I believe there are three issues at play here that cause Poilievre to get a mostly free ride from the press.
1. Certain press outfits are completely bad faith against the Liberals. The recent vacation days article in the National Post is a perfect example. The proper headline and summary would be “the PM takes about half the number of vacations of regular Canadians”. Instead they present it as if Trudeau is permanently on vacation by adding all the vacation days over an 8 year period. That is pure bad faith. The same applies to the Globe and Mail with their selective leaking of classified material.
2. The press is not a profitable business. The only way to become less unprofitable is to get clicks, and rage farming creates more clicks than anything else. Poilievre delivers them click ready material. Easy and cheap to create copy and clicks.
3. There are serious consequences for journalists to their employment and safety if they ask Poilievre critical questions. A good example of what can happen to your career as a journalist when you pose a difficult question to Poilievre is Rachel Gilmore. No matter what you think of her journalistic talents, she asked one critical question and she ended up not only unemployed, but also on the receiving end of a barrage of death threats and other unwelcome attention. If you have a family to feed, a mortgage to pay, is it really worth the risk of calling Poilievre out for his lies?
I do not know what the solution is, I don’t think there is an easy one. In the meantime, articles like this one by Evan are important. Hopefully it will create some courage and shame that will result in a more forceful response to Poilievre’s political vandalism.
Well written.. it is puzzling why the media pay more attention to Pierre Poilievre but fail to call out his lies and misinformation, on almost every topic he touches.
.. while pointing out pratfalls of the PM and failing to give him credit for managing an economy in very difficult times
Media is so greedy it’s literally destroying our lives, false facts or no facts is the new media way. Even old journalists cringe at opinion media that so many people think is true. We have a media crisis ever since Harper opened the door. People are not listening to fact no matter how many times it’s been said
As usual, very good column. However, my hope about media coverage of PP isn't very high. He has builled many of the few unbiaised journalists left into submission, by fear of becoming the next ''apple'' guy/girl who get laughed at internationally. My bet is that media will tolerate PP's disinformation and falsehoolds until he goes too far, as American medias did during Trump first years in office. However, they won't have the easy BS excuse that ''didn'T not know''.
I’d appreciate your’s & our Host Evan’s most current brief explanation of what really happened re the entire AppleScam Viral Event - I want to see see it tackled a la bellingcat - can’t believe we have not accomplished this yet.. to my satisfaction anyways.. What his latest perspective editorial or recount .. I’ve tried to reflect all that I know ., as well as what I surmise accordingly - is REAL
Evan, it is now 48 hours later and I think you should totally claim credit for the shift in the press. We are starting to see multiple outlets and pundits calling out the lies by Poilievre and the CPC. Well done!
I also have the feeling that commentators on the larger platforms are reading your articles.
We will see if the shift continues. However, when people are starting to call you a liar, this tends to stick.
Back in the day I used to watch Parliament when Harper was in govt. The 2 MPs I found particularly abrasive were Pollievre and Del Maestro. It is fun to search Dean Del Maestro/leg irons.
We live in an era when misinformation and disinformation is changing the landscape of our society. If we can't count on the media to call out our leaders - we are doomed.
Canadian print media/journalism has been decimated by the collapse in ad revenues. There is only a handful of top tier “print” journalists today and their audience has also collapsed. Few regular people read the National Post either online or otherwise, likewise the Globe, the Sun, etc. News junkies are a small segment, most people are just dealing with traffic, mortgages, grocery bills, family, etc. The latter still depend on TV and social media (which echoes TV) to get a sense of what politicians in Ottawa or elsewhere are up to; wishing that it were otherwise is just wishing. If Brian and Ezra had been granted universal carriage on cable, we would be facing a more challenging situation but we are left with CBC News and CTV News and if both start covering conservative lies things will turn around.
Another razor sharp analysis by Evan!
I believe there are three issues at play here that cause Poilievre to get a mostly free ride from the press.
