“Hard News. Straight Talk.”  Like “Fair and Balanced.”

Stories here and here.  Teneycke — point man for what Canadian Conservatives have long referred to as “Fox News North” by way of Sun TV News — questions Atwood’s “patriotism” simply for signing an online petition protesting the still to be approved channel.

Patriotism.  Margaret Atwood’s patriotism.  That would be the internationally renowned, award-winning writer, who for a generation has done more than just about any other to make Canadian literature and culture available to a worldwide audience.  She is — according to a trash-talking errand boy — somehow lacking in sufficient patriotism.

This is how it is done on the American model, which Teneycke and the cynical corporate interests behind him here in Canada have evidently decided to adopt: take out the respected pillars of progressivism by overwhelming them with a noxious flood of slander and lies.

And just what has Kory Teneycke done to promote Canadian culture anywhere?  Nothing.

But here are some earlier posts to give you some idea of what Teneycke has done, as well as provide a quick primer on the interests he represents: here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. We also have backup from Frye held in reserve on authoritarianism and the danger it represents to democratic society.

It appears that Teneycke is insufficiently cultured to be aware of the arch-conservative Samuel Johnson‘s observation that “Patriotism is last refuge of the scoundrel.”  For people like Teneycke, of course, it is the first resort as well as the last refuge.