Kory Teneycke, the now-departed Sun News TV chief, wanted to attack David Suzuki
The odd stories from Kory Teneycke’s brief tenure as head of the Sun News TV project (a.k.a. Fox News North) just keep on coming. With Quebecor’s final concessions to the CRTC, the project is almost certain to launch without any new controversies on January 1, but it looks like it will be a slightly less crazy network than it would have been under Teneycke, who left under a cloud of suspicion. According to blogger, former reporter and climate change “skeptic” Donna Laframboise, Teneycke offered her a job, a story she tells in two blog posts (here and here). The line that raised our eyebrows was “[Teneycke’s] one firm directive was that I should challenge David Suzuki.”
To wit:
Kory responded to my really, I’m not a television person protestations with assurances that it would be OK. At the beginning, few people would be watching anyway, he insisted. He was sure that, with a bit of practice, I’d do fine.
His one firm directive was that I should challenge David Suzuki. I hadn’t thought much about Suzuki before that conversation, but Kory’s instinct was correct. Although Suzuki tells us constantly that he’s a scientist, he’s actually a preacher who espouses environmentalist views with religious fervor.
Teneycke’s desire to go after Suzuki is being backed up by other sources, like the CBC’s Kady O’Malley (on Twitter here and here). This has a lot in common with attacks on prominent climate change advocates in the U.S., where Al Gore and NASA scientist James Hansen are basically public enemies number 1 and 2 on the right’s climate watch.
But going after Suzuki sounds like a risky proposition even for Fox News North. This is a guy, after all, who placed fifth in the CBC’s Greatest Canadian contest (we’re pretty sure that’s higher than Teneycke placed, but we’d have to check). Going after Suzuki means going after a Canadian institution—they might as well have gone after the Mounties or The Hockey Sweater.
• Adrian MacNair: So Much For SunTV [Unambiguously Ambidextrous]
• When is a job offer not a job offer (Part 1) [No Frakking Consensus]
• When is a job offer not a job offer (Part 2) [No Frakking Consensus]
![](http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https://torontolife.com/city/kory-teneycke-the-now-departed-sun-news-tv-chief-wanted-to-attack-david-suzuki/&title=Kory Teneycke, the now-departed Sun News TV chief, wanted to attack David Suzuki&picture=https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Suzuki-Under-Attack.jpg&description=[caption id="attachment_46346" align="alignleft" width="320" caption="Left on the environment? Right on target (Image: Stephen Barnett)"][/caption]
The odd stories from Kory Teneycke’s brief tenure as head of the Sun News TV project (a.k.a. Fox News North) just keep on coming. With Quebecor’s final concessions to the CRTC, the project is almost certain to launch without any new controversies on January 1, but it looks like it will be a slightly less crazy network than it would have been under Teneycke, who left under a cloud of suspicion. According to blogger, former reporter and climate change “skeptic” Donna Laframboise, Teneycke offered her a job, a story she tells in two blog posts (here and here). The line that raised our eyebrows was “[Teneycke’s] one firm directive was that I should challenge David Suzuki.”
To wit:
Kory responded to my really, I’m not a television person protestations with assurances that it would be OK. At the beginning, few people would be watching anyway, he insisted. He was sure that, with a bit of practice, I’d do fine.
His one firm directive was that I should challenge David Suzuki. I hadn’t thought much about Suzuki before that conversation, but Kory’s instinct was correct. Although Suzuki tells us constantly that he’s a scientist, he’s actually a preacher who espouses environmentalist views with religious fervor.
Teneycke’s desire to go after Suzuki is being backed up by other sources, like the CBC’s Kady O’Malley (on Twitter here and here). This has a lot in common with attacks on prominent climate change advocates in the U.S., where Al Gore and NASA scientist James Hansen are basically public enemies number 1 and 2 on the right’s climate watch.
But going after Suzuki sounds like a risky proposition even for Fox News North. This is a guy, after all, who placed fifth in the CBC’s Greatest Canadian contest (we’re pretty sure that’s higher than Teneycke placed, but we’d have to check). Going after Suzuki means going after a Canadian institution—they might as well have gone after the Mounties or The Hockey Sweater.
• Adrian MacNair: So Much For SunTV [Unambiguously Ambidextrous]
• When is a job offer not a job offer (Part 1) [No Frakking Consensus]
• When is a job offer not a job offer (Part 2) [No Frakking Consensus]){kind=link}
So what if this guy wants to tackle Suzuki. He can give it a shot if he wants, Suzuki is a big boy, he can handle it.
Thanks for the honourable mention. It seems to me you might have included these lines from my post, as well:
“No one in the media asks Suzuki why, since he thinks the world is over-populated, he himself fathered five children. No one holds him accountable for those stark, 20-year-old acid rain predictions that never came true. No one inquires as to how a geneticist whose research involved fruit flies could possibly be a climate change expert.”
Suzuki, to a large degree, is a creation of the CBC. For 40 years the Canadian media has viewed Suzuki as one of their own.
This means the media has failed utterly to subject Suzuki’s ideas to any sort of rigorous analysis. In a democracy, when certain people are placed on a pedestal and cannot be challenged, the result isn’t healthy.
Donna Laframboise
NoFrakkingConsensus.wordpress.com
All you need to do to pi$$ off Suzuki is to disagree with him.
I think there is no reason why Suzuki should no be challenged.
Donna Laframbiose has good points about Suzuki’s ‘predictions.’ I remember as a child, in the 80’s watching The Nature of Things. I don’t remember much about any of the shows other than the dire predictions this guy would make mostly due to the emotional impact they had. Suzuki would be saying things like: ‘We’ve only got 20 years to change our ways before we do irreversible damage to the ecosystem’ and other such prognostications about species extinction. As is pointed out, none of this has come to pass. We’re more than 20 years on now and I think he owes an apology for scaring the wits out of children. If he were a scientist he would make credible scientific predictions, but he won’t, because selling his doom is more important.
To note, Suzuki’s religion of Gaia worship is exactly why he cannot be credited as a credible scientist. It is nothing more than romantic irrationalism that should have been left in the dustbin of history 300 years ago.
I am not the author of this link but, recommend a read: http://www.ecofascism.com/article1.html
I remember David Suzuki giving a ‘talk’ ( read: propaganda exercise..) at my public school in the 70’s..in that presentation he stated that we were all going to freeze in the dark due to the coming ice age.
Fast forward 30 years and Suzuki is preaching that we are all going to die in a hellish fireball, if we are not drowned first by the rising seas, or killed by falling Polar Bears..
Which one is it, Suzuki? What about about your comments that those who deny ‘global warming/climate change’ should be jailed?
Should we not at the very least censure the good Dr. Fruit fly for his , as they say in polite society, misrepresentations?
I see the flat-earthers are out in force on this discussion board today. Perhaps if they could find one legitimate scientist who happened to agree with them they would not need to attack Suzuki or others.
A good thing Faux News North didn’t get general license. This is evidence that it is merely a political operation, not a news channel.