Sun TV News Channel
Encyclopedia
Sun News Network is an English language
Category C
news and opinion channel owned and operated by Quebecor Media through a partnership between two of its subsidiaries, TVA Group Inc.
(51% ownership) and Sun Media Corporation
(49% ownership). The channel launched on April 18, 2011 in both standard
and high definition
under a Category 2
(later classified as Category C) licence granted by the CRTC in November 2010, after the network aborted a highly publicized attempt for a Category 1 licence (later classified as Category A) that would have given it mandatory access on digital cable and satellite providers across Canada.
Sun News is currently available on a handful of cable and satellite systems across Canada, with Quebecor seeking to expand distribution. The channel was previously simulcast on the former CKXT-DT, an over-the-air station
(which previously aired the general-format Sun TV) available in Toronto and portions of southern and eastern Ontario, until the end of October 2011. CKXT benefited from mandatory carriage on analog cable throughout those areas, and had also historically been carried (at the provider's option) on the digital service of several other cable and satellite providers across the country. The over-the-air simulcasts in Southern Ontario
ended at midnight on November 1, 2011 when Quebecor surrendered its over-the-air licence; simulcasts to the Ottawa region ended at midnight on September 1.
news channel, Le Canal Nouvelles
, and features news reportage during the daytime hours (6AM to 5PM ET
) and personality-driven analysis and commentary programmes in the evening hours (5PM ET onwards). The network's general on-air attitude, its founding executives have claimed, is lively, "unapologetically patriotic," and "less politically correct" in comparison to the well-established English-language national news networks in Canada, CTV News Channel and CBC News Network, which Quebecor management have claimed are "uninspiring" and leading Canadian TV viewers to turn to U.S. networks for news.
Sun News also aims to take a populist
, conservative-leaning approach that mirrors the namesake Sun
chain of Quebecor-owned tabloid newspapers; that, and its employment of conservative commentators and operatives in key on-air and off-air positions, have led media reports, pundits, and critics to bill the network as "Fox News
North." Sun News management has openly bristled at the comparisons to Fox News, saying that they only intend Sun News to mimic the Sun chain's “irreverent” and “provocative” approach, and that though some conservative voices would be prominent, a "range of [political] opinion" would be offered.
After originally intending for a New Years' Day 2011 launch (a date pushed back due to several start-up and staffing challenges), Sun News commenced programming on April 18, 2011; on that date, a 10-hour graphic with a countdown clock ended at 4:30 PM (ET
) with the playing of O Canada
followed by a half-hour launch preview special hosted by Canada Live host Krista Erickson
(the Sun newspapers' "Sunshine Girl
" for the day). The special was followed by the premiere of The Source with Ezra Levant
and the remainder of the network's prime-time talk programming (daytime news programmes debuted on April 19). Sun News is based primarily from studios
in Toronto
, with additional studios located in Ottawa
, Winnipeg
, and Calgary
. Sun News also has news bureau
s in Montreal
(shared with QMI Agency), Vancouver
(shared with Sun Media
), and Washington, D.C.
, the latter being the network's first foreign bureau.
, VP of development for Quebecor and a former director of communications and chief spokesperson for Prime Minister
Stephen Harper
. Teneycke briefly left Sun News after a firestorm erupted over his criticism of Sun News' critics (see below); during that interim (September 2010 to January 2011), Sun News was headed by Luc Lavoie, a long-time Quebecor executive and, like Teneycke, a former Prime Minister's spokesperson (he served under Brian Mulroney
).
At its June 2010 launch announcement, Sun News tabbed David Akin and Brian Lilley as national bureau chief and senior correspondent, respectively; both men serve as on-air hosts. Sun News' first significant on-air hire was nationally-syndicated talk show host Charles Adler
; the Winnipeg-based Adler was tapped in September 2010 to host a nightly analysis/opinion show on the network. During summer 2010, Sun News made an overture to comedian Rick Mercer
(who declined), while also denying rumours of an offer to Kevin Newman, who left his anchor position at Global National
in August 2010.
In addition to the on-air staff listed below, Sun News relies in part on staff and resources from the Sun chain and other Quebecor-owned newspapers; a number of Quebecor's print journalists have been trained on the TV newsgathering tasks they will perform in addition to their regular newspaper and website duties. (Sun News logo is patterned after the Toronto Sun's
long-time circular insignia, which was re-applied to the Sun tabloids and websites a day after Sun News' debut.) Additionally, Sun News has an international content agreement with CNN
.
, which it owned and operated at the time and was available over-the-air in Toronto
and through relayed through translators
in Hamilton
, London
, and Ottawa
. In its initial submission to the CRTC in spring 2010, Quebecor requested that Sun News be awarded a Category 1 digital specialty channel
licence that would have reverted to Category 2
status after three years. Category 1 status, if the CRTC had approved it, would have given Sun News the same status as CTV News Channel and CBC News Network, in that it would have required all Canadian digital television providers (both cable
and direct broadcast satellite
) to carry and offer Sun News to their customers should those carriers have the capability to do so. However, unlike CTV News Channel and CBC News Network, carriers would not have had the ability to distribute Sun News via analog cable, only digital. (Category 1 would not have made the channel, contrary to common belief, a compulsory part of every customer's basic digital package; however, it could be placed in digital basic packages subject to negotiations between Sun News and individual television providers.)
Quebecor initially requested Category 1 status for Sun News on the insistence that the channel's combination of news, analysis, and opinion programming would create "a completely new [TV] genre" different from the other all-news channels in Canada. The CRTC disagreed, however, and turned down the application in a July 5, 2010 letter to Quebecor. In its letter, the CRTC noted that Sun News was being promoted in part as a news channel, and suggested that "news and analysis are sub-categories of the information programming category," which therefore would not, in the CRTC's eyes, make Sun News unique. Additionally, the CRTC had stated earlier in 2010 that it was not planning to entertain any new applications for Category 1 licences until at least October 2011.
After the CRTC's decline for Category 1, Quebecor resubmitted its Sun News application under Category 2
status. Though Category 2 is officially non-mandatory (cable and satellite carriers are not compelled to carry such channels), Quebecor included in its resubmission a request for a Category 1-style "mandatory access" period of no more than 3 years, insisting that the network would need that period of time "to effectively expose and promote its programming to viewers across Canada" without obliging cable and satellite customers to add it to their package; without mandatory access, Quebecor added, cable/satellite carriers could choose not to offer Sun News to their customers, which could lead to Quebecor pulling the plug on the project.
On October 5, 2010, Quebecor announced that it was withdrawing its mandatory access request and apply for a normal Category 2 status without any special exceptions or carriage conditions. The move was widely considered an easier avenue for Sun News' licence approval (Category 2 licences are routinely granted by the CRTC unless it is for a format considered a protected genre, of which national news channels are not included). The CRTC granted Quebecor a five-year Category 2 licence for Sun News on November 26, 2010; the network's status was changed to a Category C service
on September 1, 2011, as part of an overall restructuring of broadcasting regulations during Canada's transition to digital television broadcasting
.
carries the network, as do Shaw Communications
and Shaw Direct (the deal with Shaw was for a free, 6-month trial period on Shaw Cable systems in Ontario and Western Canada). Sun News was also available over-the-air until the end of October 2011 via Quebecor's CKXT-TV
in the Toronto, Hamilton
and London
areas of southern Ontario, and until the end of August in Ottawa; this also included cable/satellite carriage in at least those areas that received CKXT over the air, including services on the Cogeco
, Rogers Cable
, and Bell Fibe TV
services. Though Quebecor originally intended to return the CKXT licence in exchange for Sun News, it made a February 2011 filing to the CRTC requesting to continue CKXT's operations past the August 2011 digital conversion
. The arrangement led to complaints by other broadcasters that Sun was trying to "have it both ways" by having both guaranteed over the air coverage while asking for the subscriber fees that a specialty channel is entitled to. On July 5, 2011, the CRTC told Quebecor it would have to justify its practice of using an over the air signal to promote a specialty channel. On July 15, 2011, Quebecor responded by agreeing to surrender CKXT-TV's licence at the end of October.
Sun News had also initially been made available on Bell Satellite TV until the morning of May 3, 2011, when the channel was removed from the service at Quebecor's request due to no carriage fee agreement being reached with Bell TV. Bell countered that Quebecor's asking price for Sun News carriage was in line with more popular channels and deemed too high for such a "new and relatively untested" channel; additionally, Bell wanted to treat Sun News as a terrestrial channel (i.e. available without carriage fees), citing its then-simulcast on CKXT. (The outage did not affect Bell Fibe TV
in the Toronto area, which was compelled to carry CKXT's signal.) Quebecor would file a complaint with the CRTC over the incident, alleging that Bell was discriminating against Sun News and thereby favouring Bell Media's own news networks, namely CTV News Channel and CP24. Quebecor and Bell would make peace on November 22, 2011, announcing a deal that would – beginning in mid-December 2011 – add Sun News to Bell TV's basic satellite and IPTV packages outside of Quebec
(a deal for subscribers in that province is expected to be announced later). The Bell deal also includes carriage of 3 other Quebecor-owned networks, Mlle
, Yoopa
, and TVA Sports
.
, Lawrence Martin claimed, citing "insiders", that CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein
was under pressure from Prime Minister
Stephen Harper
to resign from the commission and take another government position, such as an ambassador
ship, in order to facilitate Sun News getting its desired licence. In a letter to The Globe and Mail, von Finckenstein "categorically" denied any government interference regarding Sun News or his tenure as CRTC chair.
An online petition titled "Stop Fox News North" was established by the international activist organization Avaaz.org
. The petition claimed that Prime Minister Harper seeks to "push American-style hate media onto [Canadian] airwaves" with Sun News, and that the network would be "funded with money from our cable TV fees" (in contradiction to the "mandatory access" request in Quebecor's 2nd CRTC application); the petition also cited Martin's column as evidence that von Finckenstein was the "one man" standing in the way of Sun News getting a preferential licence. Avaaz's petition garnered 30,000 signatures, 21,000 of which Avaaz delivered to the CRTC because they had individual appeals added. Author Margaret Atwood
was among the petition signatories, revealing she signed it not as a criticism of Sun News' possible rightward agenda but as a criticism of Harper's style of government, particularly perceived attempts by his government to expedite Sun News' licence approval.
Quebecor immediately dismissed the Avaaz petition against Sun News, alleging Avaaz to be an "American special interest group funded by U.S. billionaire George Soros
." (Avaaz has staff in Canada and several other countries, but was co-founded by MoveOn.org, a U.S.-based political advocacy group to which Soros has contributed in the past. However, it is not clear whether Soros has ever directly funded, or otherwise been directly involved with, Avaaz.) Sun News supporters and noted employees piled on as well; Sun News Ottawa bureau chief David Akin, for one, accused Margaret Atwood on his Twitter account of attempting to squelch Quebecor's free speech rights by signing the petition, while Ezra Levant
, a future Sun News hire, wrote in a column that ran in the Sun newspapers, not only criticized Soros' perceived direct support of Avaaz but brought up Soros' background as a survivor of Nazi-controlled Hungary ("false, defamatory and offensive statements," according to a spokesperson for Soros, who considered legal action against Sun Media before they apologized, retracted, and removed from its websites Levant's column; Atwood also considered a lawsuit).
Quebecor VP of development Kory Teneycke
, who was heading up the Sun News project, also took aggressive stands against the network's opponents. In a September 3, 2010 opinion piece that ran in Quebecor-owned newspapers, Teneycke accused Atwood of "[putting] her political agenda ahead of principles and patriotism;" he also criticized Avaaz and challenged the legitimacy of the signatures on its "Stop Fox News North" petition, specifically citing "signatures" from fictitious characters including "Boba Fett
" and "Dwight Shroot" (sic)
. In the same manner as those fictitious monikers, names of real-life journalists were signed to Avaaz's petition, with the journalists actually receiving automated "thank you" e-mails for signing a petition that they never actually signed. Teneycke revealed on his Twitter feed (since deactivated) that not only did he also receive a "thank you" for "signing" the petition, he also had been in contact with a prankster who submitted the signatures. Teneycke's posting piqued Avaaz, which noted that the signature list was not viewable to the general public and called the "fraudulent" signatures the work of "a deliberate and illegal effort" meant to discredit the organization. Avaaz investigated further and traced most of the suspect signatures to a single IP address
in the Ottawa
area; Avaaz forwarded its findings to RCMP
and Ottawa Police
investigators on September 14, 2010, and requested that they look into the matter. (Ottawa Police, after reviewing Avaaz's request, decided in November 2010 not to proceed with an investigation.)
On September 15, 2010, one day after Avaaz's request for a police investigation, Kory Teneycke abruptly resigned from his position at Quebecor and Sun News. Avoiding specific references to the petition controversy in his announcement, Teneycke admitted that his presence and acts while at Sun News had played a part in "debasing" the debate over the network, and that he hoped his departure would lessen the impression of interference by the Harper government and increase civilized debate on Sun News' licensing attempts. Quebecor immediately replaced Teneycke with longtime Quebecor executive (and former Tory
operative) Luc Lavoie; Lavoie served as Sun News head until Teneycke quietly returned to Quebecor and the network in January 2011, two months after Sun News was granted its Category 2 licence (Lavoie remains as the network's head of development).
An October 2010 memo obtained by Canadian Press the following December under the Access to Information Act
suggested that Quebecor withdrew its special status requests for Sun News in an effort to appease not only the CRTC but those within the Canadian broadcasting industry who intervened with concerns about the Sun News licensing efforts. Quebecor did not officially divulge the reason for the application change, but then-Sun News head Luc Lavoie acknowledged that the interventions played a part and hoped it would be a sign that Quebecor wanted to "negotiate [carriage terms] in good faith" with cable/satellite carriers.
issued a briefing to the CRTC recommending that Sun News' application be rejected, believing that Sun's mandatory access request was "highly unfair" to other licence applicants. However, Friends recommended that if Sun News did win licence approval, Quebecor should be required to commit revenue to Canadian programming (equal to that of CTV News Channel and CBC News Network) as well as adhere to the Canadian Association of Broadcasters
Code of Ethics for balanced news coverage and programming. The CRTC's November 26 approval specifically included requirements that Sun News would adhere to the RTNDA Code of Journalistic Ethics and the Journalistic Independence Code as a member of the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council
. Sun News was regarded to be a possible benefactor of a proposal by the CRTC to give licenced broadcast stations more leeway to broadcast false and misleading news (the CRTC dropped the proposal in February 2011).
The content of Sun News' early hours and days received some criticism and generated some controversy, with critics and columnists remarking about the network's heavy self-promotion and choice of opening night topics, including several critiques against the Crown-owned
CBC
(a frequent Sun target in print) and little talk about the ongoing political campaign (by coincidence, Sun News' debut occurred two weeks before a federal election).Ezra Levant
was panned as well for relying on "old news" during the first edition of The Source, including showing a controversial 2005 cartoon
depicting the Prophet Muhammad
. Less kinder criticisms came from The Globe and Mail
TV critic John Doyle, who branded Sun News as "fantastically inept broadcasting," and from Winnipeg Free Press
columnist Brad Oswald, who remarked that the network "lacked the ideological zeal and the financial wherewithal to achieve its self-stated goal of changing TV history."
Sun News' perceived sex appeal received attention early on, with both Rick Mercer
and Ottawa Citizen
columnist Dave Dutton among those tweeting
about the "babe shots" during Sun's first day. Later in the week, libertarian
columnist Tasha Kheiriddin
of the National Post
slammed Sun News over the "low cut, sleeveless" attire of the network's female anchors; Maclean's
Washington bureau chief Luiza Ch. Savage, in agreement with Kheiriddin, billed the network as "Skank TV" on her Twitter feed (a comment she has since retracted). Sun News management has defended their anchors' "right to bare arms," as did New Democratic Party
(NDP) Member of Parliament
Olivia Chow
– who unveiled a sleeveless look during an April 21 appearance on The Roundtable, stating that "It’s not what [women in politics] wear that matters, it’s the ideas they bring forward."
