If you had the foresight to play a drinking game that involved taking a shot every time someone on Sun News Network uttered a cliché on air in the moments after it launched, you are probably still stone drunk right now.
The much-anticipated debut broadcast from Canada's latest all-news network began late Monday afternoon with what amounted to a halfhour infomercial for its programming lineup and roster of talent. The hosts and reporters all explained what they would be doing at Sun News. Bromides were involved. There would "be no sacred cows." They are "raising the bar." It's "not going to be politics as usual."
And, most importantly, they "are going to cover the stories that matter." The stories that "people really want to hear about."
This, apparently, even extends to the weather. Krista Erickson, who will anchor the Canada Live afternoon program and who was given the unenviable task of hosting the Sun News "pre-game show," introduced weather specialist Michelle Jobin, who showed off a fancy monitor with a giant "EXTREME WEATHER" banner on it.
Ms. Jobin explained that the screen was state-of-theart, and that she would use it to "tell stories about weather that matter to Canadians."
Finally, a network that is unafraid to tell the real weather stories, not like those lefties at the CBC with their pro-hail biases and their PC attitudes toward snow squalls.
Ms. Erickson noted that she knows viewers have a lot of frustration toward weather forecasts. "Not with Michelle," she said. "You can count on her."
And that, pretty much, summed up the general tone of Sun News Network's first broadcast. It was so dedicated to telling viewers how groundbreakingly awesome it would be -"You are watching television history," said the crawl along the bottom of the screen -that it even managed to declare that its Quest for Truth extended to meteorology.
Admittedly, it can't be easy to launch a news network, or to figure out what to put on air in the early moments of its life. Sun News was stuck Monday trying to introduce itself to viewers; presumably it will turn its lens outward from here on out.
But in the meantime, those who tuned in to check out what all the fuss was about -not many networks can claim to have been the subject of Internet campaigns to have it shut down before it aired -were bludgeoned with various statements about the network's higher purpose.
It's not just the brash new kid on the block, it's a complete braggart.
When Ms. Erickson described the Sun News team of reporters, she also said that "unlike other TV news reporters, they won't need to be briefed on their stories."
It's a strange comment from someone who came from the CBC.
She introduced Theo Caldwell, host of the evening Caldwell Account program, and asked what he was all about. No surprise here: the truth. "In the marketplace of ideas, you need buyers and sellers," he said, explaining that's how you "find the price of the truth." Perhaps I'm nitpicking, but is the truth really determined by how many people buy into it?
After the pre-game show, which began with the national anthem over a montage of Mounties, military and landscape shots and ended with a champagne toast, Sun News turned it over to its first actual program: The Source with Ezra Levant.
After all the talk of how the network was dedicated to the stories that other networks were afraid to touch, Mr. Levant's inaugural foray was a bit of a letdown.
He decried the alleged bias of the CBC's online Vote Compass tool, a subject that was covered in other media -including on the front of Sun papers -two weeks ago. He later criticized at length the CRTC, and recounted his history as a champion of freedom in the long court battle that ensued when he printed the Danish Muhammad cartoons in a magazine he used to publish.
Laudable causes and all, but the cartoon flap was three years ago. One assumes that when Sun News finds its groove, it won't be covering the stories that other networks won't touch simply because they are old news.
By the dinner hour in the east, Sun News was into its second program, The Daily Brief with David Akin, a veteran Parliament Hill reporter and columnist. He led with a story on health care. It was fine. Normal, even. This was good: The further the network gets from that opening, the better.
sstinson@nationalpost.com
