Sun News Network Attacks Artists

This has literally just made its way across my desk.  I'm in rehearsal right now composing on the fly while stage managing and now am having difficulty doing either until I write about this.




Sun News Network, or Sun News Media as they are sometimes called have just, in the last hour 'published' a new piece of 'journalism'.  I use air quotes because this sort of kangaroo faux-high school journalism is almost laughable.  Almost.  With a capital A.

The Sun News Network, famous, or more accurately infamous for previously running that late 12th hour anti-NDP slander against Jack Layton has recently set it's sights on something somewhat easier than our Official Opposition leader.  Artists.  Earlier in June, they on air, viciously attacked Order of Canada Dancer Margie Gillis.  The interview was so widely derided, that a record four thousand complaints were lodged with the Canadian Radio and Television Commission, over one incident.  The Commission admits that in a year they expect to only receive two thousand complaints total.

The council has already requested that there be no more complaints about that particular issue, an order that by and far many complainants have ignored.  It may take up to six months for a ruling to be delivered, and it should be noted that there is no financial penalty for a breach of standards.  Rather the broadcasting organization is only forced to make a public statement about the 'offending content', once during primetime, and again in the time slot as the original content.

So in any case, that hasn't stopped the Sun News Network yet, they're taking aim this time at the ArtsHab in Edmonton.  In a video they just released, link below, 'journalist' (again the air quotes) Ezra Levant and 'political commentator' Kathyrn Marshall attempt to spin their systemic attack against the ArtsHab program.  ArtsHab is a subsidized living building for artists.  It provides a subsidized living arrangement and studio facilities for artists of a certain level of development and income to work in.

A number of my peers are actually living in ArtsHab, or similar artist residences either in Canada, or in other countries.  I want to be clear, artist residences, artist subsidized housing, artist / studio living spaces are not a new or particularly remarkable concept.  Artists by virtue of the work they do generally do not see direct monetary compensation for their work, and such are subsidized by federal or regional funding and patrons.

Anyway problems with this 'journalism' that the Sun News Network presents.

Some of these are from my friend Matt Schuurman.

• The Photos presented in those pictures?  Not all the ArtsHab.  The Building isn't even the ArtsHab.  It must be remarkably convenient to just take pictures of any old condominium, high rise, parlour, suite, or penthouse and say that an 'artist' lives there.
• The Video frequently references the housing project as being 'free'.  If you will note, I have never described the ArtsHab project as being 'free' housing.  That would be because it's not 'free'.  It's subsidized.  Don't know what the difference is?  Check out this wikipedia link.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subsidized_housing
• Nobody living in that Hab is wealthy.  They are not attending grand balls or galas, they are not fancy flying all over the country or leeching parasitically off the provincial and municipal government.  If you earn more than a certain amount of salary, the project requests you move on so that other disenfranchised artists can have the same opportunities you did.
• Connecting arts funding against police spending is an illogical correlative link.  While we're at it, rainfall could be having an affect our journalistic integrity, has it been raining more this year?  Less?  Apparently that makes people less likely to fact check and use citation?
• In any case, the ArtsHab is one step in a long project to revitalize the 118 Ave area, where crime has been steadily FALLING.
• Ben Eastep also pointed out that SNN couldn't even bother to send their 'correspondent' to Edmonton, or for that matter interview any actual artists or members of the ArtsHab community or management.  In fact the correspondent is just as far away from Edmonton geographically as Ezra himself.  The fact that they couldn't do it as a studio shot and instead did a street scene reeks of deliberate deception as Ben points out.

When I first watched the video,  the artist part of me felt an almost inhuman rage.  Rage against the misrepresentation of my craft, the blatant attacks against my profession and peers (who again, some of which live in that project).  Rage against this 'network' which has decided that my industry makes likely and easy targets.  The fact that they came across my desk again in any case was annoyance enoug.

Then I realized that I wasn't enraged.  What I actually feel is a sort of saddening, mindless despair.  The despair part has less, much less to do with the fact that it's attacking artists.  Instead it was a feeling of sadness for Canada itself.  Strange I know.

But is this what we are living now?  Just 3 days ago, I had a four year old sitting in my lap, we were watching the Canada Day fireworks.  Brightly burning through the sky off in the distance, she whispered to the night air "Happy Birthday, Canada".  There was so much joy, and hope, in her voice at that, her country to her, was a glorious place.  She was full of pie and hot dogs, watching fireworks on the river's valley.

One day, will we look at this moment as a death of journalism?  The rise of the 'internet' has allowed us to live in a world that has no scruples about any kind of 'truth' in reported news?  Have we come to a point where opinion, commentary and comments are more integral than the actual accuracy of value?  Do we live in a world of doublethink now, as imagined by Orwell?  Are these people, behind their media network willfully ignorant of purveying actual fact, instead so inclined to only make profit, fiscal value, that they are contented to LIE?

Can I just lie?  Can I just film myself lying?  Lying about everything?  Call that news?  Can I be my own news network where I just lie all day?  I am a soap bubble, and can float off the ground to anywhere.  Stars are but little pinpricks of burning flame, a few kilometres out.  I have small pieces of paper that I can fold into stars, they are worth a million dollars and can ensnare the souls of men and women before God.

What a world we live in.  I almost weep for it.

Rise up artists,  Rise up my friends, Megan Dart, Chelsea Preston, Beth Dart, Murray and Kristi, David and Vanessa, rise up.  We are the artists, our names, not our titles, our truths, our connections, our stories!  We are not faceless, we are not parasites on society or government or community, we are builders, creators, and we are here to stay!  We will not be cowed by falsehood or deception!

Sun Media speaks the absence of truth, artists are constantly searching for the absolute truth. - Murray Utas

The Actual video here:
http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/video/1038045775001
(Please note, in the interests of boycotting the Network, I've uploaded a rip of the video to youtube, please watch it here unless you absolutely must see the original, high definition version.  And for some reason need to count the creases in Ezra Levant's forehead).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRdHyxKZkTw

The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council Complaint Form
http://www.cbsc.ca/english/complaint/form.php

Globe and Mail Article about Complaints
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/complaints-over-sun-news-interview-overwhelm-watchdog/article2079549/ 

Artist Megan Dart posted a detailed note about what you can do to complain or be involved in the fight against Sun News Network and their faulty journalism.
http://www.facebook.com/notes/megan-dart/seven-things-you-can-do-to-stick-it-to-sun-news/10150233563938865