A June 1, 2011 Canada Live discussion Krista Erickson
conducted with interpretive dance
r Margie Gillis
would also garner attention; in the discussion regarding public funding for arts programmes, Erickson took an aggressive verbal tone towards a soft-spoken Gillis, shouting over Gillis' responses and challenging her comments about lack of compassion amongst Canadians when, to quote Erickson, "We have lost more than 150 soldiers who have served in Afghanistan
!" Though Sun News has stood by Erickson and her conduct in the Gillis interview, the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council
would receive 4,350 complaints from viewers over the incident, more than double the annual average amount of complaints the Council receives. The CBSC is in the process of reviewing the complaints; if it is determined that the incident violated the Council's Code of Ethics clause that requires "full, fair and proper presentation of news, opinion, and editorial" content, Sun News will be required to issue on-air apologies.
leader Michael Ignatieff
posing with U.S. military forces in Kuwait
in late 2002, months before the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The source of the photo was Conservative
operative Patrick Muttart, who had been providing pro bono advice to Sun News regarding its on-air presentation and offered the photo to Sun Media, which ran a story alleging Ignatieff's involvement with the U.S. plans to invade Iraq. Sun Media did not run the photo, however, as the image was illegible and did not conclusively prove of Ignatieff's presence with the U.S. troops. Sun Media head Pierre Karl Péladeau
, in an editorial for the Sun papers, claimed the photo was an attempt to not only damage the Ignatieff campaign but the integrity of Sun Media and Sun News as well. The incident led to Muttart's removal from the campaign of Conservative leader and incumbent Prime Minister
Stephen Harper
.
On April 29, 2011, Sun News ran a report contending that NDP leader Jack Layton
was in attendance at a Toronto massage clinic when police visited it in 1996 on suspicion of it being a brothel. Layton, who was never charged with any wrongdoing, called Sun News' report a "smear campaign," while Layton's lawyer, Brian Iler, said in a statement that Layton "had no knowledge whatsoever that the therapist’s location may have been used for illicit purposes." Layton's wife and fellow NDP Member of Parliament
Olivia Chow
confirmed the 1996 appointment and decried "any insinuation of wrongdoing" on her husband's part. Ontario Provincial Police launched a probe into how police notes about the incident were leaked to Sun News, whose report cited an anonymous Toronto vice-squad officer.
(38,000). By June 2011, Sun News reached an average of 12,900 viewers, which ranks it ahead of all-business specialty channel BNN
but well behind both CBC News Network and CTV News Channel. In August 2011, Qubecor Media Inc. stated that on August 12, they had higher viewership than CTV News Channel for the time period of 3:00pm to 10:00pm and higher than CBC News Network in the time slot of 3:00pm–5:00pm. They also had their highest ever viewership of 89,000 in the 9:00pm showing of Byline. The next Thursday August 18, Sun News Network had higher viewership than CTV News Network from 1:00pm–10:00pm with Charles Adler receiving 62,000 viewers and Byline 80,000 viewers. However, on the next day, the numbers dropped to 30,000 for Adler and 19,000 for Byline.
Canadian English
Canadian English is the variety of English spoken in Canada. English is the first language, or "mother tongue", of approximately 24 million Canadians , and more than 28 million are fluent in the language...
Category C
Category C services
A Category C service is a Canadian specialty television channel which, as defined by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, are services that provide programming in genres that are exempted from the CRTC's format protection rules and are subject to standard conditions of...
news and opinion channel owned and operated by Quebecor Media through a partnership between two of its subsidiaries, TVA Group Inc.
TVA (TV network)
TVA is a privately owned French language television network in Canada. The network is currently owned by Groupe TVA Inc. , a publicly traded subsidiary of Quebecor Media...
(51% ownership) and Sun Media Corporation
Sun Media
Sun Media Corporation is the owner of several widely read tabloid and broadsheet newspapers in Canada and the 49 percent owner of Sun News Network...
(49% ownership). The channel launched on April 18, 2011 in both standard
Standard-definition television
Sorete-definition television is a television system that uses a resolution that is not considered to be either enhanced-definition television or high-definition television . The term is usually used in reference to digital television, in particular when broadcasting at the same resolution as...
and high definition
High-definition television
High-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...
under a Category 2
Category C services
A Category C service is a Canadian specialty television channel which, as defined by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, are services that provide programming in genres that are exempted from the CRTC's format protection rules and are subject to standard conditions of...
(later classified as Category C) licence granted by the CRTC in November 2010, after the network aborted a highly publicized attempt for a Category 1 licence (later classified as Category A) that would have given it mandatory access on digital cable and satellite providers across Canada.
Sun News is currently available on a handful of cable and satellite systems across Canada, with Quebecor seeking to expand distribution. The channel was previously simulcast on the former CKXT-DT, an over-the-air station
Terrestrial television
Terrestrial television is a mode of television broadcasting which does not involve satellite transmission or cables — typically using radio waves through transmitting and receiving antennas or television antenna aerials...
(which previously aired the general-format Sun TV) available in Toronto and portions of southern and eastern Ontario, until the end of October 2011. CKXT benefited from mandatory carriage on analog cable throughout those areas, and had also historically been carried (at the provider's option) on the digital service of several other cable and satellite providers across the country. The over-the-air simulcasts in Southern Ontario
Southern Ontario
Southern Ontario is a region of the province of Ontario, Canada that lies south of the French River and Algonquin Park. Depending on the inclusion of the Parry Sound and Muskoka districts, its surface area would cover between 14 to 15% of the province. It is the southernmost region of...
ended at midnight on November 1, 2011 when Quebecor surrendered its over-the-air licence; simulcasts to the Ottawa region ended at midnight on September 1.
Programming and content
Sun News' daily schedule is modeled after Quebecor's French languageFrench language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
news channel, Le Canal Nouvelles
Le Canal Nouvelles
Le Canal Nouvelles is a Canadian French language Category C 24 hour headline news specialty channel owned by Groupe TVA, a division of Quebecor Media...
, and features news reportage during the daytime hours (6AM to 5PM ET
Eastern Time Zone
The Eastern Time Zone of the United States and Canada is a time zone that falls mostly along the east coast of North America. Its UTC time offset is −5 hrs during standard time and −4 hrs during daylight saving time...
) and personality-driven analysis and commentary programmes in the evening hours (5PM ET onwards). The network's general on-air attitude, its founding executives have claimed, is lively, "unapologetically patriotic," and "less politically correct" in comparison to the well-established English-language national news networks in Canada, CTV News Channel and CBC News Network, which Quebecor management have claimed are "uninspiring" and leading Canadian TV viewers to turn to U.S. networks for news.
Sun News also aims to take a populist
Populism
Populism can be defined as an ideology, political philosophy, or type of discourse. Generally, a common theme compares "the people" against "the elite", and urges social and political system changes. It can also be defined as a rhetorical style employed by members of various political or social...
, conservative-leaning approach that mirrors the namesake Sun
Sun Media
Sun Media Corporation is the owner of several widely read tabloid and broadsheet newspapers in Canada and the 49 percent owner of Sun News Network...
chain of Quebecor-owned tabloid newspapers; that, and its employment of conservative commentators and operatives in key on-air and off-air positions, have led media reports, pundits, and critics to bill the network as "Fox News
Fox News Channel
Fox News Channel , often called Fox News, is a cable and satellite television news channel owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a subsidiary of News Corporation...
North." Sun News management has openly bristled at the comparisons to Fox News, saying that they only intend Sun News to mimic the Sun chain's “irreverent” and “provocative” approach, and that though some conservative voices would be prominent, a "range of [political] opinion" would be offered.
After originally intending for a New Years' Day 2011 launch (a date pushed back due to several start-up and staffing challenges), Sun News commenced programming on April 18, 2011; on that date, a 10-hour graphic with a countdown clock ended at 4:30 PM (ET
Eastern Time Zone
The Eastern Time Zone of the United States and Canada is a time zone that falls mostly along the east coast of North America. Its UTC time offset is −5 hrs during standard time and −4 hrs during daylight saving time...
