The Jays shake it up

Since Sun TV News effectively monopolized the blog today, here are the Toronto Blue Jays getting hit by an earthquake in San Diego on Monday night during a game against the Padres. The Jays beat the National League leading Padres 6-3, perhaps thanks to a little tectonic karma.

Daily Image

Today's Image is yet another video. It's Sun TV News' teaser trailer, I suppose you could call it. Although it reads more like a campaign commercial for Canada's answer to Ronald Reagan, I'm sure it appeals to someone out there. Maybe.

Daily Quote

"We're taking on smug, condescending, often irrelevant journalism. We're taking on political correctness. We will not be a state broadcaster offering boring news by bureaucrats and paid for by taxpayers. We will be unapologetically patriotic. We will offer the kind of raw debate that Canadians only find today in coffee shops and around the dinner table. Sun TV News will be controversially Canadian."

- Kory Teneycke, Vice President of Development, Quebecor Media Inc.
Today, during the announcement of Sun TV News, Quebecor's new all-news channel.

"Fox News North" is actually Sun TV News

Pierre Karl Péladeau, President and CEO of Quebecor Inc., and Kory Teneycke, VP of Development for Quebecor Media Inc., unveil Sun TV News.

Pierre Karl Péladeau, the billionaire President and CEO of Quebecor Inc., unveiled Sun TV News today at the offices of the Toronto Sun. The new all-news network, which was first reported under with the nickname Fox News North, will launch in 2011. Much of the speculation about the new network, which Péladeau said would compete directly with CBC News Network and CTV News Channel, was confirmed in today's announcement.

Here are the details:

• Sun TV News will share resources and reporters with the Sun chain of newspapers and, as Péladeau put it, would have an emphasis on "strong personalities."
• The network will adopt a format of hard breaking news during the day and focus on talk, editorial, and opinion in the evening.
• Péladeau argued today that Canadians are ill-served by CBC News Network and CTV News Channel and are opting for American news networks instead.
• As expected, Kory Teneycke, the former chief spokesperson for Prime Minister Stephen Harper, will head the new network. During the announcement today, he called Canada's existing all-news networks "narrow, complacent, and politically-correct."
• While obviously describing a new network that will be quite unique among the existing news networks, Teneycke rejected the "Fox News North" label, saying Sun TV News will offer "strong opinions and analysis" but will carry a range of points of view.
• Teneycke also answered the wave of editorial criticism facing the new network, saying it is "natural that our competitors should be worried."
• While a rumored figure of $100 Million was speculated as the Quebecor investment in the new network, neither Péladeau nor Teneycke would state the actual figure with Péladeau saying it would be "whatever is appropriate."

Read the full Quebecor press release announcing Sun TV News here.
Explore the new Sun TV News website.

Fox News North: further reading

Here are some supplements to the Fox News North story:

• The original CP article in the Toronto Star and the followup.
• A great editorial in the Toronto Star today by Christopher Dornan, Director of the Arthur Kroeger College of Public Affairs at Carleton University.
• An editorial by Tasha Kheiriddin in the National Post, a generally-conservative paper.
• An editorial by Dan Leger for The Chronicle Herald.

UPDATES TO FOLLOW

Fox News North: a story we should all be paying attention to

A press conference has been called by Quebecor Media Inc. for tomorrow where it is widely expected that Pierre Karl Peladeau, the billionaire media tycoon who heads Quebecor, will announce plans to launch a new cable news network in Canada modeled after the extremely provocative and extremely conservative Fox News Channel.

As first reported early last week by the Toronto Star, details have steadily been trickling out about plans for the new network, which Quebecor will only go as far as calling a "new investment in Canadian media."

Here is what is known:

• The "new investment" is a $100 MILLION joint venture between Quebecor Media Inc. and Sun Media Corp.
• Quebecor filed an application with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission earlier this month.
• Quebecor has named Kory Teneycke, the former chief spokesperson for Prime Minister Stephen Harper, vice-president of development. After leaving his post in the Prime Minister's Office last July, Teneycke briefly worked as a Conservative pundit for CBC television.
• Luc Lavoie, the former chief spokesperson for former Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, will also re-join Quebecor.

Here are the rumors:

• Based on past statements by Teneycke, it is speculated that the new network would adopt a format and editorial style similar to that of the Fox News Channel in the United States. Teneycke has long called for a news network that would cater to a conservative-minded audience.
• CBC reporter Krista Erickson left her position today saying, in a memo to coworkers, that she was "leaving to pursue another opportunity." It is widely-speculated that she will be named to a top post in the new Quebecor network. Erickson is the girlfriend of Conservative MP for Calgary Centre Lee Richardson. She once got into trouble for feeding questions to a Liberal MP during committee hearings into the business relationship between Brian Mulroney and Karlheinz Schreiber.

There has been much more speculation, and a great deal of commentary on the alledged plans for the new network in the press today. One thing for sure is known: a new network based on the Fox model would be unprecedented in the history of Canadian politics and would surely have a profound effect on the political and journalistic climate in this country.

UPDATES TO FOLLOW

Pierre Karl Peladeau, President and CEO of Quebecor Inc.

Review: The New American Century

This is an incredible, eye-opening documentary that should be seen by all. It tells the story of the history of the Project for the New American Century through heavy reliance on archival footage starting from Spanish-American War of 1898 right up to the present. This film exposes how every major war in US history was based on fraudulent information, misleading claims, and black propaganda.

Incredibly well-made and insightful, The New American Century brings to light the often inexplicable motives of the United States of America and puts into perspective the often misguided actions of the world's most powerful nation.

Daily Quote

“When it comes to ‘national security’ matters the judicial system has willingly abandoned its sacred role of ensuring that no one is above the law.”

- Maher Arar
Today, after a US Supreme Court decision not to review his rendition and torture case effectively ended his fight to be exonerated in the US, as he has been in Canada. Read the full store here.

Daily Image

Today's Daily Image is actually a video. I felt strongly enough that this had to be shared that I decided "image" was open to interpretation. Enjoy "First Date Honest Answers" from Break.com:

Daily Image

I am literally on a train right now on my way out of town for the weekend. So, as the first week of Create & Commerce comes to a close, here is your Daily Image.

Until Monday,

Callam Rodya

On this day in 1963, Thich Quang Duc, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk, set himself ablaze and burned to death in a busy intersection in Saigon. The radical action was a protest against the persecution of Buddhists by President Ngo Dinh Diem. This and other photographs like it were circulated around the world and drew international attention to the plight of the Buddhists in South Vietnam. Thich Quand Duc's self-immolation set in motion a series of events that culminated in an Army coup against Diem.