1. Certain press outfits are completely bad faith against the Liberals. The recent vacation days article in the National Post is a perfect example. The proper headline and summary would be “the PM takes about half the number of vacations of regular Canadians”. Instead they present it as if Trudeau is permanently on vacation by adding all the vacation days over an 8 year period. That is pure bad faith. The same applies to the Globe and Mail with their selective leaking of classified material.
2. The press is not a profitable business. The only way to become less unprofitable is to get clicks, and rage farming creates more clicks than anything else. Poilievre delivers them click ready material. Easy and cheap to create copy and clicks.
3. There are serious consequences for journalists to their employment and safety if they ask Poilievre critical questions. A good example of what can happen to your career as a journalist when you pose a difficult question to Poilievre is Rachel Gilmore. No matter what you think of her journalistic talents, she asked one critical question and she ended up not only unemployed, but also on the receiving end of a barrage of death threats and other unwelcome attention. If you have a family to feed, a mortgage to pay, is it really worth the risk of calling Poilievre out for his lies?
I do not know what the solution is, I don’t think there is an easy one. In the meantime, articles like this one by Evan are important. Hopefully it will create some courage and shame that will result in a more forceful response to Poilievre’s political vandalism.
this is crucial re the historic Harper era ‘black ops’ Reality spectrum..
should be discussed more.. as it’s very real.. very dangerous.. trumpist hate
Well written.. it is puzzling why the media pay more attention to Pierre Poilievre but fail to call out his lies and misinformation, on almost every topic he touches.
.. while pointing out pratfalls of the PM and failing to give him credit for managing an economy in very difficult times
I just read this whole column out loud to my wife.
Media is so greedy it’s literally destroying our lives, false facts or no facts is the new media way. Even old journalists cringe at opinion media that so many people think is true. We have a media crisis ever since Harper opened the door. People are not listening to fact no matter how many times it’s been said
Well spoken!
As usual, very good column. However, my hope about media coverage of PP isn't very high. He has builled many of the few unbiaised journalists left into submission, by fear of becoming the next ''apple'' guy/girl who get laughed at internationally. My bet is that media will tolerate PP's disinformation and falsehoolds until he goes too far, as American medias did during Trump first years in office. However, they won't have the easy BS excuse that ''didn'T not know''.
I’d appreciate your’s & our Host Evan’s most current brief explanation of what really happened re the entire AppleScam Viral Event - I want to see see it tackled a la bellingcat - can’t believe we have not accomplished this yet.. to my satisfaction anyways.. What his latest perspective editorial or recount .. I’ve tried to reflect all that I know ., as well as what I surmise accordingly - is REAL
Looks like the star heard you!
https://www.thestar.com/politics/liberals-accuse-poilievre-of-riling-up-canadians-in-border-crash-comments/article_56f6ee06-d80b-58dd-af42-ff7e355fd9d0.html
Evan, it is now 48 hours later and I think you should totally claim credit for the shift in the press. We are starting to see multiple outlets and pundits calling out the lies by Poilievre and the CPC. Well done!
I also have the feeling that commentators on the larger platforms are reading your articles.
We will see if the shift continues. However, when people are starting to call you a liar, this tends to stick.
Back in the day I used to watch Parliament when Harper was in govt. The 2 MPs I found particularly abrasive were Pollievre and Del Maestro. It is fun to search Dean Del Maestro/leg irons.
We live in an era when misinformation and disinformation is changing the landscape of our society. If we can't count on the media to call out our leaders - we are doomed.
Canadian print media/journalism has been decimated by the collapse in ad revenues. There is only a handful of top tier “print” journalists today and their audience has also collapsed. Few regular people read the National Post either online or otherwise, likewise the Globe, the Sun, etc. News junkies are a small segment, most people are just dealing with traffic, mortgages, grocery bills, family, etc. The latter still depend on TV and social media (which echoes TV) to get a sense of what politicians in Ottawa or elsewhere are up to; wishing that it were otherwise is just wishing. If Brian and Ezra had been granted universal carriage on cable, we would be facing a more challenging situation but we are left with CBC News and CTV News and if both start covering conservative lies things will turn around.
nobody else is going to to do it for us .. We’re INDY .. we are the wind