Revolving Door
January 23, 2012 by Dan Patton
The Revolution may be televised but not broadcast by Fox News in Canada.
The Conseil de la radiodiffusion et des télécommunications canadiennes indirectly halted the great white northern expansion of the top-rated program of the Australian- and Saudi-owned, American-based News Corporation when it refused to modify a regulation that explicitly prohibits the broadcast of “any false or misleading news.” Wielding a mandate to control the nation’s broadcast and telecommunications activities, the Quebec-headquartered public organization held fast to a so-called “anti-lying” law that appears in various forms of Canadian legislation, including: the Radio Regulations of 1986, the Pay TV Regulations of 1990; the Specialty Service Regulations of 1990, and the Television Broadcasting Regulations of 1987.
The decision was celebrated by Canada’s Liberal party, which also recently passed a symbolic vote to keep Queen Elizabeth’s portrait on the Canadian dollar and legalize marijuana.
Advocates to rewrite the regulation and essentially allow “false or misleading news” cited a Canadian Supreme Court’s 1992 decision that overturned the conviction of Ernst Zündel, a German-born, Holocaust-denying, former UFO-pamphleteering immigrant who distributed literature with such titles as, “Did Six Million Really Die?” Although he was found guilty of spreading false news after two criminal trials in the 1980’s, Canada’s supreme judicial body ultimately acquitted him because the prior convictions violated his guarantee of freedom of expression under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Zündel was later deported back to Germany, found guilty of violating the Volksverhetzung law (which bans hate crimes), and sentenced to five years in prison.
After conducting a five-minute, one-man Google search, Screen Magazine’s unofficial Department of Canadian Affairs concluded that Canada’s decision to keep its “no lying” law on the books was neither reported by any of News Corp’s U.S. properties, including the Wall Street Journal, nor mentioned by the Australian-born Chairman or Saudi Arabian Prince who collectively own roughly 36 percent of the corporation.
In the United States, there has been no law to prevent a broadcaster from knowingly spreading false or misleading news since two corollary rules of the Fairness Doctrine -- the “personal attack” rule and the “political editorial” rule -- were repealed by the FCC in 2000. These actions more or less completed the gutting of the entire Atlas Shrugged-sounding legislation that began in the 1980’s, when Ronald Reagan “vetoed the Democratic-controlled Congress’s effort to make the doctrine law,” according to Wikipedia, the online information site that will intentionally black itself out for 24 hours beginning January 18 in response to a whole ‘nother issue regarding the government’s control of public information.
As a result, Canada continues to hold all of its broadcasters to a “no lying” policy, while the U.S. offers no legal instrument to prevent a broadcaster from insinuating that, for example, Screen Magazine Publisher Andrew Schneider secretly worships a piece of French toast baring the image of Maury Povich, enjoys shoplifting and mistreats puppies. Unless, of course, Screen Magazine Publisher Andrew Schneider chooses to delete the allegations about his bizarre fixation with Povich-esque brunch items, retail theft and canine abuse from this column, which is unlikely because it will not reach his desk until six days after the original due date.
Editorial Note: Dan Patton’s allegations notwithstanding, the management of Screen Magazine plans to delete volumes of copy from his next column in retaliation for this one.