After a tumultous period as vice-president of development for Quebecor, Kory Teneycke has announced his resignation. You should be familiar with him for being the main face promoting Sun TV News AKA 'Fox News North'. I'm not going to go into the battle from Avaaz against Sun TV news, but I would like to take the time to go over what this resignation means, politically speaking.

In a nutshell, this resignation means little to nothing, despite Avaaz' exectuive director and co-founder Ricken Patel's claim that it meant "a battle won in a longer fight against crony-media in Canada." I disagree with this statement. As soon as Teneycke stepped down, Luc Lavoie was appointed to the position. Whereas Teneycke was a former Harper spokesman, Lavoie is the former spokesman of former Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney spokesman. You say to-maht-o I say to-mate-o.

That being said, I do understand the significance of Teneycke being the former director of communications of the current Prime Minister. The political history was too recent for many people to feel comfortable with him heading up a news channel, which was applying for some special permits (such as the status of "must-carry" on cable channels, which means cable companies in Canada would have to carry the channel as part of their broadcasting). It is quite possible he was using some of his political power to lobby for this status, but is that really the important, bigger-picture question? No, it is not.

The important question is: How will this resignation affect the values of Sun TV News, and the Conservative view-point it is bringing? The simple answer is that it won't, which is evidenced by the hiring of Lavoie. At the end of the day, Sun TV News is still coming to Canada, and will likely be granted must-carry status, despite Avaaz' petition against it.

It is worth nothing the way that 'democracy' has been thrown around lately. Some people, such as Patel, claim biased news, such as Fox, or by induction, Sun TV News, "poisons American democracy." This claim is absurd. Democracy is best served by having a full-range of political opinion. While the opinion of the right is well-served in print media in this country, some would argue it is lacking in broadcast (some would argue differently, due to national stations like Global).

To be clear, I am not a fan of Fox News, or a person of right-wing political persuasion. In fact,  I despise Fox, and have done a lot of research into the network, and many of their failings. However, diversification of the Canadian media, and more capital being put into journalism, can only be a positive step for media in this country. In a time where news coverage is shrinking due to under-funding and cost-cutting, journalists and citizens of democracy should welcome new investment in media and new political viewpoints in the media.