Thursday, March 10, 2011

Fox News North?

Robert F Kennedy jr wrote a column that has gotten a lot of coverage claiming that Fox news will not be moving into Canada because they have laws against lying on broadcast news.

This seemed strange when I read it so I did some research. It turns out that RFK jr is misrepresenting things. Fox News has been available in most of Canada for years. What he is really talking about is a totally new venture that has nothing to do with Fox or Rupert Murdoch. It is a new channel called Sun TV that is planned by Quebecor Media which, ironically, is the only cable provider that does not carry Fox.

It is hoping to duplicate Fox's success by carrying "straighttalking news". Because of this, Sun TV is being called "Fox News North". There is no connection with Fox although its founder did have lunch with the Canadian prime minister, Rupert Murdoch and Fox News president Roger Ailes. Sun will get its international programming from CNN instead of Fox.

Sun's premier has been pushed back from Jan. 1 to April 18 but I cannot find any news stories that indicate that this has anything to do with Canadian laws about lying on broadcast news.

UPDATE: The more I think about Kennedy's original column the more it bothers me. His thesis seems to be that it is impossible to have a conservative news channel without lying. The most charitable thing that can be said about is own column is that it gives a false impression yet he still has the nerve to accuse conservatives of lying.

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