Sun News is in full swing, fully confirming what many Canadians feared, proving itself to be a right-wing propaganda machine to push forward the interests of big business and the military.  

Dubbed “Fox News North” by critics, the highly debated news network—despite strong opposition—was officially launched on April 18, 2011. Sun Media Inc., now a division of the goliath, Quebecor Inc., is the right-wing anglophone media giant that also runs several mostly yellow journalism/tabloid-style newspapers and magazines across Canada. Unfortunately, due to their aim-to-please-to-the-lowest-common-denominator slant, they’ve established themselves as a high-volume, wide and far-reaching entity. Matters have gotten worse now that they’re fully backed by the insidious Quebecor mentality and machine.  

Even  more upsetting are the ties that exist between this news medium and the Harper government.  A primary force behind this network’s agenda is Kory Teneycke, the former communications director for Prime Minister Stephen Harper. And let’s not forget the Harper government’s involvement with the recent attempt to alter CRTC truth standards for reporters; it’s no coincidence that this came about a few months before the launch of Sun News. Like Fox News, Harper and his business-minded cronies seem to believe that the media has only one real role, and that that role has nothing to do with reporting verified facts—it’s all about selling a point of view and product placement while truth is for annoying bleeding-hearts.

Click on the link and have a look at the video and you’ll see what I mean:

I find Krista Erickson’s views sickening. The attitude that’s being promoted towards the arts fits entirely with Harper’s own attitudes (I have a hard time calling him Prime Minister as I do not consider that he represents me or my real interests as a Canadian in any way whatsoever), paralleling his government’s deep cuts in arts funding and public programs, moving us further away from all that made me a proud Canadian, taking us closer towards the elitist mindset that’s been immorally plundering the American public since Reagan.

What’s next? Our healthcare?    

Margie Gillis, the only high-profile professional artist who was willing to appear on the program, deserves our applause for allowing herself to be subjected to such abuse in order to (gracefully) defend what I honestly believe should be the attitude of all Canadians as I have a real hard time believing that we would actually support Erickson’s belief: “Why should tax-payers be in the business of subsidizing something that’s not profitable?”

Is our culture and the arts really dependent on profit-value? The long-term ramifications of such an opinion are nauseating. Are we really, as Canadians, willing to let Lolz Cats and Canadian Idol be the only vehicles of our culture?

Are we to believe that Canadians are only interested in subsidizing corporations and certain entities that generate massive profits for a few? Instead of paying insanely large bonuses to the heads of crown corporations like Hydro-Quebec, I’m certain nearly all Canadians would prefer seeing that money being invested in the arts.

      

Going back to that video: it terrifies me that someone who is able to reach and sway so many considers concepts like plasticity and hunter-gatherer mindset as "high falutin"; I learned about those things in high school! Though I’m certain that, in the context of fake boobs and noses, Krista Erickson has much to teach us about plasticity. I’m equally convinced that she can teach us all new ways of looking at terms like “profit margin”.   

And didn’t anyone teach her that Quebec is in Canada, not France? Couldn’t anyone teach her how to properly pronounce “province”? Provence is on the other side of the Atlantic, lady. It's slight, but it's a question of professionalism and respect, although I shouldn't be surprised given the people and attitudes she represents, not to mention that the results of the last election certainly place us outside of Harper’s good graces, but she should nonetheless remember that her ultimate boss is Pierre Karl Péladeau, whose entire empire was built on Quebecois kitsch.      

Even more shocking is the closing comment made by Erickson who, no doubt, is promoting Harper’s point of view when she states that world peace would also be great, but tax payers shouldn’t have to pay for that too.  

Then why on earth should tax payers pay for those shiny new F-35 fighter jets? Can you please explain that, Erickson?

I didn’t think so.