) with the playing of O Canada
O Canada
It has been noted that the opening theme of "O Canada" bears a strong resemblance to the "Marsch der Priester" , from the opera Die Zauberflöte , composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and that Lavallée's melody was inspired by Mozart's tune...
followed by a half-hour launch preview special hosted by Canada Live host Krista Erickson
Krista Erickson
Krista Erickson is a Canadian journalist and the principal daytime anchor on the Sun News Network, hosting Canada Live.Prior to joining Sun News, Erickson worked for CBC Television for 11 years, most recently as a member of the network's parliamentary bureau...
(the Sun newspapers' "Sunshine Girl
Sunshine Girl
Sunshine Girl refers to pinup girls featured in most of the daily newspapers of the Sun chain in Canada.The feature started with the Toronto Sun, which was launched in 1971, and was adapted from British tabloids with similar featured women. The SUNshine girls have become an iconic part of Canadian...
" for the day). The special was followed by the premiere of The Source with Ezra Levant
Ezra Levant
Ezra Isaac Levant is a Canadian lawyer, conservative political activist and media figure. He is the founder and former publisher of the Western Standard, hosts The Source daily on Sun News Network, and has written several books on politics....
and the remainder of the network's prime-time talk programming (daytime news programmes debuted on April 19). Sun News is based primarily from studios
Television studio
A television studio is an installation in which a video productions take place, either for the recording of live television to video tape, or for the acquisition of raw footage for post-production. The design of a studio is similar to, and derived from, movie studios, with a few amendments for the...
in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, with additional studios located in Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
, Winnipeg
Winnipeg
Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...
, and Calgary
Calgary
Calgary is a city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies...
. Sun News also has news bureau
News bureau
A News bureau is an office for gathering or distributing news. Similar terms are used for specialized bureaus, often to indicate geographic location or scope of coverage: a ‘Tokyo bureau’ refers to a given news operation's office in Tokyo; foreign bureau is a generic term for a news office set up...
s in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
(shared with QMI Agency), Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
(shared with Sun Media
Sun Media
Sun Media Corporation is the owner of several widely read tabloid and broadsheet newspapers in Canada and the 49 percent owner of Sun News Network...
), and Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, the latter being the network's first foreign bureau.
Staff
Sun News is currently headed by Kory TeneyckeKory Teneycke
Kory Teneycke, is vice-president of Sun News Network. He was the former director of communications for the Canadian Prime Minister's Office.- Career :...
, VP of development for Quebecor and a former director of communications and chief spokesperson for Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Canada
The Prime Minister of Canada is the primary minister of the Crown, chairman of the Cabinet, and thus head of government for Canada, charged with advising the Canadian monarch or viceroy on the exercise of the executive powers vested in them by the constitution...
Stephen Harper
Stephen Harper
Stephen Joseph Harper is the 22nd and current Prime Minister of Canada and leader of the Conservative Party. Harper became prime minister when his party formed a minority government after the 2006 federal election...
. Teneycke briefly left Sun News after a firestorm erupted over his criticism of Sun News' critics (see below); during that interim (September 2010 to January 2011), Sun News was headed by Luc Lavoie, a long-time Quebecor executive and, like Teneycke, a former Prime Minister's spokesperson (he served under Brian Mulroney
Brian Mulroney
Martin Brian Mulroney, was the 18th Prime Minister of Canada from September 17, 1984, to June 25, 1993 and was leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada from 1983 to 1993. His tenure as Prime Minister was marked by the introduction of major economic reforms, such as the Canada-U.S...
).
At its June 2010 launch announcement, Sun News tabbed David Akin and Brian Lilley as national bureau chief and senior correspondent, respectively; both men serve as on-air hosts. Sun News' first significant on-air hire was nationally-syndicated talk show host Charles Adler
Charles Adler (broadcaster)
Charles Adler is a Hungarian-born Canadian broadcaster who, when he was a child, was smuggled in a backpack out of Hungary by his father during the Hungarian Revolution in 1956. Charles grew up in Montreal, where he started his broadcast career while attending McGill University...
; the Winnipeg-based Adler was tapped in September 2010 to host a nightly analysis/opinion show on the network. During summer 2010, Sun News made an overture to comedian Rick Mercer
Rick Mercer
Richard Vincent "Rick" Mercer is a Canadian comedian, television personality, political satirist, and blogger.Mercer first came to national attention in 1990, when he premiered his one man show Show Me the Button, I'll Push It, or Charles Lynch Must Die at the Great Canadian Theatre Company in...
(who declined), while also denying rumours of an offer to Kevin Newman, who left his anchor position at Global National
Global National
Global National is the national newscast of Canada's Global Television Network. Dawna Friesen anchors the program's weekday edition from the Global BC studios; Robin Gill currently anchors the weekend edition...
in August 2010.
In addition to the on-air staff listed below, Sun News relies in part on staff and resources from the Sun chain and other Quebecor-owned newspapers; a number of Quebecor's print journalists have been trained on the TV newsgathering tasks they will perform in addition to their regular newspaper and website duties. (Sun News logo is patterned after the Toronto Sun's
Toronto Sun
The Toronto Sun is an English-language daily tabloid newspaper published in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is known for its daily Sunshine Girl feature and for what it sees as a populist conservative editorial stance.-History:...
long-time circular insignia, which was re-applied to the Sun tabloids and websites a day after Sun News' debut.) Additionally, Sun News has an international content agreement with CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
.
On-air personalities
|
Carleton University Carleton University is a comprehensive university located in the capital of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario. The enabling legislation is The Carleton University Act, 1952, S.O. 1952. Founded as a small college in 1942, Carleton now offers over 65 programs in a diverse range of disciplines. Carleton has... 's Sprott School of Business; analyst and contributor on business Business A business is an organization engaged in the trade of goods, services, or both to consumers. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, where most of them are privately owned and administered to earn profit to increase the wealth of their owners. Businesses may also be not-for-profit... and crime (specifically crime statistics Crime statistics Crime statistics attempt to provide statistical measures of the crime in societies. Given that crime is usually secretive by nature, measurements of it are likely to be inaccurate.... and incarceration rates Incarceration Incarceration is the detention of a person in prison, typically as punishment for a crime .People are most commonly incarcerated upon suspicion or conviction of committing a crime, and different jurisdictions have differing laws governing the function of incarceration within a larger system of... ) Ezra Levant Ezra Isaac Levant is a Canadian lawyer, conservative political activist and media figure. He is the founder and former publisher of the Western Standard, hosts The Source daily on Sun News Network, and has written several books on politics.... – host, The Source Shuvaloy Majumdar Shuvaloy Majumdar is a Visiting Foreign Policy Scholar at the University of British Columbia with a focus on Broader Middle East and North Africa democratization... – a Visiting Foreign Policy Scholar at UBC University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia is a public research university. UBC’s two main campuses are situated in Vancouver and in Kelowna in the Okanagan Valley... ; analyst and contributor on Foreign Affairs Foreign policy A country's foreign policy, also called the foreign relations policy, consists of self-interest strategies chosen by the state to safeguard its national interests and to achieve its goals within international relations milieu. The approaches are strategically employed to interact with other countries... Alex Mihailovich Alex Mihailovich is a correspondent for 16:9 – The Bigger Picture, a Canadian investigative newsmagazine television series which airs nationally on Global TV. Alex was previously with CTV for 5 years which included a role as News Anchor at CTV Northern Ontario and Reporter position at CTV Toronto... – reporter Researcher A researcher is somebody who performs research, the search for knowledge or in general any systematic investigation to establish facts. Researchers can work in academic, industrial, government, or private institutions.-Examples of research institutions:... at the Institute for Marriage and Family; contributor, Byline Social media The term Social Media refers to the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into an interactive dialogue. Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein define social media as "a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0,... correspondent Alex Pierson -Biography:She began working in television in 1996 at CHCH-TV in Hamilton, and later became an employee of CKAL-TV in Calgary. A few years later she returned and began working at CKVR-TV in Barrie, followed by her joining CITY-TV in Toronto.... – The Roundtable morning show University of Ottawa The University of Ottawa is a bilingual, research-intensive, non-denominational, international university in Ottawa, Ontario. It is one of the oldest universities in Canada. It was originally established as the College of Bytown in 1848 by the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate... ; contributor, Byline Kathy Shaidle Kathy Shaidle is a Canadian author, columnist, poet and blogger. A self-described "anarcho-peacenik" in the early years of her writing career, she moved to a conservative, Roman Catholic position following the attacks of September 11, 2001, and entered the public eye as the author of the popular... – contributor, The Source Business journalism Business journalism is the branch of journalism that tracks, records, analyzes and interprets the economic changes that take place in a society... Mackenzie Institute The Mackenzie Institute for the Study of Terrorism, Revolution and Propaganda is a think tank in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1986 by Brigadier Dr. Maurice Tugwell, a former Parachute Regiment officer and British Army veteran of WW-2, Palestine , the Malayian insurgency, Cyprus and Ulster... ; analyst and contributor on Islamic terrorism and West and South Asia South Asia South Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries to the west and the east... n affairs Neelam Verma Neelam Verma is a Canadian television anchor and former Miss Canada. -Biography:Verma was born in Montreal and raised in Toronto, her parents migrated from India. She graduated from York University's Schulich School of Business and worked for Procter and Gamble in marketing before entering the... – host, First Look early morning show |
Former on-air staff
- Mercedes Stephenson – military analyst and Daily Brief co-host (left Sun News one week before its launch; currently with CTV News Channel)
- Theo CaldwellTheo CaldwellTheo Caldwell is a Canadian, Irish and American businessman, writer, and former television host. Caldwell is also an investment advisor in the US and Canada, and is president of Caldwell Asset Management, one of the subsidiaries of Caldwell Financial Ltd, a company established by his father Thomas...
