{"id":3129,"date":"2023-10-28T21:39:13","date_gmt":"2023-10-28T21:39:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.formac.ca\/starrspoint\/?p=3129"},"modified":"2023-10-28T21:39:14","modified_gmt":"2023-10-28T21:39:14","slug":"poilievres-apple-eating-act-and-the-threat-to-the-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.formac.ca\/starrspoint\/2023\/10\/28\/poilievres-apple-eating-act-and-the-threat-to-the-media\/","title":{"rendered":"Poilievre’s apple-eating act and the threat to the media"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Poilievre Conservatives have made attacks on the \u201cmainstream media\u201d a central element in their corrosive quest for power. On their enemies list, news organizations rank high, not far behind their main nemeses, Justin Trudeau and the carbon tax.Poilievre recently took his grudge against journalism up a notch when he bushwhacked Don Urquhart, editor of the Times Chronicle<\/em>, a community newspaper serving British Columbia\u2019s Southern Okanagan Valley.  In case you missed it, here is what took place. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interviewed in an orchard, Poilievre  munched on an apple while petulantly challenging the premise of interviewer Urquhart\u2019s questions about his populist, divisive approach to politics. Asked about his use of ideological language, the guy who routinely hurls slurs like \u201cwoke coalition,\u201d \u201cMarxist government\u201d and  \u201cradical leftist authoritarian agenda\u201d at the Liberals and the NDP took umbrage, denying that he ever frames things in terms of left and right. As for Urquhart’s claim he was \u201ctaking a page out of the Donald Trump book\u201d Poilievre responded indignantly: \u201cWhat are you talking about? What page? Give me a page.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The exchange was part of a longer interview and Poilievre\u2019s political style was barely mentioned in Urquhart\u2019s subsequent report, a generally positive piece about speeding up licensing of immigrant physicians. But the interview was recorded and posted by Poilievre\u2019s aides. The apple munching exchange was seized upon by right wing media around the world, hailing Poilievre as a hero for, as the London Daily Mail<\/em> put it, \u201ccalmly tearing down a reporter.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contrary to what Poilievre\u2019s right wing fans believe, the incident was far from a takedown of  the big bad \u201cmainstream media\u201d by a scrappy opposition politician. Au contraire.<\/em> As he has demonstrated, Poilievre is leery of most members of the mainstream media he encounters in Ottawa and does his best to avoid scrums with members of the parliamentary press gallery.  What his admirers actually saw in the Okanagan Valley orchard was bullying by a powerful politician of an over-worked small town reporter, struggling with limited resources to keep his community informed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Shannon Proudfoot wrote in the Globe and Mail<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Poilievre is free to reject the premise of the question and deploy all of his considerable rhetorical talents to dispute it, because that\u2019s the way this works. But kicking a journalist in the shins over and over to throw them of balance so you can run away, then turning the exchange into a social-media flex is telling on yourself.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Media not hostile<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As well as boosting Poilievre\u2019s profile with the likes of Fox News and Australia\u2019s Sky TV, the stunt was also useful for stoking the Conservative base in Canada. Circulated with the tag line \u201cHow do You Like Them Apples\u201d the clip comes with a plea to  supporters to pony up so that the Conservatives can get their message to the public without having to go through the allegedly hostile mainstream media. It\u2019s a tactic the Conservatives have been using since the time of Stephen Harper, with the CBC frequently positioned as the target. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But like the apple orchard story the familiar narrative – that mainstream media present an obstacle to Conservative success – is like most of what we hear from the Conservatives, a half truth, at best. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In terms of coverage, the Conservatives have been the beneficiaries of the media\u2019s faithful recitation of the Trudeau government\u2019s shortcomings, which have been piling up after eight years in power. That\u2019s to be expected. But some of the coverage  – such as the reporting on Chinese election interference – has gone overboard, to the benefit of the Conservatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Making the Conservative pitch even more far-fetched is the actual structure of the mainstream media they rail against. The Conservative assault ignores the fact that a dominant player in the mainstream media is the proudly conservative Postmedia <\/em>chain of newspapers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In  his recently published book, The Postmedia Effect<\/em>, Mark Edge reports on an interview with Postmedia<\/em>\u2019s chief operating officer in which Andrew MacLeod describes the company\u2019s objective as reporting the news from a \u201cpro-free-market, smaller tax, smaller government perspective.\u201d Newspapers may be going the way of the horse-drawn carriage, but in most communities they still set the news agenda. And Postmedia,<\/em> with its sometimes biased reporting and its stable of right wing commentators, sits atop a newspaper chain the size of which is unprecedented.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company was started 25 years ago by the Trump-friendly Conrad Black, and has grown through the acquisition of the erstwhile liberal Southam chain and the right-wing Sun<\/em> tabloids. In addition to owning the Black-founded National Post<\/em> and the long established Financial Post<\/em>, Postmedia <\/em>has a virtual newspaper monopoly in Alberta (32 titles) and New Brunswick (10 titles). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now controlled by a U.S.