Should Fox News still be offered by Canadian cable companies? An organization that defends the rights of LGBTQ + people believes not, and has officially filed a petition with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). In the process, a consultation was launched last week on the country’s broadcasting license for the right-wing American news channel.
Toronto-based organization Egale has taken issue with comments made against sexual minorities by host Tucker Carlson, who has since been fired by Fox News. He is accused of having portrayed trans people on the air as dangerous and violent individuals who would like to attack Christians by force.
“The segment also contained a series of other malicious misinformation about 2STNBGN people. [bispirituels, trans, non-binaires et non-conformes], including that trans people receive preferential treatment in employment and other opportunities. This is clearly an attempt to stir up resentment against the 2STNBGN people,” reads a letter from Egale Canada Director Helen Kennedy.
According to her, Fox News violated CRTC rules, which state that a broadcaster can lose its license for hate speech. His letter was formally sent to the CRTC on April 4, before Fox News announced Tucker Carlson’s dismissal. Despite everything, in accordance with the procedure, a consultation was launched last Wednesday on the CRTC website.
Since then, more than a thousand Canadians have sent in their opinion. Most of them favor keeping Fox News on the air in the name of “free speech”. The others have until June 2 to speak out online about the fate of Fox News, after which the federal body could decide whether or not to sanction the news outlet. The Trudeau government did not want to come forward, sticking to the good judgment of the CRTC.
Mainly symbolic procedure
According to Jean-Hugues Roy, who teaches journalism at UQAM’s School of Media, there is very little chance that the American channel will lose its broadcasting license in Canada. “Fox News’ main problem [Tucker Carlson] is no longer employed by the company. The complaint therefore seems to me to be null and void, ”he believes.
Russia Today, often considered a propaganda arm of the Russian government, is the only foreign media to have been banned from the airwaves in the past five years in Canada. Aimé-Jules Bizimana, who is a professor at the University of Quebec in Outaouais (UQO), thinks that it is not desirable for the CRTC to go so far in the case of the most watched continuous news channel in UNITED STATES.
“The current complaint is founded. There is indeed filthy talk on the airwaves of Fox News that needs to be tackled. But to attack the entire chain would be an attack on freedom of expression. You also have to consider that there are serious people in the United States, and even in Canada, who get their news from Fox News. We have to accept that there is a place for a right-wing news channel,” maintains this observer of the world of communications.
big lie
The pro-Trump news channel has come under fire in the wake of its defamation lawsuit brought by the Dominion voting system. Eventually, the two parties reached an out-of-court settlement that forced Fox News to pay the company US$787 million.
Following the 2020 presidential election, Fox News initially acknowledged Joe Biden’s victory, shocking many viewers. In the following days, the headliners of the chain had changed their tune to adhere to the theory of the stolen election launched by Donald Trump, attacking the credibility of the voting machines operated by Dominion.
However, during the trial between Fox News and Dominion, internal emails had been made public and suggested that the hosts of the channel deliberately lied to viewers, when they themselves did not believe that there had been electoral fraud.