– host, The Caldwell Account (left June 27, 2011)
Licencing by the CRTC
From the start of its licensing attempts for Sun News, Quebecor intended for the network to replace the company's former existing licence for the general entertainment station CKXT-TV (Sun TV)CKXT-TV
CKXT-DT was a broadcast television station based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and serving much of southern and eastern Ontario, owned by Quebecor Media through its Groupe TVA unit. At the time of the station's closure on November 1, 2011, the station was serving as an over-the-air simulcast of...
, which it owned and operated at the time and was available over-the-air in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
and through relayed through translators
Broadcast relay station
A broadcast relay station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator , rebroadcaster , or repeater is a broadcast transmitter which relays, repeats, or reflects the signal of another radio station or television station, usually to an area not covered by the signal of the originating station...
in Hamilton
Hamilton, Ontario
Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Conceived by George Hamilton when he purchased the Durand farm shortly after the War of 1812, Hamilton has become the centre of a densely populated and industrialized region at the west end of Lake Ontario known as the Golden Horseshoe...
, London
London, Ontario
London is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada, situated along the Quebec City – Windsor Corridor. The city has a population of 352,395, and the metropolitan area has a population of 457,720, according to the 2006 Canadian census; the metro population in 2009 was estimated at 489,274. The city...
, and Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
. In its initial submission to the CRTC in spring 2010, Quebecor requested that Sun News be awarded a Category 1 digital specialty channel
Category 1 specialty channel
A Category A service is a Canadian specialty television channel which, as defined by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, must be carried by all digital cable and direct broadcast satellite providers that have the capability to do so....
licence that would have reverted to Category 2
Category 2 specialty channel
A Category B service is a Canadian specialty television channel which, as defined by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, may be carried, optionally, by all digital cable television and direct broadcast satellite providers.Unlike Category A services, Category B services...
status after three years. Category 1 status, if the CRTC had approved it, would have given Sun News the same status as CTV News Channel and CBC News Network, in that it would have required all Canadian digital television providers (both cable
Cable television
Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...
and direct broadcast satellite
Direct broadcast satellite
Direct broadcast satellite is a term used to refer to satellite television broadcasts intended for home reception.A designation broader than DBS would be direct-to-home signals, or DTH. This has initially distinguished the transmissions directly intended for home viewers from cable television...
) to carry and offer Sun News to their customers should those carriers have the capability to do so. However, unlike CTV News Channel and CBC News Network, carriers would not have had the ability to distribute Sun News via analog cable, only digital. (Category 1 would not have made the channel, contrary to common belief, a compulsory part of every customer's basic digital package; however, it could be placed in digital basic packages subject to negotiations between Sun News and individual television providers.)
Quebecor initially requested Category 1 status for Sun News on the insistence that the channel's combination of news, analysis, and opinion programming would create "a completely new [TV] genre" different from the other all-news channels in Canada. The CRTC disagreed, however, and turned down the application in a July 5, 2010 letter to Quebecor. In its letter, the CRTC noted that Sun News was being promoted in part as a news channel, and suggested that "news and analysis are sub-categories of the information programming category," which therefore would not, in the CRTC's eyes, make Sun News unique. Additionally, the CRTC had stated earlier in 2010 that it was not planning to entertain any new applications for Category 1 licences until at least October 2011.
After the CRTC's decline for Category 1, Quebecor resubmitted its Sun News application under Category 2
Category 2 specialty channel
A Category B service is a Canadian specialty television channel which, as defined by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, may be carried, optionally, by all digital cable television and direct broadcast satellite providers.Unlike Category A services, Category B services...
status. Though Category 2 is officially non-mandatory (cable and satellite carriers are not compelled to carry such channels), Quebecor included in its resubmission a request for a Category 1-style "mandatory access" period of no more than 3 years, insisting that the network would need that period of time "to effectively expose and promote its programming to viewers across Canada" without obliging cable and satellite customers to add it to their package; without mandatory access, Quebecor added, cable/satellite carriers could choose not to offer Sun News to their customers, which could lead to Quebecor pulling the plug on the project.
On October 5, 2010, Quebecor announced that it was withdrawing its mandatory access request and apply for a normal Category 2 status without any special exceptions or carriage conditions. The move was widely considered an easier avenue for Sun News' licence approval (Category 2 licences are routinely granted by the CRTC unless it is for a format considered a protected genre, of which national news channels are not included). The CRTC granted Quebecor a five-year Category 2 licence for Sun News on November 26, 2010; the network's status was changed to a Category C service
Category C services
A Category C service is a Canadian specialty television channel which, as defined by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, are services that provide programming in genres that are exempted from the CRTC's format protection rules and are subject to standard conditions of...
on September 1, 2011, as part of an overall restructuring of broadcasting regulations during Canada's transition to digital television broadcasting
Digital television in Canada
Digital television in Canada is transmitted using the ATSC standards developed for and in use in the United States. Because Canada and the U.S...
.
Carriage
Since obtaining the Sun News licence in late 2010, Quebecor has proceeded to negotiations with cable and satellite providers on an individual basis; Quebecor's own VidéotronVidéotron
Vidéotron GP is a Canadian integrated telecommunications company active in cable television, interactive multimedia development, video on demand, cable telephony, wireless communication and Internet access services. Currently, the company primarily serves Quebec, as well as the francophone...
carries the network, as do Shaw Communications
Shaw Communications
Shaw Communications is Canada's largest telecommunications company that provides telephone, Canada's fastest Internet and television services as well as broadcasting and soon Wifi. Shaw is headquartered in Calgary, Alberta...
and Shaw Direct (the deal with Shaw was for a free, 6-month trial period on Shaw Cable systems in Ontario and Western Canada). Sun News was also available over-the-air until the end of October 2011 via Quebecor's CKXT-TV
CKXT-TV
CKXT-DT was a broadcast television station based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and serving much of southern and eastern Ontario, owned by Quebecor Media through its Groupe TVA unit. At the time of the station's closure on November 1, 2011, the station was serving as an over-the-air simulcast of...
in the Toronto, Hamilton
Hamilton, Ontario
Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Conceived by George Hamilton when he purchased the Durand farm shortly after the War of 1812, Hamilton has become the centre of a densely populated and industrialized region at the west end of Lake Ontario known as the Golden Horseshoe...
and London
London, Ontario
London is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada, situated along the Quebec City – Windsor Corridor. The city has a population of 352,395, and the metropolitan area has a population of 457,720, according to the 2006 Canadian census; the metro population in 2009 was estimated at 489,274. The city...
areas of southern Ontario, and until the end of August in Ottawa; this also included cable/satellite carriage in at least those areas that received CKXT over the air, including services on the Cogeco
Cogeco
Cogeco Inc. is a Canadian media and communications company. The name is an acronym for Compagnie Générale de Communication .-History:...
