Canadian TV news today is narrow, it’s complacent and it’s politically correct. It’s boring,” Mr. Teneycke said. “… Our aim is not to bore people to death. We’ll leave that to the CBC.
With that little salvo, Mr. Kory Teneycke, who once worked for CBC, rang the Pavlovian bell, setting Canadians’ anticipation on fire for news with sizzle.
It’s true of course, Canadian news, along side, say, Fox (using the Fox standard), is as boring as Don Newman’s unrelenting and immovable upper lip. But we might want to ask ourselves why we need news that’s not boring. Why, for instance, does Fox News “work”?
As far as Mr. Teneycke goes, natural selection makes him the perfect parent for bringing us into the Foxish fold. He’s been an advisor to Preston Manning and Mike Harris, and a lobbyist with the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association. Then in July of 2008 he became director of communication for Stephen Harper. Last year about this time, he announced that he would be stepping down. A month later, August, 2009, he got the position as VP, Development at Quebecor Media—or as some say, Fox North.
Personally, I have no quarrel with the existence of the old or the new Fox. There’s nothing sly here. Things are in the open. In America, Fox is the Democrat antagonist; in Canada, Sun TV News will be a spontaneous Conservative mouth piece. That’s understood. The unsettling bit is that we will watch, because it’s fast, and shiny, and asks nothing more of us than to be ciphers.
The cheapening of news over the last decade is a sad thing to watch. And in the case of Fox – noisy and screetchy. Louder is not always better – or correct. I dread this.
I agree. Thanks for your observation Ms. S.
Imagine if Democracy Now was aired on prime time television? We would live in a much different world.
Does this guy have trouble keeping a job?
Teryl…good thought. Thankful there are other news sources.
Sam…to one shiftless, to another, an ambitious climber:)