The SUN Goes Down

I grew up reading the Toronto SUN. For many years, I argued with anyone who scorned that paper; I was convinced that most of the people who said it was only good for lining birdcages never actually deigned to read it.

Yeah, its editorial voice is right-wing. But it runs (or at least it used to run) polemics from all over the spectrum. Sid Ryan wrote for them for a while. Eric Margolis was a mainstay for years. Jack Layton's penned the occasional column. You'd often be treated to two columnists duking it out (and a left! and a right!) Even when I disagreed with somebody (and I often did), it was usually a disagreement requiring some thought to justify.

The paper was far from perfect, even at its best. Typos were disturbingly commonplace; the tone of the reportage was overdramatic, sensationalist, and shrill. And no matter how pretty the Sunshine Girls looked, they all tasted like newsprint.

But the diversity of voices was something I looked forward to, particularly every Sunday. Their sports section was repeatedly deemed one of the best on the continent. And the tabloid format was perfect for reading anywhere. Why we even have the broadsheet format in today's portable world is a mystery I can't explain.

I miss the Toronto SUN. In recent years it has hardened its vision, jettisoning most columnists who don't believe as the editors do. Its online edition--still, for my no-money, the best-designed website among the four Toronto dailies--has regrettably added a forum (unmoderated!) for comments, inevitably leading to YouTubeitis, otherwise known as Acute Stupidity Display.

Most distressingly, it has turned its shrill voice, which used to be merely off-putting and even occasionally kind of entertaining--into a shrewish, unrelenting attack on all things liberal, socialist, leftist. It's gone as far right as the Toronto Star is left--and that's not a good thing. How long before it's renamed the Toronto Harp-oon?

I still read the paper--online, mind you, because I don't wish to give them any more of my money--but now it's mostly to keep tabs on an increasingly lunatic fringe. (And for that sports section, damn it all.)

Witness the column reproduced here. (I had to troll all over the Net for this, because it has since disappeared from all Sun Media websites in a flurry of retractions and apologies.) The lawsuit, needless to say, is pending. I read that article when it appeared and said to myself, bring on the lawyers. The SUN I grew up with would never have published this. They were cheeky. This was nasty.

My next missive will tear apart Michael Coren's latest effort. It's shooting fish in a barrel, but at least it doesn't leave such a horrid taste in my mouth.