The Truth Unravels Anti-Sun TV Petition

As Ricken Patel and Avaaz write to RCMP and the Ottawa Police Department begging them to investigate whomever embarrassed them by revealing the lack of controls on their "Stop Fox North" petition, it's becoming increasingly clear that they aren't merely motivated by vindictiveness -- they're also motivated by a need to distract interested parties from the facts.

First up are the claims that Prime Minister Stephen Harper is exerting pressure on CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein to approve a mandatory-distribution license for Sun TV.

On CBC's Power and Politics, Ricken Patel was asked if he had proof that such pressure was being exerted.

He sputtered and stuttered his response.

"No, of course we don't have legal proof," Patel admitted.

And there's good reason for this: because no pressure seems to be present.

In a recent letter to the Globe and Mail, von Finckenstein refuted the best evidence that Patel could offer -- a column by Lawrence Martin:

"I read with consternation Lawrence Martin's column "Is Stephen Harper Set To Move Against The CRTC?" (Aug 19) calling into question the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission's independence as a regulatory body. The column stems from Quebecor Media's application to launch a TV news service called Sun TV News.

I would like to categorically state that no one at any level of government has approached me about the Sun TV application, the appointment of the CRTC's vice-chair of broadcasting, or my own mandate.

Quebecor's application is being treated according to the CRTC's well-established processes. The application was published on Sept. 1 for comment, and a public hearing will be held in Gatineau, PQ, starting on Nov 19. The CRTC will then make a decision on the basis of the evidence on the public record."

Patel and Avaaz have no "legal proof" that any such pressure is being exerted because it doesn't seem to be present at all.

So the lack of pressure has already been established. But that's only for starters.

The CRTC website puts the lie to Avaaz's claim that Sun TV is seeking mandatory access to cable and satellite fees:

The information regarding the application states quite unequivocally:

"The applicant stated that it was not seeking mandatory basic distribution, but only to be made available on cable and satellite distribution undertakings, allowing the public to have access to Sun TV News without any obligation to choose it."

This particular detail demonstrates the Avaaz petition to be counter-factual. As such, Quebecor is perfectly entitled to seek legal remedy on this matter.

For Patel, however, it seems that these facts simply don't matter. Instead, he wants to simply repeat his vacuous rhetoric and try to make the issue about the cost of Quebecor's lawyers.

"This is how big corporate power tries to silence people's voices, with smear campaigns and expensive lawyers," Patel complained. "Canadians are deeply worried about the poisonous politics of the Sun media empire and will keep fighting their plan to force cable companies to give them access to our cable fees."

Patel either hasn't read the information regarding the application, available on the CRTC website since September 1, or he's underestimating the intelligence of Canadians and outright lying to them.

Fortunately, however, public consultations on Sun TV will be starting fairly soon. Ricken Patel, as a Canadian citizen, will have the option to participate.

However, he'll need to turn up with better material than "I disagree with Sun TV politically" or "Fox News is bad". Whether or not he's actually capable of better has yet to be seen.

A Picture Worth a Thousand Words

First, the set-up:

And now, the punchline:

If Avaaz really wants to use the freeping of online polls to try to advance their cause, perhaps they should pick some that are a little more methodologically sound.

Just sayin'.

Avaaz, Sun TV and the Self-Humiliation Machine

As one evaluates New York-based Avaaz.org's campaign against Sun TV -- which it dubs "FOX North" -- one has to truly marvel at the depth of the incompetence George Soros' money has been funding.

What began on the side of the vapidly self-righteous has degenerated into the utterly comical.

An email from Avaaz to its alleged 75,000 supporters -- alleged because it's entirely unknown how many signatories are legitimately Canadian citizens, as opposed to self-styled globalist leftists -- veers dangerously into the realm of the comical, as Avaaz repeats its breathless hate speech accusations, complains about alleged criminal interference in their petition, and alleged smears printed in SUN newspapers.

Those closely following the story know that the matter is actually rather different -- whomever signed up numerous Canadian journalists actually did so to reveal the extremely poor controls Avaaz has in place to prevent such occurances.

That doesn't stop Avaaz from waxing indignantly however, to utterly comical effect:

One supposes that the first response that comes to mind to Avaaz's appeal for donations is whether or not George Soros has enough money to back them. The second response is to note that the involvement of actual Canadian money in Avaaz's campaign is a welcome change.

Particularly amusing is the evident glee with which Avaaz seems to regard the prospect of siccing law enforcement on whomever revealed the deep methodological deficiencies in their petition. It's an especially petty response to their embarrassment in the eyes of the media.

Of course Avaaz's other problem -- the excessively-poor controls on their petition, as demonstrated by numerous fake signings -- actually lends credence to Sun Media's suggestion that their petition has been signed by a significant number of Americans.

To date -- as evidenced by a recent CBC segment featuring Teneycke facing off against Avaaz's Ricken Patel -- the basic tenor of the debate has each side accusing the other of similar falsehoods.

(Then again, that Ricken Patel appears via satellite from New York City doesn't help Avaaz's attempts to quell concerns about American interference in a Canadian media application.)

