Sun News host Krista Erickson has quit her position at the network.
Erickson has left to pursue foreign correspondence work in London, according to her website.
As the host of mid-day news program Canada Live, Erickson drew a storm of criticism to the station for her 2011 interview with Quebec dancer Margie Gillis (watch below).
Erickson aggressively grilled Gillis about government funding for arts programs. Gillis described it as "an attack."
“I have faced tough questioning about arts funding and my own funding before, but nothing to this degree," said Gillis after the interview. "It was an attack, not journalism. She was not asking me questions, just stating things and not giving me time to respond."
The segment racked up a record 6,676 complaints to the Canadian Radio and Television Commission, who usually only see a couple thousand over a a full year. The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council ruled that the interview was acceptable and that Erickson was "entitled to be aggressive in her questioning and to reveal her personal biases."
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Erickson may be jumping ship at a good time. Sun News has announced an expected loss of $17 million for 2012. The network is petitioning the CRTC to make it a mandatory basic cable station, in order to solve its "clearly unsustainable" financial situation.
Erickson is a Gemini-nominated journalist who started her career at CBC Winnipeg and joined "Fox News North" for its 2011 launch. The "unapologetically patriotic" host posed as a Sunshine Girl in honour of the occasion.
Sun News History
Under pressure?(01 of12)
Open Image Modal'Stop Fox News North'(02 of12)
Open Image ModalSoros Threatens To Sue(03 of12)
Open Image ModalArt attack!(04 of12)
Open Image ModalSun News vs. CBC(05 of12)
Open Image ModalSun News has made the CBC's public funding a signature issue, repeatedly attacking the network for taking $1 billion per year in taxpayers' money while competing against private-sector broadcasters.But the CBC is fighting back. It put out a press release noting that Quebecor, Sun's parent company, enjoyed $500 million in subsidies over five years, and argued that -- unlike the CBC -- it is not publicly accountable to taxpayers. (credit:The Canadian Press)
'Chinga tu madre'(06 of12)
Open Image ModalFake Citizenship Ceremony(07 of12)
Open Image ModalIn your home, like it or not?(08 of12)
Open Image ModalMillions in losses(09 of12)
Open Image Modal'The Jew vs. the Gypsy'(10 of12)
Open Image ModalSun News personality and well-known right-wing pundit Ezra Levant issued a formal, on-air apology after a September, 2012, segment in which he declared that the Roma were not a race, and were rather "a shiftless group of hobos" who "rob people blind" and whose "chief economy is theft and begging."The Toronto police reportedly even launched a hate-crimes investigation into the segment, at the request of a local Roma group. (credit:Screencap)
Denied Mandatory Carriage(11 of12)
Open Image ModalIn August 2013, the CRTC, Canada's telecom regulator, rejected Sun News' application for mandatory carriage. The network had asked the CRTC to make them a mandatory part of all basic cable services, arguing it would not survive financially without it.Though the CRTC rejected the Sun News application, it also launched a review of the rules surrounding cable news networks. Among the possible outcomes are a realignment of channels so all news channels are grouped together on the dial, and the possibility of a "must-carry" order for Sun News, which would mean that all TV service providers would have to at least offer the network.Pictured: CRTC Chair Jean-Pierre Blais (credit:Canadian Press)
Goodbye, Sun News(12 of12)
Open Image ModalOn Friday, Feb. 13, 2015, Sun News went off the air, less than four years after its debut broadcast. Sun News personalities blamed the failure on the CRTC's decision not to grant the network mandatory carriage, and on cable companies' reluctance to give the network prominent placement on the dial, but analysts said the network's poor ratings and annual losses were the driving factor in the decision.