Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre talks to media on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Feb. 7, 2024.
Battles between politicians and journalists are often tedious and easily ignored. But perhaps no Canadian politician in recent memory has criticized, questioned and mocked members of the media and their employers with as much zeal as the Conservative leader. All politicians disagree from time to time with the way they're depicted by journalists. Any number of them have been vocal about it, publicly or privately. Sometimes their complaints have been justified.
The next month he reported that "the corporate media and established interests are spending a lot of time trying to stop me.", Poilievre wrote that "the media" were "no longer interested in even pretending to be unbiased. They want us to lose."Some of this no doubt speaks to those Conservatives who have long felt that "the media" leans to the left and tends to take a dim view of conservative ideas and perspectives.
In a democracy, no public institution is beyond question or criticism. Journalists, like all humans, are imperfect. But when a politician makes a concerted effort to disparage media coverage, it's fair to ask whether they're laying the rhetorical groundwork to dismiss any critical coverage, no matter how factual or accurate.One of Poilievre's first policy commitments was a promise to defund the CBC — a proposal that he says would save $1 billion.
The media industry in Canada and elsewhere has been struggling for years to deal with the challenges to its traditional business model brought on by the Internet.
Even among journalists, there is disagreement about the value and design of existing federal programs. Are there better or different ways to support the industry? Or is it simply not the place of government to do so?The other question that might be raised by Poilievre's attitude toward the media is how, as prime minister, he would approach other independent checks and balances.
Again, reasonable people can differ on the question of how, or how much, political leaders should criticize other institutions.
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