-based hedge fund, Postmedia<\/em> is dominant in Ontario with 58 titles, including daily papers in Toronto, Ottawa, London, Windsor and Kingston. It also owns both major dailies in Vancouver and Saskatchewan, as well as the Montreal Gazette<\/em>. And in Atlantic Canada Postmedia<\/em> has extended its reach through Saltwire<\/em>, which has ditched the Canadian Press<\/em> in favour of Postmedia<\/em>\u2019s wire service to fill the pages of the Chronicle-Herald<\/em> and its newspapers in Cape Breton, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador. Postmedia <\/em>also has a presence in Manitoba, giving the conservative, small government, low-tax- loving chain influence from coast to coast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So unless Poilievre is biting the hand that feeds him – hold that thought – without Postmedia<\/em>, the mainstream media he fulminates against is a much slimmed-down entity. It would consist of couple of dailies in British Columbia, the Free Press<\/em> in Winnipeg, the Toronto Star <\/em>and its sister dailies in southern Ontario, the Globe and Mail<\/em> and the Canadian Press<\/em>, as well as the TV networks, including of course, the CBC. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So aside from the occasional allegedly “woke” journalist to be exploited in a B.C. apple orchard, that\u2019s what makes up the mainstream media. These are organizations which may have some  employees with leftist views but, unlike Postmedia<\/em> with its acknowledged conservative bias, they operate under the old standard of \u201cobjectivity.\u201d Objectiveness dictates that every story has two sides and that a reporter does not openly challenge either of those sides, no matter how bogus its claims – or in the case of Don Urquhart, regardless of the boorishness of an interviewee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, Poilievre and his party have been well served by this Postmedia<\/em>-less mainstream media simply doing its job. After all, It was the Globe and Mail<\/em> and Global-TV who led the charge on Chinese interference. Before that, it was the Globe and Mail <\/em>exposing the SNC-Lavalin scandal. As for the CBC – Poilievre reiterated in the orchard interview that he would cut  $1 billion from the federal budget by defunding it – it has been thorough and consistent  in its coverage of the ravages of inflation on food and shelter costs, adding daily to the notion that, as Poilievre would have it \u201ceverything is broken.\u201d   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Postmedia and the “bailout”<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Poilievre isn\u2019t about to acknowledge any of that. His quest to demonize the media even seems to run over allies like Postmedia<\/em>. The party\u2019s post-orchard fundraising pitch declared that \u201cthe media doesn\u2019t want Pierre to win. Because Pierre stands for common sense and freedom and the media prefers handouts, bailouts and more government control.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reference to handouts and bailouts concerns the Trudeau government\u2019s efforts to help the newspaper industry through measures such as the five-year $595 million tax credit introduced in 2019 to subsidize reporters\u2019 salaries and the recent and controversial Online News Act (Bill C-18). The latter is an attempt to force Meta and Google to pay for Canadian news carried on their platforms.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Poilievre has loudly opposed both the 2019 tax credits and C-18, even though Postmedia<\/em> has been one of the main recipients of the 2019 bailout and, as Marc Edge’s aforementioned book points out, a strong supporter of Bill C-18. It\u2019s supremely ironic that while attacking Trudeau for allegedly trying to buy positive media coverage through C-18 and the tax credit subsidies, Poilievre has been able to pose as a champion of media freedom even as a Poilievre-friendly media chain reaps benefits from those subsidies and is looking for more.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps it\u2019s all just a con – media bashing to keep the base happy and the donations flowing in. Maybe a Poilievre government – should that come about – would recognize who its friends are and continue to help Postmedia<\/em> and the newspaper industry. Instead of defunding the CBC they could decide to kill two birds with one stone – for example curtailing the CBC\u2019s on-line news presence leaving the field open to the newspapers. Instead of subsidies, newspapers would be able to improve their bottom lines by grabbing any ad revenue now going to CBC digital. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe Poilievre in power would stop well short of embracing the kind of rancour displayed by the growing ranks of authoritarians who embrace Trump\u2019s definition of the media as \u201cthe enemy of the people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But that can\u2019t be taken for granted. if we\u2019ve learned anything from the Trump nightmare it is that demagogues need to be taken at their word. Don\u2019t assume that once they\u2019ve lied and rabble-roused their way to power they will become house broken and revert to acceptable norms. As of now, some journalists and the news organizations they work for are being targeted by the Conservatives. That needs to be taken seriously by those in the mainstream media and their readers, viewers and listeners. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

-30-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Poilievre Conservatives have made attacks on the \u201cmainstream media\u201d a central element in their corrosive quest for power. On their enemies list, news organizations rank high, not far behind their main nemeses, Justin Trudeau and the carbon tax.Poilievre recently took his grudge against journalism up a notch when he bushwhacked Don Urquhart, editor of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1011,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[203],"class_list":["post-3129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-federal-politics","tag-media-bashing","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.formac.ca\/starrspoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.formac.ca\/starrspoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.formac.ca\/starrspoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.formac.ca\/starrspoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.formac.ca\/starrspoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3129"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.formac.ca\/starrspoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3129\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3135,"href":"https:\/\/www.formac.ca\/starrspoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3129\/revisions\/3135"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.formac.ca\/starrspoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.formac.ca\/starrspoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.formac.ca\/starrspoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.formac.ca\/starrspoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}