid opinions.

TedTylerEzro

Are there any opinions that differ from yours that aren't stupid?

Mike T.

A good number, but they tend to not show up in heated political discourse with right wing extremists!

denis p

Ah yes, let's only hear what Don Newman has to say. All other opinion will be "stupid".

The Real Jan

How does Victoria's Secret fit in with Canadian patriotism?

Darren

Just the thought of Victoria's Secret has my flag at half-staff. Is that patriotic?

The Real Jan

Maybe that's what Kory means by' hard and straight' news. Could he be more fun than he seems?

Oliver

I'm all in favour of this new channel but I'll remain skeptical until I see it in action. I have nothing against conservative-minded people, what I can't stand is people who talk with authority about things they don't understand.

I just love it when people talk about how they are oppressed and how it isn't fair and that this kind of channel will fight for their rights. It can't be helped, the weak will alwys be weak and will aways complain about it and talk about "rights" and how they are being "kept down" by the majority. That's the other thing I despise: weaklings who can't assume their position and people who talk about things they don't understand.
Jo_roots

This is so typical Republican brainwashing. And where exactly are they getting the ' moola ' to engage this wonderful, refreshing TV station? I suppose they have the paper trail attended to on this one. Kory should go to the US of A and get a job with Fox. I don't think the Canadian people are ready for him and his extreme right wing ideology yet. Goes to show what is in Mr. Harper's back pocket.

Oliver

Are you not familiar with Quebecor?
Again, someone talks about something they no know nothing of.
WHY CAN'T PEOPLE TALK ABOUT THINGS THEY DO UNDERSTAND?!
http://intensedebate.com/people/deporkinheimer deporkinheimer

Last i checked, we do not have a Republican party here, most people agree that our Conservatives are approximately equivelant in ideolology tp America's Democrats

t scot

This is a conservative talking point. Trying to put themselves on the same playing field with Obama. Strictly B.S. Cons are so far right of dems as to be allmost invisible to the centre.

Ryan

I usually consider it a liberal talking point; used to demean Canadian conservatives, because there's "no way" Canadians could be so "evil," as liberals like to put it.

Barry Stagg

Ignorance is a handy currency for reactionary liberals.

John D

They won't be politically correct, but they will be "unapologetically patriotic." Isn't that like trading one stupid-filter for another? Do people really need patriotism from their TV? We'd be a pretty weak nation if we need a TV channel to reassure us about how awesome we were. Patriotic TV seems like the sort of thing North Korea needs, not Canada.

Barry Stagg

Are you ashamed of your country or do you just lack the guts to stand up for it?

Malcolm Barry

Mostly everyone believes this new TV News Show will be an administrative Arm of the Harper Govt. and do all in its power to have a Harper Govt. re-elected.

old fogey

That would be a good thing.

Darren

Can't wait until Steve calls another election…he's holding on by his fingernails now. Peter MacKay got my vote last time in my riding, but I should have known whose agenda I was supporting in Ottawa. I won't get fooled again.

http://intensedebate.com/profiles/tigerinexile Ben (The Tiger)

Re "unabashedly patriotic" — I'll put this out in a main post, instead of in a reply to a thread.

The establishment media mindset is exemplified in this exchange between Peter Jennings and Mike Wallace: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/pre…

Jennings, who had the natural, human reaction to the hypothetical (to warn American soldiers of an impending attack), apologizes to Wallace for breaching journalistic ethics.

That's the stuff that left a huge opening in the market for Fox News.

Teneycke apparently sees a similar opening in the Canadian news market.

Is he right? Well, we'll see.

http://intensedebate.com/profiles/tigerinexile Ben (The Tiger)

Incidentally, I think he's being a bit unfair to Canadian journalists.

I don't think they're as far gone as those guys were in the '80s.

But what say you — should the journalist embedded with the "North Kosanese" try to warn their own country's platoon on patrol of an impending attack?

Or should he, as a journalist, stay resolutely neutral and report the story?

