09.08.2010 03:30 PM

So much for this week’s Sun Media/QMI conspiracy theory…

…as debunked by Norm Spector, here.

That’s not all: here’s the head of the CRTC – Konrad von Finckenstein, a man who was a plenty-powerful mandarin in the Chretien-Martin years, too – dispensing with the grassy knoll conspiracy theorists:

“I would like to categorically state that no one at any level of government has approached me about the Sun TV application, the appointment of the CRTC’s vice-chair of broadcasting, or my own mandate. Quebecor’s application is being treated according to the CRTC’s well-established processes.”

“Categorically.” When someone like von Finckenstein deploys language like that, it means something.

George Soros and Margaret Atwood, presumably, could not be reached for comment.

11 Comments

  1. Paul R. Martin says:

    By gum! It appears that a few left wing types were full of dung. Margaret Atwood sure seems to be trying hard to be the Barbara Streisand of Canada. Do not confuse her with facts.

  2. DAVID says:

    THIS IS TRUE he has not been asked let it go at that

  3. Namesake says:

    Hang on: it’s far from clear that the thrust of Lawrence Martin’s article — http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/lawrence-martin/is-stephen-harper-set-to-move-against-the-crtc/article1677632/ — which was the cornerstone of that petition has been debunked at all.

    Martin’s allegation — which, admittedly, came from anonymous “insiders” — was that the CRTC was going to get rejigged so as to ensure that SunTV gets its new request for a totally unique, hybrid class (Category 2 but with a “must offer” rider) license approved, by:

    1) replacing the (presumably dissenting) vice-chair of Broadcasting with someone more amenable — which was easily done simply by not renewing his term, which is set to expire within the month; and,
    2) enticing the chair, von Finckenstein, to leave two years before his term expires (to replace him with someone more amenable), with various plum appointments like “judgeships and ambassadorships [e.g., to] Chile”.”

    In light of that, von F’s statement, “no one at any level of government has approached me about the Sun TV application, the appointment of the CRTC’s vice-chair of broadcasting, or my own mandate,” is actually a non-denial denial, since:

    1) they needn’t bother consulting him about the vice-chair position, since he doesn’t appoint the vice-chair, Harper (er, Cabinet, er, the Governor in Council does [ http://www.friends.ca/files/PDF/Appointments_to_the_CBC-CRTC_Aug_2004.pdf ]; and

    2) no one in the PMO, PCO or anywhere else would have to say anything about this file to offer him those other positions with near-immediate start dates to accomplish his removal… and note, he didn’t actually deny having been made such offers, did he, and as Martin pointed out, he also declined to comment on that at the start to nip the story in the bud.

    Just because he’s declined such offers to date doesn’t mean there was no attempt to manipulate the process.

  4. smelter rat says:

    Von F is simply doing what Mandarins do best. He reads the headlines. He’s trying to survive.

  5. Ronald O'Dowd says:

    Namesake,

    It numbs the mind watching a government allegedly taking the “hard way” around a “problem” when the “easy route” is both so “obvious” and “convenient”.

    You let the CRTC swing the axe as they so choose — and then you come right in and have them overruled by cabinet if their decision is not to “your” liking.

    It wouldn’t be the first government in recent memory to do the evil deed — and certainly not the last…

    • Namesake says:

      I’m not sure if that’s meant to be a counter-argument, but the Census debacle showed they’d prefer to let people believe that it was the ‘independent’ (albeit appointed) civil service making these ideological decisions, not them.

      • Ronald O'Dowd says:

        Namesake,

        Agreed, but the politically sentient see through that thin veneer of cover. Their agenda is clear –no matter whose fingerprints ultimately end up on the gun.

  6. JH says:

    Here’s what the fear and loathing from the left is all about. Neilsen’s top 15 cable shows list pegs the Fox Network’s O’Reilly Factor at # 14. The only news and commentary program to make the list. Bring on Fox North – that’ll set the cat amongst the pigeons. LOL!

  7. DAVID says:

    Glorious phrasing, warming collective hearts across canada crtc allows or disallows, controlling the proletariat for the good of the State the way God intended.

  8. Paul R. Martin says:

    I think that Bell’s pending takeover of CTV opens the door wide open for Kory TV. The CBC becomes less and less relevant in an environment of media convergence. If the CRTC wants more competition in broadcasting, it has to come from another privately owned company.

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