Apparently, after quite a battle, the Fox News North application was withdrawn.But are we safe from the brainwashing? Not really, as they plan to launch anyway, just without the benefit of being forced on to the Canadian public. They will lose money for the short term (and hopefully the long term). And they will not even be available on TVs where the subscriber has not specifically paid for them. Which means they will not be able to work their brainwashing magic on Canadians who only see a black screen, and hear nothing on their channel.
But propaganda still has a lot of power in it, so I would not really breathe a sigh of relief. The only real defence against propaganda is a well informed public, who is also media literate. And that is becoming a real worry, even in Canada.
On the other hand, as the right wing coalition of pro-war Christians and free-market big business gains strength in the USA, they will likely win converts in Canada. And they have a lot of money to spend in spreading their message.
Here is an extreme right wing commenter on this web site, with the statement that all Canadian media is left wing and we need a chance to hear the "balanced" Fox News point of view.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/world/news/e3i050e81f63a15745dd5949ca401b230af
"Ron comments October 06, 2010:
In Canada one is only permitted to hear the left wing, politically correct version of world events. They have rewritten history textbooks to reflect that view, they have Commissions that hold kangaroo courts where there is no protection of rights or even adherence to rules of evidence. The Sun TV station threatens that control. They fear that people may actually hear news that does not fit the narrow-minded, hateful world view of the left. Free speech is dead in Canada - the Sun may get its TV station but the left will use their courts and Human Rights Commissions to curtail their broadcasts - We have one voice in Canada - the CBC/Liberal owned voice and anyone who dares to challenge it will be attacked and destroyed. The left hates the U.S. because they refuse to worship at the alter of the left --- many Canadians are quite willing to behave and bow down to that religion - The Sun must not be permitted to provide another view - there is no other view but that of the left! They must not be allowed to broadcast."
Well, in Canada we have "The National Post" and MacLean's magazine. Both are right wing extremist. Then we have on TV the CTV and the CBC and Global, and all present right wing points of view. In Ontario we have TVO which has a nightly news show "The Agenda" with Steve Paikin, who I consider to be right wing. Also nightly on my TV anyway, is the "Michael Coren" show which is about as extreme right as I would ever want to see. It certainly gets me just as steamed as Fox News does.
So I do not agree that we are restricted to leftist points of view in Canada. In fact this allegation is so ridiculous I might even consider it to be a deliberate lie in order to promote a certain right wing point of view. Could we call that comment itself "propaganda?".
The problem with the extreme right wing message, in my opinion, is that it is strongly tied to fundamentalist "Christianity", including the denial of the theory of evolution. Secondly that it is racist. Third it is pro-war, that meaning the desire that the USA should eventually conquer every country on Earth using any means possible, and then convert those countries to fundamental Christianity. And let's not forget that it is also anti-environmental, trying to brainwash people into believing that it is necessary for big corporations to destroy the environment to give us jobs, and it is not just for their short term profit.
This "Narrow minded, hateful, left wing" view that Canadians have been brainwashed into is:
- Equal access to education and health care for all
- World peace with the UN as a body to discuss issues
- World court to try war criminals
- Protection of the environment for future generations
- Freedom of religion
- Protection of democracy
- Freedom of speech (exception: hate speech).
- No racism and NO master race
Amazingly enough Fox News North really could cure us of this left wing brainwashing, if we let it. Here is a clip of the original Fox News at work doing what they do best, which is flushing out racists. Turns out it is themselves.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=277gQDcBtMY
Picture: From a blog by Montreal Simon
http://montrealsimon.blogspot.com/2010/09/fox-news-north-pmo-connection.html
I swear, if I hear once more about how left-biased the Canadian media is, I'm gonna throw up!
ReplyDeleteBy 'left leaning' those fulminating right wingers must mean any coverage that does not accord with their own mean-spirited ideology. They want 'fair and balanced' reporting in the mode of FoxNews; anything else is, by their definition, 'left leaning.'
Because the Canadian media in general (or on average) does not consistently bang the drum for the oversimplified approaches of privatization (of everything), lower taxes (on everything), deregulation (of anything still regulated), a reduced role for government (except in propaganda), elimination of as many social programs as possible, yet another set of 'Wars' on everything from drugs, welfare bums, the homeless, to the imaginary spectre of crime ('Law and Order'!), significantly increased military spending (and using those weapons), the Canadian media is, obviously and unquestionably, biased to the left.
If anything, I find there has been a increasing bias to the right,a bias which includes increased shallowness of debate and increased acrimony.
Here's an interesting survey about misleading information in the 2010 U.S. election campaign.
ReplyDelete'Those who watched Fox News almost daily were significantly more likely than those who never watched it to believe that most economists estimate the stimulus caused job losses (12 points more likely), most economists have estimated the health care law will worsen the deficit (31 points), the economy is getting worse (26 points), most scientists do not agree that climate change is occurring (30 points), the stimulus legislation did not include any tax cuts (14 points), their own income taxes have gone up (14 points), the auto bailout only occurred under Obama (13 points), when TARP came up for a vote most Republicans opposed it (12 points) and that it is not clear that Obama was born in the United States (31 points).
'Consider your sources.'