Globe profiles Sun TV’s Kory Teneycke

Former Harper spokesman and now Quebecor’s VP of business development,
Kory Teneycke is an “unlikely media mogul with little direct experience
in broadcasting”, The Globe and Mail reports.
Kory Teneycke
In an article titled “One smooth operator who’s crazy like a Fox”, the Globe‘s Steven Chase writes: “Kory Teneycke brings a warrior’s zeal to his plan to launch a Canadian right-wing news network, but can he separate himself from his former Tory bosses?”

35-year-old Teneycke, Chase reports, “keeps a Roman centurion’s helmet in his office and a map of the Battle of Trafalgar on his living-room wall.” He’s also a “steadfast solider for conservative causes all the way back to the Grant Devine Tories’ failed 1991 re-election bid in Saskatchewan. CBC announced his appointment as political commentator but he left that position to join Quebecor. Less than a year ago he was Harper’s chief spokesman.

The Globe writes:

“The bid by Quebecor’s new vice-president of business development to establish a populist, right-of-centre TV news network to Canada – an extension of the company’s Sun tabloid chain – could help decide whether debate in this country takes on a more conservative tone. One challenge will be to demonstrate the network is serving viewers rather than Mr. Teneycke’s former political employers.”

The Globe continues:

“The Canadian media, [Teneycke] said, are “lazy and complacent” and produce boring and elitist news, because protectionist barriers shelter them from foreign competition. He’s betting there’s a hunger among viewers, from across the ideological spectrum, for punchier, more opinionated offerings, modelled on Fox News in the U.S. – and on the style Mr. Teneycke honed in his years in the political game.”

After describing Teneycke’s personal and career history, Chase writes:

” Mr. Teneycke rejects the suggestion that Sun TV is designed to further Conservative fortunes. Being a house organ for the Tories would not make commercial sense, he said. He promised there’d be a clear line between editorializing on the station’s talk shows and news gathering by its journalists – although, he added, reported stories would be more “populist in orientation.”  “

The Globe quotes veteran political journalist Don Newman, who has covered Parliment Hill for CBC, as saying:

“I’m not opposed to more news channels … but I really wonder if it’s going to be used as a bully pulpit.”

“[Newman] said Mr. Teneycke talked about such a channel when they met back in 2003, after a Saskatchewan election. “He seemed to blame the traditional media, and I guess particularly the CBC, for the defeat of the Saskatchewan Party by the NDP. He said ‘What we really need in Canada is a Fox News network.’ ”

When asked if he considers himself “Canada’s answer to Roger Ailes, the Republican media consultant turned president of Fox News”, Teneycke tells the Globe:

” “I have to gain a lot of weight and have a lot of success before I can make that comparison,” Mr. Teneycke said, laughing. “Roger Ailes is the most successful man in television and I am just a kid who hasn’t proven anything yet.” ”