Now that the new potential news station has a name, Sun TV News, we can thankfully stop calling it ‘Fox News North.’ The problem with the constant comparison with the American conservative network is that it has led to a lot of pre-judgement of what the new network will be like. It is doubtful, if indeed impossible, for it to be exactly like Fox News. So it would be more sensible to wait and see what Sun TV News will be like, rather than jump to conclusions.
Perhaps the most important question is if this news station will be ‘Conservative or conservative.’ Meaning: will it merely be a mouth piece for the Conservative Party or a true vehicle for conservative thought?
It seems that some have already assumed that the man in charge, Kory Teneycke, is a Harper stooge. There is a lot in his background that suggests that this is entirely possible. After all, he not only worked as the Harper government’s communication director, he has also worked for various political parties his whole life. If he has working experience outside of partisan politics I have not heard about it in any of the extensive articles on the man and his mission.
Still, I think people are jumping to conclusions. It doesn’t really matter how friendly Mr. Teneycke is with his former employers. His main mission is to make a successful business venture, and frankly even partisan hacks would get bored watching a network that did nothing but repeat Conservative Party press releases.
Mr. Teneycke’s attitude was partly revealed in his interview with 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.”
The first and foremost mission of Sun TV News will be to make money.
Thus I suspect that it will be more conservative than Conservative, but I think we should all reserve our judgement until more is known.
