More Bad News for Fox News - LGBT Petition to Remove Network from the Air Moves Forward
It’s bad enough that conservative viewers are turning off Fox News in droves because Tucker Carlson was fired. Now, in Canada, a gay-rights organization wants the network off of cable lineups because of Tucker, in spite of the fact he’s no longer there.
On May 6, Yahoo News reported that “Egale Canada, a 2SLGBTQI advocacy group, has raised the alarm after concerning comments made by ‘infamously incendiary’ former host Tucker Carlson.”
“Fox News may soon be banned from Canadian cable packages, with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) opening a public consultation process to help come to a decision,” the outlet noted.
The public will have until June 2 to comment on an open letter and petition Egale Canada issued on April 4; the group alleged Carlson’s “coverage aimed to provoke hatred and violence against 2SLGBTQI communities, particularly those who are Two Spirit, trans, nonbinary and gender non-conforming (2STNBGN).”
“This programming is in clear violation of Canadian broadcasting standards and has no place on Canadian broadcasting networks. Carlson made false and horrifying claims about 2STNBGN people, painting them as violent and dangerous,” the letter read.
The “programming” in question involves Carlson’s monologue after the Covenant School shooting in Nashville, Tennessee, where a transgender shooter who left behind a manifesto killed six people, including three children.
“The state of Tennessee bans the sexual mutilation of children. Children get shot to death in a school. It’s cause and effect. That’s what ABC News is telling you. That’s not far from justifying mass murder, but others took the next step,” Carlson noted in his remarks.
“A group called the Trans Resistance Network said that the shooter’s death was a complex tragedy that resulted from ‘anti-trans bias.’ The Hershey Chocolate Company’s new trans spokesman, meanwhile, someone called Fae Johnsone, posted messages after the shooting complaining about ‘trans misogyny.’ In Canada, a taxpayer funded trans rights organization put out a statement that ignored the murder of the children in Nashville entirely and instead claimed that there has been an ‘exponential rise in anti-trans violence.'”
That last part referred to Egale Canada, which just coincidentally happened to publish another open letter telling politicians they had “a responsibility to combat the rise in anti-2SLGBTQI hate” the day after the Covenant School shooting — March 28 — which didn’t mention the event at all.
Noticing the obvious is apparently “incendiary” up north, and Egale also claimed Carlson’s “segment also contained a range of other malicious misinformation about 2STNBGN people, including that trans people are given preferential treatment in employment and other opportunities. This is clearly an attempt to stoke resentment against 2STNBGN people.” If you came away with that wrongheaded impression from watching the segment, Egale has a careers segment on their website and you’re probably just the type to put up with their piffle.
“According to section 18(3) of the Broadcasting Act, the CRTC ‘may hold a public hearing, make a report, issue any decision and give any approval in connection with any complaint or representation made to the Commission or with any other matter within its jurisdiction under this Act if it is satisfied that it would be in the public interest to do so,'” the group noted in the letter. “The public interest clearly demands a consultation on the appropriateness of the continued inclusion of Fox News on the List … We are calling on the CRTC to begin public consultations on the removal of Fox News from the List of non-Canadian programming authorized for distribution in Canada.”
This isn’t just an idle threat, mind you. As the Foundation for Economic Education noted in a May 12 report on the kerfuffle, “radio and television broadcasters in Canada are heavily regulated, much more than most people realize.
“For one, foreign ownership of broadcasters is significantly restricted. As University of Ottawa law professor Dr. Michael Geist notes, ‘The foreign ownership rules generally limit [broadcast] licensees to 20 percent foreign ownership (up to 33 percent for a holding company). This covers all types of broadcasters including television, radio, and broadcast distributors,’” FEE’s Patrick Carroll wrote.
And so, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal-controlled government will be looking into the “appropriateness” of a Tucker-less Fox News even having a place on Canada’s cable and satellite networks.
“Egale Canada is pleased to see the CRTC open Part 1 into the removal of Fox News from Canadian distribution,” said Jennifer Boyce, Egale’s director of communications and marketing, in an interview with Yahoo News.
“We remain committed to the call in our open letter. The issue of Fox News inciting hate, violence, and discrimination in its programming extends beyond one individual.”
Just because Fox News got rid of Tucker doesn’t mean that the left is going to pat them on the back and leave them alone, in other words. In fact, he’s just a pretext to get the network booted out of Canada.
Meanwhile, a report this week by Variety reporter Tatiana Siegel indicated that Carlson’s firing was an unwritten proviso in the nearly $800 million settlement between Fox News and Dominion Voting Systems: “That condition was intended to hurt Fox, and Tucker is just collateral damage. Dominion wanted to punish Fox, and it’s working,” Siegel said, quoting sources familiar with the matter.
So, in other words, Carlson is being paid to do nothing because Dominion Voting Systems wanted to hurt the network beyond the settlement. Tucker plans to take his show to Twitter, where pretty much everyone can see him. Meanwhile, a Tucker-less Fox News might be taken off Canadian cable services under the flimsy pretense of protecting Canucks from the threat of a host that no longer broadcasts on there.
This is what happens when conservative media capitulates to the left.
Nice work, Rupert.
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