Dear Editor
One doesn't have to listen long on many American TV or radio news channels to realize much of what appears on it is fueled by high-energy appeals to one's most basic primative instincts, such as fear, hatred, and loathing. I believe the so-called polarization of American politics has come about by the proliferation of the big-money, right-wing, think-tanks, which give rise to mean-spirited "talking heads," such as Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, and Glen Beck, who have never met a liberal they didn't despise.
Fox News is the most likely channel to feature this kind of heated ranting against anyone who doesn't share their brand of tunnel-vision. (Ironically, Fox News advertises itself as having a "balanced" kind of reporting.)
In Canada, most of the media, with the exception of some talk-radio programs, such as our own John Gormley's, still try to maintain some semblance of objectivity in their reporting and commentary, with varying amounts of success. But now, thanks, no doubt, to some maneuvering by the Harper government, we may soon be rewarded with a new national TV channel that is already being called "Fox News North" by some.
Last Sunday, Quebec media mogul, Pierre Karl Peladeau, announced his media corporation, Quebecor, Ltd, would be launching such a news channel, Sun TV News, next January. His vice-president in charge of developing the news operation will be Kory Teneycke, who, until recently, was Stephen Harper's communications director. Peladeau says Sun TV News will offer "strong opinions and analysis," and Teneycke says it will be "patriotic" and "populist" and "not politically correct." And I recognize those words as politically correct code words for the ultraconservative, right wing perspective.
If it all goes as planned, perhaps we in Canada can look forward to eventually as much polarization here as the Americans have there, and Stephen Harper will have a national TV news channel he can call his own.
Russell Lahti
Battleford