Errors such as a suggestion that Suncor, not Sun Media, are behind the application doesn't help Avaaz's cause either.

In other words, Avaaz's campaign against the SUN TV media campaign has, to date, been the work of a self-humiliation machine. The merits of Sun TV's applications are, quite naturally, up for debate.

The blatant ineptitude of the international astroturfers at Avaaz is another matter entirely.

At this point, one would daresay that George Soros should be reevaluating who he's giving his money to.

Turn Off Sun TV: The Astroturf of the Left

George Soros funding "grassroots" media activism

It was only natural that, once Canadian conservatives started the work of forming a conservative news network, that Canadian leftists would blow a gasket.

They actually weren't alone.

An intriguing new detail in the Canadian left's efforts to derail a conservative news network in the participation of Avaaz.org, a George Soros-funded organization dedicated to global leftism.

The organization has been organizing an anti-Sun TV petition which has already earned a few black eyes. Journalists who did not sign the petition were signed up for it. After Avaaz accused proponents of Sun TV of sabotaging the petitioon, it became apparent that numerous fake signatories were signed to the petition in order to demonstrate the petition's lack of basic controls.

While the mismanagement of the petition is extremely amusing, the involvement of George Soros' money is particularly illuminating.

In the United States, George Soros' money is currently funding another bid to derail a conservative news outlet. This time, the target is Fox News itself.

The campaign is Turn Off Fox. The basic idea is for participants to go to public places that play Fox News, feed them talking points about why they think it's bad, and complain until the manager agrees to turn it off.

A Whois.com domain lookup identifies the Turn Off Fox website as registered to Oakland, California's Citizen Engagement Laboratory. The Citizen Engagement Lab's website offers very little public attention about its activities.

As it turns out, the Soros Foundation funded the CEL to the tune of $300,000.

The level of Soros' involvement is clearly debatable. After all, it isn't as if Soros is directly involved in the decisions made by all of the groups his organization funds.

It could simply be a case of the left hand not knowing what the other hand is doing.

Then again, Soros was involved in an attempt to bail out Air America.

Regardless, the presence of George Soros' money should remind any observers precisely what both of these campaigns -- the Avaaz petition against Sun TV and the Turn Off Fox campaign -- really are:

Astroturf.

Frances Russel, Lawrence Martin, Linda McQuaig & Conspiracy Theories as Journalism

"FOX North" conspiracy theory jumps the shark

With SUN Media's new television network applying for a category one broadcasting license from the CRTC -- which would require cable and satellite services to offer it -- the far left's compunction for conspiracy theorizing has officially jumped the shark.

Writing for Rabble.ca, Frances Russell is alluding to an article by Lawrence Martin, wherein he himself alludes to anonymous "insiders" who infer that Prime Minister set to, at his earliest opportunity, appoint a CRTC chair and vice-chair who would be in favour of the network.

Martin goes on to suggest that Kory Teneckye, Harper's former communications director, has been molding what individuals like Martin already argued was a conservative-biased newspaper chain into a conservative-biased newspaper chain.

His evidence is the firing of Greg Weston, whom Martin suggest was fired as retaliation for breaking the G20 "fake lake" non-story. (The "fake lake" which was, for the record, a hit with international media. The Canadian government showcasing Canadian media technology to the global media -- what an outrage!)

Martin deliberately overlooks the detail that various news outlets have been tightening their belts in the current economic climate. (Perhaps if Weston spent less time chasing non-stories and more time chasing real stories, he may have escaped the axe.)

The irony is so deep it could be grilled medium rare and then eaten with a knife and fork: Lawrence Martin, the long-time Liberal party shill, declaring Sun Media to be a Conservative party shill.

Perhaps the most suitable response is to admit that he may be right: after all, it's long been said that it takes one to know one.

Moving beyond Martin, it's clear that vitriol, rather than any rational objection to a conservative news network, drove Russell's pen as she wrote this column. If not, one would wonder what to make of this:

"The tone of political discourse, already shifted sharply right with the advent of Conrad Black's National Post in 1998, is about to take a quantum leap further down that road. The signs are numerous and ominous: The internet is already doused daily with the vitriol of thousands of anonymous far-right bloggers who slander and libel politicians, the media and all opponents with vile, often illiterate postings. Parliament and the country's entire political culture is being dug ever deeper into a mire of character assassination, personal insult and attack, smear campaigns, relentless and ruthless partisanship and denigration and demonization of any and all opponents."

Naturally, Russell the far-left demagogue has nothing to say about the legions of far-left bloggers who not only do precisely the same, but are often even more vicious and ruthless about it.

Russell's next exhibit is a column by none other than the Toronto Star's perpetually-reality-challenged Linda McQuaig:

"'There's been a tendency in the Canadian media to dismiss the threat of a Fox News transplant on the grounds Canadians wouldn't fall for that sort of nasty, right-wing extremism,' she writes. 'But that comforting notion may be naïve.' Most people don't have time to follow politics in detail, she continues. 'If they hear constant sound bites suggesting global warming is a hoax or public health care just doesn't work, after a while the message starts to seem believable.'