, Rogers Cable
Rogers Cable
Rogers Cable Inc., a subsidiary of Rogers Communications Inc., is Canada's largest cable television service provider with about 2.25 million television customers, and over 930,000 Internet subscribers, in Manitoba, Southern & Eastern Ontario, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador.The...
, and Bell Fibe TV
Bell Fibe TV
Bell Fibe TV is an IP-based television service offered by Bell Canada in Ontario and Quebec. It is bundled with Bell Fibe Internet, and uses the Microsoft Mediaroom platform....
services. Though Quebecor originally intended to return the CKXT licence in exchange for Sun News, it made a February 2011 filing to the CRTC requesting to continue CKXT's operations past the August 2011 digital conversion
Digital television in Canada
Digital television in Canada is transmitted using the ATSC standards developed for and in use in the United States. Because Canada and the U.S...
. The arrangement led to complaints by other broadcasters that Sun was trying to "have it both ways" by having both guaranteed over the air coverage while asking for the subscriber fees that a specialty channel is entitled to. On July 5, 2011, the CRTC told Quebecor it would have to justify its practice of using an over the air signal to promote a specialty channel. On July 15, 2011, Quebecor responded by agreeing to surrender CKXT-TV's licence at the end of October.
Sun News had also initially been made available on Bell Satellite TV until the morning of May 3, 2011, when the channel was removed from the service at Quebecor's request due to no carriage fee agreement being reached with Bell TV. Bell countered that Quebecor's asking price for Sun News carriage was in line with more popular channels and deemed too high for such a "new and relatively untested" channel; additionally, Bell wanted to treat Sun News as a terrestrial channel (i.e. available without carriage fees), citing its then-simulcast on CKXT. (The outage did not affect Bell Fibe TV
Bell Fibe TV
Bell Fibe TV is an IP-based television service offered by Bell Canada in Ontario and Quebec. It is bundled with Bell Fibe Internet, and uses the Microsoft Mediaroom platform....
in the Toronto area, which was compelled to carry CKXT's signal.) Quebecor would file a complaint with the CRTC over the incident, alleging that Bell was discriminating against Sun News and thereby favouring Bell Media's own news networks, namely CTV News Channel and CP24. Quebecor and Bell would make peace on November 22, 2011, announcing a deal that would – beginning in mid-December 2011 – add Sun News to Bell TV's basic satellite and IPTV packages outside of Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
(a deal for subscribers in that province is expected to be announced later). The Bell deal also includes carriage of 3 other Quebecor-owned networks, Mlle
Mlle (TV channel)
Mlle is a Canadian French language Category B specialty channel. Mlle airs lifestyle and entertainment programming aimed at women . It is owned by Groupe TVA, a division of Quebecor Media.Mlle launched on May 2, 2011 in both standard and high definition...
, Yoopa
Yoopa
Yoopa is a Canadian French language Category B specialty channel. Yoopa launched on April 1, 2010 in both standard and high definition. It is owned by Groupe TVA and features programming targeted toward preschoolers, aged 2 to 6....
, and TVA Sports
TVA Sports
TVA Sports is a Canadian French language Category C specialty channel. The channel is owned by Groupe TVA, a publicly traded subsidiary of Quebecor Media....
.
2010 licensing campaign
In his August 19, 2010 column in The Globe and MailThe Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail is a nationally distributed Canadian newspaper, based in Toronto and printed in six cities across the country. With a weekly readership of approximately 1 million, it is Canada's largest-circulation national newspaper and second-largest daily newspaper after the Toronto Star...
, Lawrence Martin claimed, citing "insiders", that CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein
Konrad von Finckenstein
Konrad W. von Finckenstein, QC is the current Chairman of the Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission . He has held the post since January 25, 2007 and his term is scheduled to end on January 24, 2012. von Finckenstein previously served as Justice of the Federal Court from 2003...
was under pressure from Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Canada
The Prime Minister of Canada is the primary minister of the Crown, chairman of the Cabinet, and thus head of government for Canada, charged with advising the Canadian monarch or viceroy on the exercise of the executive powers vested in them by the constitution...
Stephen Harper
Stephen Harper
Stephen Joseph Harper is the 22nd and current Prime Minister of Canada and leader of the Conservative Party. Harper became prime minister when his party formed a minority government after the 2006 federal election...
to resign from the commission and take another government position, such as an ambassador
Ambassador
An ambassador is the highest ranking diplomat who represents a nation and is usually accredited to a foreign sovereign or government, or to an international organization....
ship, in order to facilitate Sun News getting its desired licence. In a letter to The Globe and Mail, von Finckenstein "categorically" denied any government interference regarding Sun News or his tenure as CRTC chair.
An online petition titled "Stop Fox News North" was established by the international activist organization Avaaz.org
Avaaz.org
Avaaz.org is a global civic organization launched in January 2007 that promotes activism on issues such as climate change, human rights, corruption, poverty, and conflict...
. The petition claimed that Prime Minister Harper seeks to "push American-style hate media onto [Canadian] airwaves" with Sun News, and that the network would be "funded with money from our cable TV fees" (in contradiction to the "mandatory access" request in Quebecor's 2nd CRTC application); the petition also cited Martin's column as evidence that von Finckenstein was the "one man" standing in the way of Sun News getting a preferential licence. Avaaz's petition garnered 30,000 signatures, 21,000 of which Avaaz delivered to the CRTC because they had individual appeals added. Author Margaret Atwood
Margaret Atwood
Margaret Eleanor Atwood, is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, and environmental activist. She is among the most-honoured authors of fiction in recent history; she is a winner of the Arthur C...
was among the petition signatories, revealing she signed it not as a criticism of Sun News' possible rightward agenda but as a criticism of Harper's style of government, particularly perceived attempts by his government to expedite Sun News' licence approval.
Quebecor immediately dismissed the Avaaz petition against Sun News, alleging Avaaz to be an "American special interest group funded by U.S. billionaire George Soros
George Soros
George Soros is a Hungarian-American business magnate, investor, philosopher, and philanthropist. He is the chairman of Soros Fund Management. Soros supports progressive-liberal causes...
." (Avaaz has staff in Canada and several other countries, but was co-founded by MoveOn.org, a U.S.-based political advocacy group to which Soros has contributed in the past. However, it is not clear whether Soros has ever directly funded, or otherwise been directly involved with, Avaaz.) Sun News supporters and noted employees piled on as well; Sun News Ottawa bureau chief David Akin, for one, accused Margaret Atwood on his Twitter account of attempting to squelch Quebecor's free speech rights by signing the petition, while Ezra Levant
Ezra Levant
Ezra Isaac Levant is a Canadian lawyer, conservative political activist and media figure. He is the founder and former publisher of the Western Standard, hosts The Source daily on Sun News Network, and has written several books on politics....
, a future Sun News hire, wrote in a column that ran in the Sun newspapers, not only criticized Soros' perceived direct support of Avaaz but brought up Soros' background as a survivor of Nazi-controlled Hungary ("false, defamatory and offensive statements," according to a spokesperson for Soros, who considered legal action against Sun Media before they apologized, retracted, and removed from its websites Levant's column; Atwood also considered a lawsuit).
Quebecor VP of development Kory Teneycke
Kory Teneycke
Kory Teneycke, is vice-president of Sun News Network. He was the former director of communications for the Canadian Prime Minister's Office.- Career :...
, who was heading up the Sun News project, also took aggressive stands against the network's opponents. In a September 3, 2010 opinion piece that ran in Quebecor-owned newspapers, Teneycke accused Atwood of "[putting] her political agenda ahead of principles and patriotism;" he also criticized Avaaz and challenged the legitimacy of the signatures on its "Stop Fox News North" petition, specifically citing "signatures" from fictitious characters including "Boba Fett
Boba Fett
Boba Fett is a character in Star Wars. A bounty hunter hired by Darth Vader to find the Millennium Falcon, he is a minor villain in both Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi....
