The Dark Side of Sun TV

Fox News North promises to portray a falsely polarized image of Canada.

The first news stories produced under the Sun TV News channel banner began appearing earlier this summer.

Written mainly by two prominent and well-respected journalists (David Akin and Brian Lilley), these stories adopted a palpable change in both tone and content from previous work. (Visit a watchdog blog here, which analyzes Sun TV’s output.)

Almost overnight, despite the fact that the journalists themselves had not changed, the news took on an increasingly skeptical, almost sarcastic tone. Much of the rhetoric consisted of direct attacks on left wing ideology. This is not shocking given Sun TV’s Fox News-like tag line: “Hard News and Straight Talk.”

Some background: Quebecor Media is applying for a permit to start a 24-hour news channel as a counter-voice that promises to “cut through the clutter” and act as more than an “echo chamber” to the 24-hour news channels from CTV, CP 24, and CBC.

After some mild hysteria that the network, dubbed “Fox News North,” would dominate the airwaves and usher in a Canadian Tea Party, this issue gained prominence last week when a “far-left wing” lobby group funded by billionaire George Soros warned that Sun TV will bring “American-style hate media onto our airwaves.” This group circulated a petition signed (fraudulently) by some prominent Canadian journalists and thinkers, including Margaret Atwood.

Signatories are suspicious of the network’s ties to the Conservative government, perhaps legitimately, given the fact that former PMO communications director Kory Teneycke is Quebecor’s vice-president of development

In a thoughtful analysis, journalist Susan Delacourt suggests that Conservative operatives are feeding Sun TV journalists questions to Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff. This is certainly conceivable, but the end-of-summer news cycle is more vulnerable to suggestions of conspiracy theories. Nevertheless, there are some legitimate questions regarding journalistic integrity and the creation of an alternative network.

Sun TV’s inevitable presence will not be as potentially damaging to the fundamentals of democracy or justice in Canada as people fear. The impact will more likely have a mild effect on the nature of debate and national conversation in a country that already struggles to maintain a separate cultural identity given the proliferation of U.S. media. More than cultural questions, though, this debacle speaks to the insidiously facile nature of social media and its ongoing fusion with traditional journalism.

It also sheds a spotlight on the country’s unavoidable susceptibility to political events in the U.S., as well as the effects of Canada’s recent perpetual minority government. The bottom line is that Quebecor, like a good member of any capitalist society, is aiming to make a profit. This means seizing on political polarization, whether it exists or not.

Academics have long argued that despite what the media tells us, polarization is more of a fabrication, and this holds true for Canada. (Polarization in this case refers to cultural divides such as religion and political inclinations.)

In reality, the nation is not especially polarized politically when one examines voting patterns, opinion polling, and the policies of the two leading national parties. This is why Sun TV’s underlying mandate (as a counter to leftist media) is both frustrating and understandable. It is not a reflection of reality, but it does provoke questions.

Is Canada really so polarized that a counteractive channel is viable? Is Sun TV’s appearance evidence of a media phenomenon academics have dubbed “epistemic closure”? (This occurs when people seek out information that confirms their own point of view and reduces the uncomfortable feeling of cognitive dissonance, which is a natural aversion to holding two conflicting ideas in one’s mind simultaneously.) Epistemic closure is certainly bolstered by the contemporary media environment in which one can instantly access information sources that exclusively confirm our worldview.

In truth, Canada is a politically moderate country. The policies of the two leading parties are a palette made up of shades of grey. And unlike the United States, our political system allows the viability of more than two main parties. Even though the third legitimate contender (the NDP) never accrues a large number of seats, it arguably contributes to national debate and presents a legitimate alternative in terms of policy. The myth of polarization extends to the United States, where the original model for so-called left- and right-wing media emerged. Academics have long argued that while the US media presents a deeply polarized, red/blue country, this is factually false. The U.S. is, in reality, a purple country.

As noted scholar Morris P. Fiorina writes of “culture wars,” “The simple truth is that there is no culture war in the United States. No battle for the souls of America rages, at least none that most Americans are aware of… Most Americans are somewhat like the unfortunate citizens of some third-world countries who try to stay out of the crossfire while left-wing guerillas and right-wing death squads shoot at each other.” The myth originates with journalists, who seek conflict because it makes for better copy and “the culture war frame fits the news values of journalists…”

So if the myth of polarization is just that in the U.S., from where Sun TV is drawing its inspiration, how will its existence in Canada play out? Especially if the degree of polarization in Canada is so much less than in the U.S.?

Is this simply an attempt to mimic and profit from the successful phenomenon of U.S. infotainment? Or is it, at a deeper level, a genuine and legitimate attempt to provide an additional and alternative stream of discourse in Canada? And are things really so split in Canada that it is affecting the quality of life and necessitates an alternative voice? This poses a larger question about the effectiveness of minority governments, but it is fair to say, that judging by numerous quality of life indicators, things aren’t so bad.

Coming full circle, if Sun TV is granted a license, it will most likely have little effect other than providing an alternative news source. It will be up to Canadians to decipher what is news and what is not, which is no change from the process of consuming news from already existent outlets.

Sun TV’s output will likely be a trumped up, and thus false, presentation of a polarized Canada. Therefore, it will most likely resemble the infotainment now churned out by Fox News in the U.S.