FOX NEWS - FAIRLY IMBALANCED

There's something in the 24 hour news cycle that breeds a need to fill the dead space with something, maybe anything. And after a while, there just aren't enough videos of puppies on skateboards or starlets going commando to fill up the time. So the next move is to be outrageous in the hope of stirring up controversy.

Anything to attract attention and keep those numbers up.

Even the most partisan viewer, however, has a rage threshold, especially once it gets late and the eyelids droop. So you try outrageous comedy.

I first became aware of Fox News "Red Eye" somewhere over Omaha on a flight with the same moniker and a satellite TV system with most of the channels on the fritz. Maybe it was the altitude or the pre-flight cocktails, but I thought it was a harmless and sometimes humorous way to pass an hour.

I don't think that anymore.

With Canada preparing to repatriate four more fallen soldiers who lost their lives in Afghanistan, Fox news, in its ongoing quest for ratings, ran this...



Since there's really no place to start in measuring the ignorance, the insensitivity, the tastelessness or the total lack of comedy acumen here, I'm not even going to bother. Let's just say it's clear that a network that has been utterly shameless in banging the war drum has finally managed to cover itself in what it continually flings at others.

Today, while American war casualties are spirited back into the country under the cover of a media blackout that almost denies they ever existed, Canadians by the thousands will line our Highway of Heroes as Tpr. Jack Bouthillier, Cpl. Tyler Crooks, Tpr. Corey Joseph Hayes and Master-Cpl. Scott Vernelli are carried home with all the respect and honor their sacrifice deserves.

Meanwhile, our government asks for an apology for what was said.



Well, I'm sorry. But an apology (which will no doubt have arrived by the time you read this) isn't good enough.

How about we do something that will hit these ratings whores where it hurts, Mr. McKay -- how about we let those private broadcasters asking you for money and breaks know that there will be none as long as they're rebroadcasting Fox programming.

Nobody's being censored here. Nobody's being denied the ability to watch whatever they want. Fox still has access to the Canadian market. But Canadian money isn't going to purchase their shows anymore.

That might hit these fucktards in the only place where they seem capable of feeling pain -- and hopefully cause somebody at Fox to give their heads a shake and maybe get them on straight for a change.

EDIT: Fox News has now issued one of those classic "non-apology" apologies for the comments and one of the "Red Eye" panel, Doug Benson, had his April 2-5 appearance at the Comic Strip in Edmonton canceled after club ownership concluded they couldn't guarantee his safety. Edmonton, as it happens, is the home turf of Afghan vets the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry.