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Sun TV should drop the political gloves

Perhaps it was asking too much for Sun News Network to drop some type of bombshell on its first full day to shake up a drowsy federal election campaign.

Perhaps it was asking too much for Sun News Network to drop some type of bombshell on its first full day to shake up a drowsy federal election campaign.

Something? Anything?

Instead, the biggest surprise so far has been its antiseptic political tilt, its velvet glove touch in the middle of a campaign, belying its self-hyped “cheekiness.”

The currency for any all-news network, especially one trying to punch its way into a crowded ring, should be politics.

It’s a truism in the U.S., where three cable news networks fight for viewers in a fragmented audience.

If you want breaking news, you still go to the original, CNN.

But if you want politics, you tune in to Fox or MSNBC.

Former communications specialists from the offices of two Conservative prime ministers (Brian Mulroney and Stephen Harper) and a former Canadian Alliance leader (Stockwell Day) are among the key players in the network.

So Sun TV’s cardboard approach to politics was unexpected.

Its timidity when it comes to partisan politics could doom it faster than its need to get on a specialty cable package.

It has skilfully borrowed some of the pillars that Fox News has used to flourish south of the border.

Just like the unabashedly jingoistic Fox, Sun TV is promising it will be “unapologetically Canadian.”

Also like Fox, it pretends to have a monopoly on the truth, vowing to stick up for the little guy, champion freedom and provide views the big guys are too scared to espouse.

So far, it has done none of that — but, it’s early.

The network must find its political voice because it already has two strikes against it if it is to emulate the U.S. model.

Common sense dictates that viewership will rise if the network is playing to anger in the land.

But anger is usually found in those on the outside looking in.

Conservatives Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity really rose to U.S. prominence with Democrat Bill Clinton in the White House.

Liberals on MSNBC, led by now-departed Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow, spiked in 2008 with venomous attacks on the George W. Bush years and Republican candidate John McCain.

It will be much more difficult for Sun TV to bang its bully pulpit with another Conservative government in Ottawa.

The second disadvantage for Sun TV stems from the systemic differences in the political structures of Canada and the U.S.

The likes of Limbaugh, Hannity and Bill O’Reilly always had the Democratic leadership in the U.S. Congress to pound away at if their man was in the White House.

Although four Canadian elections in seven years seems like non-stop campaigning to Harper and many Canadians, the protracted presidential races and the midterms mean the U.S. election cycle really is perpetual.

Sun TV also needs an enemy. You can’t inspire indignation without a target.

So it settled on demonizing the CBC.

There is really no evidence that the state of the public broadcaster is top of mind for many Canadians.

And the corporation will not engage — Peter Mansbridge is not about to take a portion of The National to fire back at Sun TV’s Ezra Levant.

The Fox-MSNBC battle during the 2008 U.S. election was highly entertaining and drove ratings while O’Reilly and Olbermann engaged each other, flinging insults and taunts across the airwaves.

A one-way fight will get very tiring, very quickly.

It’s hard to get a handle on Sun TV’s programming. There is a hint Jim Flaherty will show up Wednesday, Thursday or some time soon.

But Liberal Bob Rae and NDP Leader Jack Layton appear to be the first politicians prepared to sit down with the new voice, meaning Sun TV may already have something in common with the “consensus media.”

Getting a senior Conservative to sit down for some real questions has proved difficult for all of us.

Tim Harper is a national affairs writer for The Toronto Star.