Fox News' Lies Keep Them Out of Canada

[Galraedia]

"As America's middle class battles for its survival on the Wisconsin barricades - against various Koch Oil surrogates and the corporate toadies at Fox News - fans of enlightenment, democracy and justice can take comfort from a significant victory north of the Wisconsin border. Fox News will not be moving into Canada after all! The reason: Canadian regulators announced last week they would reject efforts by Canada's right-wing Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, to repeal a law that forbids lying on broadcast news.

Canada's Radio Act requires that "a licenser may not broadcast ... any false or misleading news." The provision has kept Fox News and right-wing talk radio out of Canada and helped make Canada a model for liberal democracy and freedom. As a result of that law, Canadians enjoy high quality news coverage, including the kind of foreign affairs and investigative journalism that flourished in this country before Ronald Reagan abolished the "Fairness Doctrine" in 1987. Political dialogue in Canada is marked by civility, modesty, honesty, collegiality, and idealism that have pretty much disappeared on the US airwaves. When Stephen Harper moved to abolish the anti-lying provision of the Radio Act, Canadians rose up to oppose him fearing that their tradition of honest non-partisan news would be replaced by the toxic, overtly partisan, biased and dishonest news coverage familiar to American citizens who listen to Fox News and talk radio. Harper's proposal was timed to facilitate the launch of a new right-wing network, "Sun TV News" which Canadians call "Fox News North."

Harper, often referred to as "George W. Bush's Mini Me," is known for having mounted a Bush-like war on government scientists, data collectors, transparency, and enlightenment in general. He is a wizard of all the familiar tools of demagoguery; false patriotism, bigotry, fear, selfishness and belligerent religiosity.

Harper's attempts to make lying legal on Canadian television are a stark admission that right-wing political ideology can only dominate national debate through dishonest propaganda. Since corporate profit-taking is not an attractive vessel for populism, a political party or broadcast network that makes itself the tool of corporate and financial elites must lie to make its agenda popular with the public. In the Unites States, Fox News and talk radio, the sock puppets of billionaires and corporate robber barons, have become the masters of propaganda and distortion on the public airwaves. Fox News' notoriously biased and dishonest coverage of the Wisconsin's protests is a prime example of the brand of news coverage Canada has smartly avoided."

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/276-74/5123-fox-news-lies-keep-them-out-of-canada

[pacalo]

1. Harper was trying to "repeal a law that forbids lying on broadcast news"???

How obvious can a corrupt politician be? I wish the U.S. could have been as astute as Canada in keeping that garbage off our airwaves.

[samsingh]

2. exactly. this shows the essense of the evil that is harper

[Kurmudgeon]

3. Shows the evil that is Fox News too.

[MaeScott]

4. K and R. nt

[Laelth]

5. k&r for sanity in Canada. n/t

-Laelth

[FiveGoodMen]

6. Canada, why do you keep electing this fucker?

(You don't even have the excuse of being fooled by Fox)

[arikara]

8. He slips in by default

because the left is divided... well actually the liberals aren't left but they pretend to be and some people think they are. Harper got a majority gov't in the last election with just over 30% of the popular vote. Unfortunately our system is totally screwn too.

Most of us here in Canada are nice sensible lefties just like you folks to the south. And we really dislike Harper and his ilk. Unfortunately we are still mourning Jack Layton, nobody will ever have the same je ne sais quoi as our Jackie.

[FiveGoodMen]

11. "actually the liberals aren't left but they pretend to be and some people think they are"

We DO need to all work from the same dictionary, don't we?

How many bad voting decisions get made simply because there's no general agreement on the meanings of words?

[arikara]

13. I hear you

The names of some of the parties mean nothing. The federal Liberals are bad enough, but the BC provincial liberals are even worse. Their prime directive is to privatize everything in the public domain, to cut taxes to the 1% and cut services, health care, education and increase user fees to the 99%. Nothing liberal about them either except the use of the word for their name. The previous leader, Gordon Campbell stole the party from a true liberal, a good man who resurrected the it from obscurity. I sincerely hope after the next election that it goes back into the boneyard of failed political parties.

[Matariki]

7. Yay Canada!

It is REALLY REALLY telling that FOX refuses and/or is unable to operate under those conditions, LOL.

[LWolf]

9. Could the U.S. have a law that forbids broadcasting "false or misleading" news? nt

[FiveGoodMen]

10. I've spoken up on this site advocating just such a law

and have been laughed at, insulted, told that I don't believe in the 1st Amendment, blah, blah, blah.

If that's the reaction here...

[LWolf]

12. Yes. Is it really a violation of the first amendment

to require information broadcast to the public be truthful?