Canada rejects right-wing attempt to allow “fake news”

Hell, no, it won’t show!

See, this is another reason why Canada is better than the US^*: For one thing, we don’t allow knowingly “false or misleading” news onto our airwaves^†. The Canadian broadcasting regulator has officially rejected a motion to repeal a law prohibiting the dissemination of deliberate lies and dishonesty on the air, which effectively spells the end for the wretched joint proposal by Prime Minister Harper and Fox News overlord Rupert Murdoch to bring a Fox-style “news” channel to Canadian audiences:

Fox News will not be moving into Canada after all! The reason: Canada regulators announced last week they would reject efforts by Canada's right wing Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, to repeal a law that forbids lying on broadcast news.

Canada's Radio Act requires that "a licenser may not broadcast....any false or misleading news." The provision has kept Fox News and right wing talk radio out of Canada and helped make Canada a model for liberal democracy and freedom. […] When Stephen Harper moved to abolish anti-lying provision of the Radio Act, Canadians rose up to oppose him fearing that their tradition of honest non partisan news would be replaced by the toxic, overtly partisan, biased and dishonest news coverage familiar to American citizens who listen to Fox News and talk radio. Harper's proposal was timed to facilitate the launch of a new right wing network, "Sun TV News" which Canadians call "Fox News North."

Score one for actual accuracy in media, for once. (No, not that typically hackish US-conservative website, which rather proves the point.)

(via @ebertchicago)

* Neener neener. Admit it, you envy us.
† Not without the government’s sanction, anyway. (So … neener?)