Dave

I think there is a certain point where your professionalism should halt and your own ethics and morals need to kick in. If you are reporting behind enemy lines and are aware of an attack you need to consider the fact that some of you fellow countrymen’s lives are at stake, from the country you are reporting and serving

Dee

Thanks for an excellent background article guys.

I still have a hard time taking seriously a guy who was responsible for "Corn Cob Bob". And any News channel VP (who has no journalism experience) who says things like: “My guess is that the opening of the first Victoria’s Secret stores in Canada is more important to a lot of Canadians than the latest happenings at an Ottawa committee.”, is pretty much doomed to crash and burn.

Will Sun TV News (if they get a license) get some viewers? Probably, but not many. Will it be worth watching? With Akin, probably. With Levant, very unlikely. Will it be another National Post debacle? You betcha! Mr. Peladeau get ready to set fire to large wads of your own cash….

ddd

>doomed to crash and burn.

You don't get it do you. A Victoria's Secret opening with pictures would attract a repeat, money flush, attractive to advertiser audience.

Is it news? Yes. Are people interested? Yes.

This is a business. It is quite amusing. The CBC is ashamed of the programming that attracts it's largest audiences. This network won't be. As Mr. Wells said so clearly, these guys know how to attract an audience, run a media group.

Derek

lonerstoner

Getting news from TV is like learning philosophy by reading bumper stickers.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Memi_S Memi_S

I agree Ionerstoner.

My first book on Philosophy was Will Durant's "the Story of Philosophy". He was a wonderful writer/historian who believed that knowledge that was deemed esoteric and the privilege of a few should be "popularized" and his book in the 1920s sold millions…and is still selling. But not to universities. Well, I feel it should be sold to Philosophy 101 classes. It helped me get an A. Popularization of Knowledge is what TV journalism tries to do, but lately it's more like watching the Jerry Springer Show of Shock and Awe. No wonder Boy Wonder Kory feels that Canadians should be more concerned with Victoria Secrets store openings. Why can't we send him to work for Goldman Sachs and create Victoria's Derivatives! He's too precious and knowledgeable to be another Glenn Beck. The P.M. could give him excellent references!

Barry Stagg

Add a second book to your library.

Orson Bean

So Memi_S, what kind of donuts are they serving in the Liberal Party war room today?

http://intensedebate.com/people/Memi_S Memi_S

Well, Orson, the last time I looked on my TV set the donuts were actually Chinese beancakes!

I like your reply, however, and you will NEVER guess whom I voted for in the last Election. I'll give you a hint. The best debater. But I can tell you you are wrong about me visiting ANY Liberal party war room! I wouldn't know what they look like. But I do admit that a decade a half ago, a friend of mine reluctantly dragged me to a a Liberal riding association fund raiser and I heard a very boring speech for which I was well compensated with…..DONUTS and stale coffee. Guess you win this one! But maybe I can apply to work with Kory to cover one of the stories on the forthcoming Victoria Secrets store openings….free donuts and beer!

old fogey

You forgot one "patriotic" means sponsorship.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Memi_S Memi_S

Old fogey

Thanks for response, which I think is quite good! But can I add another one?

"Patriotic" means "prorogation".

http://N/A William Brown

The opening of a “conservative” news channel will only open up Canadian politics to the self-destructive politics we see south of the border. The divisiveness and polarizing which are destroying what was once the leading democracy in the world is being imported to Canada and will continue the slow erosion of one of the leading parliamentary democracies in the world. Contrary to many comments already made, we do have alternatives for those who don’t like CBC. They can turn to CTV or Global and hear different points of view. I don’t accept the argument that our 3 existing networks are “liberal” or “conservative”. They tend to be much more objective in reporting and commenting on issues. Isn’t it interesting that the party in power tends to blame the media for biased reporting simply because the play the intended role of of the Fifth Estate. The Liberals blamed the media for its reporting during their years in power and now the Conservatives are doing the same thing. Maybe the media has it right after all. Try spending a few months in the USA and you will find out how well informed we as Canadians are as opposed to the sanitized views presenting on television in the USA.

Barry Stagg

What patronizing blather from this fellow. If you regard debate and dispute as divisive then you should embrace the absolutism of some other place, Moscow for example.

Michel Boucher

"Shaking up the news world"

If what you mean by that is "garbage in, garbage out", sure. Pandering to the lowest common denominator is NOT a brilliant strategy, it's a desperate one.
http://intensedebate.com/people/Open_Democracy Open_Democracy

Frankly, as long as they don't want any of my tax dollars or a subsidy that's added to my satellite bill, let them have their fun. Those who lean to the right will watch and those who lean to the left won't. It's highly unlikely they'll convert anyone just as it's highly unlikely the Globe and Mail, Maclean's or the CBC will convert anyone to their viewpoint.
http://viableopposition.blogspot.com/
Barry Stagg

Touting Al Jazeera but sneering at the nascent SunTV News is an act of profound ignorance. The Toronto Sun is part of my regular daily reading along with the National Post. Breathing seems to be normal though I have yet to encounter a resolute critic of my newspaper habits when hanging around the news kiosk.

Dee

Remind me which of Al Jazeera and SunTV News will likely have Sunshine Girls involved?

Barry Stagg

Tabloid fatwa?

http://intensedebate.com/people/deporkinheimer deporkinheimer

'Sall good, we need choices, can't say the Sun is my style of news media but as long as they are'nt asking for matching subsidies with CBC, i'm ok with them being on the dial. I can't see why everyone seems so uptight about this, its the way freedom of speech is supposed to work….competition makes almost everything better. The main cause of ultra right and ultra left is the stiffleing of the message of the centre
Mulletaur

Sun Newspapers – bleeding. Sun TV – bleeding. Now Sun TV News etc. I guess some people have more money than common sense. It promises to be entertaining nonetheless. For as long as it lasts.
Amateur Hour

Still finding it weird that a guy who was literally next to the PM last year and a billionaire with a cable monopoly in Quebec and newspaper chain inherited from his dad can call OTHER people "elites".

As for being "unapologetically patriotic" … who exactly is apologetically patriotic?

This doublespeak is really weird. What's next, two guys from the heart of the "establishment" claiming to be anti-establishment?

http://intensedebate.com/people/Moe_Mentum Moe_Mentum

One of the orthodoxies of partisanship is that you're always the David against the other guy's Goliath. And they really believe it.

denis5358

Most Canadians are progressive thinking people. This is why most Canadians vote and support progressive center left policies and parties. They can spin this all they want but in the end it will have the opposite effect. This type of propaganda worked in some areas of the USA where the Social Conservatives, Religious Right , Libertarians, Red Necks ,Fiscal Conservatives, Wall Street and Teaparty types teamed up with Right Wing Republicans to promote Laissez Faire , Tricle Down , Less Government, Deregulation and Militarism.

We saw the results! These policies and philosophies resulted in some of the biggest economic,social, and environmental crisis in American history.

Government is for the people. Right wing policies seem to be for private interests. You can fool the people some of the time. But you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.

The Right Wing policies create poverty, inequality, and injustices. This damages the social fabric of a nation and weakens it. The injustices result in increase in crime, decrease in education, and tensions that build up in population. Eventually these tensions explode , people come out in the streets demanding change and society is distabilized.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Memi_S Memi_S

Denis5358

I could not agree with more! Yes, indeed! I'd like to think that "Canadians are progressive thinking people"

But for the last few years, I've witnessed some frightening deterioration of values that I had considered truly Canadian. And I don't mean to be classified as a wimpy "liberal from Toronto" for that would be inaccurate. But I've seen our "democratic institutions gradually being eroded" (a direct quote from the Economist) and our Prime Minister being shown to the world as a mere "ruthless tactician who diminishes democracy in Canada" (again from the January editorial in that socialist rag, The Economist!).