She points out the media already blasts Canadians with a steady chorus of right-wing ideas. 'A Fox-style network here -- if Harper gets his way -- would turn that into a deafening cacophony.'"

Of course, McQuaig doesn't elaborate on this particular claim. Would it be the CBC "blasting" Canadians with "right-wing ideas"? The same CBC whose executives overwhelmingly donate to the Liberal Party?

Of course not. This is simply another case of McQuaig refusing -- simply refusing -- to familiarize herself with reality.

It's hardly surprising that for all the objection to SUN Media starting a TV news network, there isn't one rational, factual or even coherent argument among them. The worst-kept secret regarding media bias is that everyone is in favour of media bias: they simply prefer that the media would share their bias.

Underlying this controversy is the fact that Canada's left seems to want the CRTC to, for no rational or logical reason, enforce the maintenance of the the dominant bias they prefer -- and they're peddling some rather bizarre conspiracy theories in order to justify it.

Update: Kevin Potvin Still Pouting

Life's tough, Kevin: Get a Helmet

The sad, sad tale of Kevin Potvin whining about the widespread censure (not censor) that Kevin Potvin recieved over his controversial and boneheaded 9/11 comments continued this week, with the most recent issue of his Republic of East Vancouver "newspaper".

The May 10th issue of Potvin's throw-away bi-monthly rag features the most recent of numerous tirades against those who Potvin feels are so "unjustly" "oppressing" him. In previous tirades, Potvin outwardly raged against his opponents, points the finger of blame at the NDP for allegedly "leaking" the original article (which, for the record, was willingly published for public consumption), and accused the "corporate news media" of "censoring" him.

In his most recent article, Potvin publicly lodges complaint about the fact that his attempts to extend his own 15 minutes of fame by lodging complaint were cut short. He accuses his detractors of "turtling" by refusing to respond to his purile attempts to stir up further controversy by waging a private war with the "evil" "corporate news media".

He relates the tale of his complaint against Ian King, the writer of what Potvin refers to as "a late hit", an article that compared Potvin to Doug Collins, the would-have-been candidate for the Reform party who was expelled from the party by Preston Manning for espousing racist viewpoints on a radio program.

Potvin claims the comparison is "defamatory". Yet, one can easily find the comparison between Kevin Potvin, a candidate who stirred up unwelcome controversy for his party by expressing celebratory views regarding 9/11 -- and no matter how he may try to deny it, this is precisely what he has done -- and Doug Collins, a candidate who stirred up unwelcome controversy for his party by making racist comments, as well as trivializing the Holocaust. Both would-be candidates were removed by their respective party leaders.

Where, precisely, is the comparison defamatory? If by "defamatory", you mean "true", Potvin may be on to something. Otherwise...

(Fortunately Potvin's readers are at hand to keep his head on straight...)

Continuing our "tragic" little tale, Potvin notes that his complaint was directed to SUN media's lawyer. After being informed by Potvin that he "wouldn't be speaking through a lawyer, but rather through [his] readers, so nothing would be off the record", Potvin was simply told "no dice".

SUN's lawyer refused to be drug into Potvin's sad little media war. Apparently, to Potvin, this is "turtling" as well.

His complaint with the Vancouver Sun didn't even get that far. When he demanded an apology for an allegedly "defamatory" (again, actually "true") headline describing his column as pro-9/11, he was simply told "move on with your life. The rest of us have."

According to Potvin, this unqalified rejection of his complaint is "turtling".

He also complained that the writer in question, who in an email described Potvin as "fundamentally a prick" referred him to the Sun's lawyer as well. In Potvin's eyes, this is "turtling" as well.

In the absence of such a lawyer, Potvin was referred to the deputy managing editor. Potvin then launches into a long, rambling complaint about how David Suzuki, editor-for-a-day entirely ignored Potvin's plight in his "Green edition" of the Vancouver Sun. He also whines that Suzuki made no mention of neo-imperialism, war in Africa or the Middle East, or (predictably) 9/11.

Hoo boy. Not only does Potvin expect everyone to participate in his little media war, but he also expects David Suzuki, of all people, to participate in his 9/11 conspiracy crusade.

Hoooooo boy.

He also suggests that by ignoring his plight, both Suzuki and Green Party leader Elizabeth May are in league with "the unelected corporate board rooms and their media organ, the National Post).

Hoooooooooooo boy.

Yet as he often does, Potvin saves the greater hilarity for last. He not once, but twice refers to himself as "the only Green party candidate in the country who could potentially win a seat". Even after the Green Party's second-place finish in London Centre, Potvin has deluded himself to be the cream of the crop of Green Party candidates, the only one electable among them.

This, despite the fact that he is entirely unelectable.

Perhaps Peter O'Neil is right. Kevin Potvin's 15 minutes of fame should be mercifully allowed to expire. Fortunately, despite his desperate efforts to keep the mainstream media's attention wired inexorably on him have largely failed.

While he continues his sad little crusade against the "corporate media" in his little "newspaper", Kevin Potvin might remember a popular adage: "if you're gonna be dumb, you gotta be tough".