The Sun News Network heralded its Monday launch by featuring one of its anchors as a Sunshine Girl in the company’s newspaper chain.
Krista Erickson, who will host a daily show from 3 to 5 p.m., appeared in the Sunshine Girl photo sporting a grey V-neck “I Love Canada” T-shirt, with an accompanying blurb proclaiming she was “rarin’ to go,” “unapologetically patriotic” and “not afraid to call it like it is.”
Erickson previously spent 11 years with the CBC.
Sun News Network is set to launch at 4:30 p.m. with a “pre-game show” with Erickson before “The Source with Ezra Levant.”
A spokesman for the network said that no Sun News Network officials were available Monday to comment on the launch.
The TV station’s on-air personalities also include Winnipeg-based talk-radio host Charles Adler and former BNN and CBC reporter Pat Bolland.
Sun News Network officials have said they hope the new venture will balance what they see as a “lefty bias” in traditional media. Quebecor CEO Pierre Karl Peladeau has also argued that the other Canadian news networks are boring and are driving viewers to U.S. network CNN.
One of the driving forces behind the Sun News Network’s agenda is former Tory spin doctor Kory Teneycke, who has derided the “lame-stream” media.
The new network is still negotiating to get on air across the country. It’s just negotiated a free six-month window on Shaw cable and the Quebecor-owned Videotron cable systems. No deal is in place yet with Rogers, but many in Ontario will be able to view Sun News on the old Sun TV channel.
A spokesman said the cable deals mean the network will initially be seen in over six million homes.
Along with its right-wing slant, the Sun News Network is expected to contain a unique Quebec flavour and a sexy news marketing strategy.
For more on the Sun News Network’s launch, reach Chris Powell’s “Fox News Not.”