I hope and pray (yes, some of us are progressive thinking Canadians and do believe in God as well as any one hanging around the PMO) that this great country of ours that I'm so proud of will not sink into the seductively simplistic arms of the American FOX News-type anchors whose credo is "ignorance is bliss and homophobia, sexism and racism are patriotic sentiments"!

Canada has lost its shine in the last 4 years and its international reputation is being slowly unraveled by decisions that seem to be coming from the desk of George W. Bush Jr. The toxicity of the messages of the Kory Regressive Channel will soon be infecting the living rooms of those progressive thinking Canadians.

If Kory wants to bring Canada to the level of the Jerry Springer Show of Political Commentary, God save Canada!

Mary in Calgary

'News' stations that espouse political leanings from strictly one side of the political landscape utilizing a constant barrage of editorializing rants is NOT news. It's propaganda.

News was, is, and always will be simply the Who, What, Where, When and the Why of an occurrence. Furthermore, a proper and intelligent issue accompanying political discourse editorializing on any issue is one that MUST, to be academically responsible, include all 360 degree angles of an issue (left, middle and right views) when and as its goal is to inform and impart deserved gravitas to sound decision making; and as such, only those kinds of properly considered decisions will in turn assist a country to function as optimally as is possible.

One sided, omissive, polarizing and thus divisive political editorializing that sounds more like partisan lobbying serving special interests has no place in my Canadian sensibility. I think we've all borne witness to what that can bring into a political landscape, where eventually unbridgeable divisiveness and uninformed tunnel visioned anger gravely affect a nation's decision making ability and process; but more than that, gravely affects national unity and citizen morale. It creates a two sided abyss.

There shouldn't be two separate stations that represent two sides. There should be two separate stations where all sides are examined and considered; where each station tries to raise the information bar on the other, creating those crucial checks and balances that inherently hold our country's citizens and elected representatives accountable to the highest standard.
robert

Try living in the US like I have and being inundated by a relentless and superficial media like CNN and having Fox News as an alternative and you will soon avoid all newscasts like a disease. If you like rant and rave opinions instead of actual news coverage you will love this new gang.

Mary in Calgary

Canadians have been getting all said major U.S. news stations along with our own and the BBC among others for a few decades now, so I know what you're saying. What troubles me about this 24/7 style of editorializing-on-air is the resulting younger viewership who no longer seem to really know or differentiate between actual news or mere opinion pieces. News that came on, stated the facts, and then went away for regular programming seemed to be a more rational dose that allowed people to think and discuss amongst themselves. The odd political program that existed with discussion for those who chose to tune in was also good, and many did; and those older shows mostly hired responsibly trained true journalists who appeared professionally impelled to cover and weigh ALL facets and ethics of an issue. Today people are so hammered with minutae and drummed up what-ifs and even faux and baiting scenarios by talking heads wanting to fill air time that it's almost disturbing overkill, imo. People get fed up with it all, and particularly when all that talk doesn't seem to result in satisfactory decision making and outcomes for the voters.
http://intensedebate.com/people/Memi_S Memi_S

Great and most accurate comment, Robert!

We no longer subscribe to cable companies that feature FOX or CNN…At least, CBC, Global and even CTV now that they got rid of Senator Mike Duffy and Tom Clark's on board, are far more professional in one hour than in a full year of FOX/CNN pablum….

robert

Memi: My oldest son and his wife still live in the US . I am ashamed about the degree to which they have become so closed-minded and intolerant when it comes to social issues. To a very great degree I blame it on the endless diatribe of hate and fear mongering that spews from the Fox News extremists. It is the last thing we need in Canada.

Mary in Calgary

We also had Fox U.S., free with cable, for years, along with the flipside and also sometimes polarizing commentary of MSNBC of recent. Fox was shuffled to the pay channels a handful of years ago, so most are no longer subjec…er, I mean, watch it anymore. Funnily enough, Fox swung back to the middle a bit after B. O. was elected.
Barry Stagg

Pravda can be your salvation.