" and "Dwight Shroot" (sic)
Dwight Schrute
Dwight Kurt Schrute III is a character on NBC's The Office portrayed by Rainn Wilson. He originally exactly resembled Gareth Keenan from the original UK version of The Office. Dwight is the top salesman and former acting manager for the Dunder Mifflin Paper Company and has won numerous awards for...
. In the same manner as those fictitious monikers, names of real-life journalists were signed to Avaaz's petition, with the journalists actually receiving automated "thank you" e-mails for signing a petition that they never actually signed. Teneycke revealed on his Twitter feed (since deactivated) that not only did he also receive a "thank you" for "signing" the petition, he also had been in contact with a prankster who submitted the signatures. Teneycke's posting piqued Avaaz, which noted that the signature list was not viewable to the general public and called the "fraudulent" signatures the work of "a deliberate and illegal effort" meant to discredit the organization. Avaaz investigated further and traced most of the suspect signatures to a single IP address
IP address
An Internet Protocol address is a numerical label assigned to each device participating in a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication. An IP address serves two principal functions: host or network interface identification and location addressing...
in the Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
area; Avaaz forwarded its findings to RCMP
Royal Canadian Mounted Police
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police , literally ‘Royal Gendarmerie of Canada’; colloquially known as The Mounties, and internally as ‘The Force’) is the national police force of Canada, and one of the most recognized of its kind in the world. It is unique in the world as a national, federal,...
and Ottawa Police
Ottawa Police Service
The Ottawa Police Service serves the City of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.-History:The OPS roots come from the formation of the "Bytown Association" in 1847. In 1855 Roderick Ross was the first Chief Constable for the newly formed City of Ottawa...
investigators on September 14, 2010, and requested that they look into the matter. (Ottawa Police, after reviewing Avaaz's request, decided in November 2010 not to proceed with an investigation.)
On September 15, 2010, one day after Avaaz's request for a police investigation, Kory Teneycke abruptly resigned from his position at Quebecor and Sun News. Avoiding specific references to the petition controversy in his announcement, Teneycke admitted that his presence and acts while at Sun News had played a part in "debasing" the debate over the network, and that he hoped his departure would lessen the impression of interference by the Harper government and increase civilized debate on Sun News' licensing attempts. Quebecor immediately replaced Teneycke with longtime Quebecor executive (and former Tory
Tory (disambiguation)
The term Tory may refer to:* Tory originally the opponents to the Whigs, furthermore various political parties* Conservative Party * Tory , the ancestor of the modern UK Conservative Party* Scottish Unionist Party...
operative) Luc Lavoie; Lavoie served as Sun News head until Teneycke quietly returned to Quebecor and the network in January 2011, two months after Sun News was granted its Category 2 licence (Lavoie remains as the network's head of development).
An October 2010 memo obtained by Canadian Press the following December under the Access to Information Act
Access to Information Act
Access to Information Act or Information Act is a Canadian act providing the right of access to information under the control of a government institution...
suggested that Quebecor withdrew its special status requests for Sun News in an effort to appease not only the CRTC but those within the Canadian broadcasting industry who intervened with concerns about the Sun News licensing efforts. Quebecor did not officially divulge the reason for the application change, but then-Sun News head Luc Lavoie acknowledged that the interventions played a part and hoped it would be a sign that Quebecor wanted to "negotiate [carriage terms] in good faith" with cable/satellite carriers.
Content and programming
Before Quebecor withdrew its mandatory access request for Sun News (see above), the public interest group Friends of Canadian BroadcastingFriends of Canadian Broadcasting
Friends of Canadian Broadcasting is a Canadian public interest group.The group monitors developments in the Canadian television and radio broadcasting industries, and organizes action campaigns when broadcasters engage in activities which are deemed contrary to the public interest.FRIENDS is...
issued a briefing to the CRTC recommending that Sun News' application be rejected, believing that Sun's mandatory access request was "highly unfair" to other licence applicants. However, Friends recommended that if Sun News did win licence approval, Quebecor should be required to commit revenue to Canadian programming (equal to that of CTV News Channel and CBC News Network) as well as adhere to the Canadian Association of Broadcasters
Canadian Association of Broadcasters
The Canadian Association of Broadcasters was the national voice of Canada's private broadcasters, representing the vast majority of Canadian programming services, including private radio and television stations, specialty, pay and pay-per-view services....
Code of Ethics for balanced news coverage and programming. The CRTC's November 26 approval specifically included requirements that Sun News would adhere to the RTNDA Code of Journalistic Ethics and the Journalistic Independence Code as a member of the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council
Canadian Broadcast Standards Council
The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council is an independent, non-governmental organization created by the Canadian Association of Broadcasters to administer standards established by its members, Canada's private broadcasters....
. Sun News was regarded to be a possible benefactor of a proposal by the CRTC to give licenced broadcast stations more leeway to broadcast false and misleading news (the CRTC dropped the proposal in February 2011).
The content of Sun News' early hours and days received some criticism and generated some controversy, with critics and columnists remarking about the network's heavy self-promotion and choice of opening night topics, including several critiques against the Crown-owned
Crown corporations of Canada
Canadian Crown corporations are enterprises owned by the federal government of Canada , one of Canada's provincial governments or one of the territorial governments. Crown corporations have a long standing presence in the country and have been instrumental in the formation of the state...
CBC
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...
(a frequent Sun target in print) and little talk about the ongoing political campaign (by coincidence, Sun News' debut occurred two weeks before a federal election).Ezra Levant
Ezra Levant
Ezra Isaac Levant is a Canadian lawyer, conservative political activist and media figure. He is the founder and former publisher of the Western Standard, hosts The Source daily on Sun News Network, and has written several books on politics....
was panned as well for relying on "old news" during the first edition of The Source, including showing a controversial 2005 cartoon
Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy
The Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy began after 12 editorial cartoons, most of which depicted the Islamic prophet Muhammad, were published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten on 30 September 2005...
depicting the Prophet Muhammad
Muhammad
Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...
. Less kinder criticisms came from The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail is a nationally distributed Canadian newspaper, based in Toronto and printed in six cities across the country. With a weekly readership of approximately 1 million, it is Canada's largest-circulation national newspaper and second-largest daily newspaper after the Toronto Star...
TV critic John Doyle, who branded Sun News as "fantastically inept broadcasting," and from Winnipeg Free Press
Winnipeg Free Press
The Winnipeg Free Press is a daily broadsheet newspaper in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Founded in 1872, as the Manitoba Free Press, it is the oldest newspaper in western Canada. It is the newspaper with the largest readership in the province....
columnist Brad Oswald, who remarked that the network "lacked the ideological zeal and the financial wherewithal to achieve its self-stated goal of changing TV history."
Sun News' perceived sex appeal received attention early on, with both Rick Mercer
Rick Mercer
Richard Vincent "Rick" Mercer is a Canadian comedian, television personality, political satirist, and blogger.Mercer first came to national attention in 1990, when he premiered his one man show Show Me the Button, I'll Push It, or Charles Lynch Must Die at the Great Canadian Theatre Company in...
and Ottawa Citizen
Ottawa Citizen
The Ottawa Citizen is an English-language daily newspaper owned by Postmedia Network in Ottawa, Canada. According to the Canadian Newspaper Association, the paper had a 2008 weekly circulation of 900,197.- History :...
columnist Dave Dutton among those tweeting
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
about the "babe shots" during Sun's first day. Later in the week, libertarian
Libertarianism
Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...
columnist Tasha Kheiriddin
Tasha Kheiriddin
Tasha Kheiriddin is a conservative public policy analyst and commentator. In November 2005 she co-wrote Rescuing Canada’s Right: Blueprint for a Conservative Revolution, with journalist Adam Daifallah....
of the National Post
National Post
The National Post is a Canadian English-language national newspaper based in Don Mills, a district of Toronto. The paper is owned by Postmedia Network Inc. and is published Mondays through Saturdays...
slammed Sun News over the "low cut, sleeveless" attire of the network's female anchors; Maclean's
Maclean's
Maclean's is a Canadian weekly news magazine, reporting on Canadian issues such as politics, pop culture, and current events.-History:Founded in 1905 by Toronto journalist/entrepreneur Lt.-Col. John Bayne Maclean, a 43-year-old trade magazine publisher who purchased an advertising agency's in-house...
