Left Wing vs Right Wing Media

Excellent Podcast from Tristan Emmanuel on being fair and balanced on the media.

No Apologies Is The BalanceFriday, June 1, 2007

The Canadian media culture is one big boring leftwing monologue. Oh, I know there are exceptions - but they are few and far between and, for the most part, they have to be very guarded in what they say, and certainly can't be provocative. Canadian media operates under the bizarre view that "fairness" and "balance" are the key guiding principles of ethical journalism - setting us apart, of course, from Fox News and those hard right fanatics in America's talk-radio milieu. Forget about the strident arrogance of such a view: the real problem with this attitude is that most of Canada's media elites actually believe they're own façade - that they are "fair" and "balanced" - even though everyone knows that what passes for "news" in mainstream media is anything but "fair" and "balanced". Fairness in our media culture basically means that, for every minute a "conservative" speaks on radio or TV, the left gets at least ten minutes of "balance" to rebut them - and the conservative view is often just mentioned in order to editorialize about how extreme it is and how the author of the opinion should apologize. This broadcast climate didn't just appear by accident. The heavy hand of bureaucratic management in the name of the Canadian Radio-Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) had a lot to do with cultivating it. The CRTC regulates radio and telecommunications in Canada. It is the gate-keeper of all things Canadian and one of its primary functions is to ensure that radio and TV stations carry a sufficient percentage of Canadian content ("Cancon"). On one level, "Cancon" sounds really good. I mean what's wrong with promoting the material of your own citizens? We won't even get into the question of whether it is even in the public interest to have a government agency get involved in what ostensibly is a free market enterprise; the real problem with "Cancon" is that it is simply a front for leftwing content. I mean, think about it: if "Cancon" really is what it claims to be then No Apologies should pass the grade no problems. No Apologies is written by Canadians. Produced by Canadians. Presented and distributed by Canadians. And yes, to the chagrin of my critics, I am...Canadian. But would the CRTC sit idly by if a radio station started to broadcast our program? The CRTC is pathologically bent towards the left. And that is why, whether it's the CBC, CTV, Global or TVO, if it's not left, lefter and leftist, if it doesn't fit into their politically correct purview, if it doesn't give credence to multi-culturalism, then it simply does not fit "Cancon" requirements - by the way this is what the CRTC calls "Communication in the public interest". An entire constituency of Canadians who are proud and patriotic, but are not philosophically bent towards the left, are being sold a load of... you know what. And to make matters worse, they have been subsidizing this reengineering with tax dollars while being frozen out of the media establishment. Communications in the public interest means, at the very least, that Canadians who still hold to Judeo-Christian traditions and believe that conservative principles and values deserve wide public airing on radio and TV should have a media outlet too. If the CRTC is truly interested in "balance," then it's about time they added one or two hundred conservative programs to the roster - but we'll settle for one at a time, starting with No

Apologies. No Apologies is unapologetic social conservative talk radio. We...are the balance.

Yours for our culture,
Tristan Emmanuel
ECP Centre President


Check out his podcast at http://www.ecpcentre.org/no_apologies.php