Newman vs Teneycke: There Will Be Mud

It is certainly entertaining television to watch Don Newman and Kory Teneycke going head to head with Evan Soloman stuck in the middle. I've watched a lot of Newman over the years, and I'd have to say that I have never seen him as confrontational as when he is on TV with Kory. Newman's assertion is that this new news network will fabricate stories for purely partisan gain and not report real news, which is certainly an inflammatory accusation against a network that has yet to air a single news story.

To be fair, Don did land the best jab of the sequence when Kory was complaining about the CBC getting a billion dollars in parliamentary appropriations, and Newman pointed out that Kory didn't seem to mind when he was getting paid to appear on the network. The main point of attack was whether or not there will be Liberal pundits to appear on the network to present opposing opinion, like an Allan Combs. I think there absolutely should be some Liberal opinion on the network, rather than just have a bunch of Conservatives sitting around a table agreeing with each other. Granted if any Liberals are chosen, you will likely hear accusations from the left that the token Liberal will be chosen on the basis of being ineffective (and as such an easy target for the mean right wingers to beat around).

The new network is not going to tear apart the fabric of Canadian society. It will provide a format that Canadians don't have available from a Canadian news network, hard news during the day and opinion shows at night. If people don’t like it, they won’t watch. And yes they should hire some Liberals. I suppose my next poll question should be which Liberal pundit would you hire to provide balance to this fledgling network?