Washington bureau chief Luiza Ch. Savage, in agreement with Kheiriddin, billed the network as "Skank TV" on her Twitter feed (a comment she has since retracted). Sun News management has defended their anchors' "right to bare arms," as did New Democratic Party
New Democratic Party
The New Democratic Party , commonly referred to as the NDP, is a federal social-democratic political party in Canada. The interim leader of the NDP is Nycole Turmel who was appointed to the position due to the illness of Jack Layton, who died on August 22, 2011. The provincial wings of the NDP in...
(NDP) Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
Olivia Chow
Olivia Chow
Olivia Chow is a Canadian New Democratic Party Member of Parliament and former city councillor in Toronto. She won the Trinity—Spadina riding for the New Democratic Party on January 23, 2006, becoming a member of the Canadian House of Commons. Most recently, she was re-elected in her riding for...
– who unveiled a sleeveless look during an April 21 appearance on The Roundtable, stating that "It’s not what [women in politics] wear that matters, it’s the ideas they bring forward."
A June 1, 2011 Canada Live discussion Krista Erickson
Krista Erickson
Krista Erickson is a Canadian journalist and the principal daytime anchor on the Sun News Network, hosting Canada Live.Prior to joining Sun News, Erickson worked for CBC Television for 11 years, most recently as a member of the network's parliamentary bureau...
conducted with interpretive dance
Interpretive dance
Interpretive dance is a family of dance styles that seeks to translates particular feelings and emotions, human conditions, situations, or fantasies into movement and dramatic expression combined...
r Margie Gillis
Margie Gillis
Margie Gillis, CM, CQ is a Canadian solo dancer and choreographer whose most commonly known dance style is modern.Born in Acton Vale, Quebec, the daughter of Gene Gillis, an Olympic skier, and Rhona Wurtele, a Canadian Olympic skier. Her brother, Jere Gillis played professional hockey...
would also garner attention; in the discussion regarding public funding for arts programmes, Erickson took an aggressive verbal tone towards a soft-spoken Gillis, shouting over Gillis' responses and challenging her comments about lack of compassion amongst Canadians when, to quote Erickson, "We have lost more than 150 soldiers who have served in Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
!" Though Sun News has stood by Erickson and her conduct in the Gillis interview, the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council
Canadian Broadcast Standards Council
The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council is an independent, non-governmental organization created by the Canadian Association of Broadcasters to administer standards established by its members, Canada's private broadcasters....
would receive 4,350 complaints from viewers over the incident, more than double the annual average amount of complaints the Council receives. The CBSC is in the process of reviewing the complaints; if it is determined that the incident violated the Council's Code of Ethics clause that requires "full, fair and proper presentation of news, opinion, and editorial" content, Sun News will be required to issue on-air apologies.
2011 federal election
Sun Media, and Sun News in particular, was involved in two separate news stories during the final week of the 2011 federal election that centred on two of the federal party leaders. The first centred on a photo that appeared to show Liberal PartyLiberal Party of Canada
The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...
leader Michael Ignatieff
Michael Ignatieff
Michael Grant Ignatieff is a Canadian author, academic and former politician. He was the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and Leader of the Official Opposition from 2008 until 2011...
posing with U.S. military forces in Kuwait
Kuwait
The State of Kuwait is a sovereign Arab state situated in the north-east of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south at Khafji, and Iraq to the north at Basra. It lies on the north-western shore of the Persian Gulf. The name Kuwait is derived from the...
in late 2002, months before the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The source of the photo was Conservative
Conservative Party of Canada
The Conservative Party of Canada , is a political party in Canada which was formed by the merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in 2003. It is positioned on the right of the Canadian political spectrum...
operative Patrick Muttart, who had been providing pro bono advice to Sun News regarding its on-air presentation and offered the photo to Sun Media, which ran a story alleging Ignatieff's involvement with the U.S. plans to invade Iraq. Sun Media did not run the photo, however, as the image was illegible and did not conclusively prove of Ignatieff's presence with the U.S. troops. Sun Media head Pierre Karl Péladeau
Pierre Karl Péladeau
Pierre Karl Péladeau is President and CEO of Quebecor Inc., Quebecor Media Inc. and Sun Media Corporation. He was educated in Montreal and Paris. He holds a degree in philosophy from Université du Québec à Montréal and a law degree from Université de Montréal....
, in an editorial for the Sun papers, claimed the photo was an attempt to not only damage the Ignatieff campaign but the integrity of Sun Media and Sun News as well. The incident led to Muttart's removal from the campaign of Conservative leader and incumbent Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Canada
The Prime Minister of Canada is the primary minister of the Crown, chairman of the Cabinet, and thus head of government for Canada, charged with advising the Canadian monarch or viceroy on the exercise of the executive powers vested in them by the constitution...
Stephen Harper
Stephen Harper
Stephen Joseph Harper is the 22nd and current Prime Minister of Canada and leader of the Conservative Party. Harper became prime minister when his party formed a minority government after the 2006 federal election...
.
On April 29, 2011, Sun News ran a report contending that NDP leader Jack Layton
Jack Layton
John Gilbert "Jack" Layton, PC was a Canadian social democratic politician and the Leader of the Official Opposition. He was the leader of the New Democratic Party from 2003 to 2011, and previously sat on Toronto City Council, serving at times during that period as acting mayor and deputy mayor of...
was in attendance at a Toronto massage clinic when police visited it in 1996 on suspicion of it being a brothel. Layton, who was never charged with any wrongdoing, called Sun News' report a "smear campaign," while Layton's lawyer, Brian Iler, said in a statement that Layton "had no knowledge whatsoever that the therapist’s location may have been used for illicit purposes." Layton's wife and fellow NDP Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
Olivia Chow
Olivia Chow
Olivia Chow is a Canadian New Democratic Party Member of Parliament and former city councillor in Toronto. She won the Trinity—Spadina riding for the New Democratic Party on January 23, 2006, becoming a member of the Canadian House of Commons. Most recently, she was re-elected in her riding for...
confirmed the 1996 appointment and decried "any insinuation of wrongdoing" on her husband's part. Ontario Provincial Police launched a probe into how police notes about the incident were leaked to Sun News, whose report cited an anonymous Toronto vice-squad officer.
Ratings and viewership
On Sun News's first night of broadcast on April 18, 2011, 37,000 viewers nationwide tuned in to the half-hour preview show, with 31,000 viewers staying to watch the first regular program, The Source with Ezra Levant; other first-day viewership levels included 31,000 for Charles Adler and 17,000 for Byline with Brian Lilley. After that first night, however, first-week viewership fell considerably, with the network attracting 12,000 viewers on April 20, only 1,000 of them within the advertiser-desired 25-54 age demographic. Viewership numbers have varied since then; on April 22 at 7PM ET, 11,000 viewers watched Sun News, well behind CBC News Network's number for that hour (263,000) and even behind U.S. import CNNCNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
(38,000). By June 2011, Sun News reached an average of 12,900 viewers, which ranks it ahead of all-business specialty channel BNN
Business News Network
Business News Network ' is a Canadian English language Category A specialty channel. BNN broadcasts programming related to business and financial news and analysis. As of December 2010, the station is based from 299 Queen Street West in Downtown Toronto and is owned by Bell Media...
but well behind both CBC News Network and CTV News Channel. In August 2011, Qubecor Media Inc. stated that on August 12, they had higher viewership than CTV News Channel for the time period of 3:00pm to 10:00pm and higher than CBC News Network in the time slot of 3:00pm–5:00pm. They also had their highest ever viewership of 89,000 in the 9:00pm showing of Byline. The next Thursday August 18, Sun News Network had higher viewership than CTV News Network from 1:00pm–10:00pm with Charles Adler receiving 62,000 viewers and Byline 80,000 viewers. However, on the next day, the numbers dropped to 30,000 for Adler and 19,000 for Byline.