On the morning of February 28th, The National Post columnist Lorne Gunter woke up angry. Not just angry, but Evangelical angry! We’re talking Ted-Haggart, that-effing-prostitute-stole-my-watch kind of angry! Now you may ask, who the hell is Lorne Gunter and what the hell is The National Post?
Well, first you should know a little bit about myself. I’m a very antagonistic person. And being antagonistic, I find it rather exhilarating to watch and read things that, well, antagonize me. To get my kicks, I used to watch clips of Bill O’Reilly and Glenn Beck on www.youtube.com, then I learned that the National Post finally joined the twentieth century and created a website on the Interweb. ‘The Post’ is Canada’s print answer to Fox News. And Lorne? Well, Lorne is our very own Poppa Bear in print, Canada’s Bill O’Reilly.
And what got Canuckistan’s Poppa Bear so riled up that morning in late February? Learning that the CRTC (Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission), the country’s broadcasting regulator, had bowed to public pressure and decided to ditch lifting the ban on allowing “fake news” on the airwaves.
To explain, let’s go back to 1992. Ah yes, before the world learned that Grunge Music was in fact, utter crap (Yes it is. Just a bunch of hippies with amps). In a Supreme Court ruling, it came out that Denier Ernst Zundel, an outspoken Holocaust denier could not be charged for spreading false information. Upon this ruling, Parliament’s joint committee begin sending requests for the CRTC to lift their regulations which prohibited the broadcasting of false information, as prohibiting it was now technically unconstitutional. The CRTC ignored the letters, but finally relented in December of 2010. They considered changing their no-ifs-ands-or-buts prohibition to simply punishing those broadcasters who “knowingly” spread false information. To make a long story short, the CRTC asked for public consultation, and the public, out of fear of a ‘Fox News North’ answer with a resounding NO. The CRTC then decided not to ease their fake news prohibition.
Lorne wasn’t fooled by who was behind this “public pressure”, nosiree!
“I imagine a bunch of unionists, environmentalists, feminists, New Democrats, Liberals, immigration advocates, gay-rights advocates and social activists called up and warned that if the new regulations came into effect, their neighbours and fellow countrymen might be unable to distinguish truth from fiction.”
In other words, what got Lorne Gunther foaming at the mouth was precisely that – for the time being – there won’t be a Fox News-North to provide news for your neighbours and fellow countrymen to identity as complete and utter BS (or not).
And he’s right to be angry. What? Does BIG government think we’re stupid or something?
When we go to a restaurant, anyone with half a brain can tell if the veal is fresh or not, right?
When we buy a condo, we don’t really need BIG CITY building codes to ensure that what we’re buying won’t collapse in the middle of the night. We can tell just by looking at it that the place safe!! Just tap the walls and kick at the tires, is what I say!
So, why should we have standards forced down our throats when it comes to the news? Let the people determine – in between clearing the dishes, doing the bills, taking the garbage out, and putting the kids to bed – what’s BS or not. Let the people be their own fact checkers! What do you think the interweb is for, anyway? Heck, even our Prime Minister is getting in on the action.
Glad I got that off my chest.