Justin Trudeau Is Deeply Divisive & Unpopular. So Why Doesn’t The Media Cover Him That Way?

By Spencer Fernando, exclusive to the National Citizens Coalition

Conservatives with far better poll numbers get covered far worse by the establishment press.

Let’s take a look at some poll numbers:

• 44.1% approve, 52.8% disapprove, -8.7 net approval
• 36% approve, 61% approve, -25% net approval
• 33% approve, 64% disapprove, - 31% net approval

Those are the approval ratings of three North American politicians.

Now, let’s consider what the media coverage of these politicians would be like if it was based upon their approval ratings.

Politician 1 would be considered ‘relatively popular,’ with a divided populace but a significant base of support.

Politician 2 would be considered as having a decent base of support, but clearly facing significant opposition.

Politician 3 would be considered even more unpopular than Politician 2. With nearly two-thirds of people opposing them, it would be obvious that Politician 3 has a popularity problem, especially considering that their popularity had declined precipitously over time.

In short, considering that all the politicians mentioned above are serving in democracies (and thus opinion polls are based on relatively freely-chosen opinions), we would expect politician 1 to get better coverage than politician 2, and politician 2 would get better coverage than politician 3.

But as you’ve probably guessed, that’s not how things have turned out:

Politician 1 with the 44.1% approval is Donald Trump.

Politician 2 with the 36% approval is Doug Ford.

And Politician 3 with the 33% approval is Justin Trudeau.

Yet, the coverage of these politicians doesn’t at all match their approval ratings.

Donald Trump is regularly covered as if he has zero political support in the US. Yet, whatever someone may think of him, it is simply a fact that he is more popular in the country he leads than Justin Trudeau is in the country he leads.

Doug Ford has been the subject of endless media stories on how ‘controversial’ and ‘unpopular’ he is. Many of those articles are now talking of how Ford is supposedly ruining the chances of the Federal Conservatives in Ontario.

Justin Trudeau – the least popular of the three – is almost never referred to as a ‘controversial’ or ‘unpopular’ leader in the establishment media. The media rarely calls him ‘divisive,’ rarely says the vast majority of Canadians disapprove of him, and rarely mentions that he is among the least popular leaders in the entire Western World.

Of the three leaders noted above, Justin Trudeau gets by far the best media coverage – even when he’s in the midst of scandal.

This reality raises a further question:

What would the approval ratings of these leaders be if they all got equally fair media coverage?

Doug Ford is more popular than Trudeau, even as the establishment press is stacked against him. Would his approval rating by 5 points higher with better coverage? 10 points higher? 15 points higher?

And what about Trudeau?

What if he faced the same kind of coverage that Doug Ford gets? Would his approval rating be 25%? Maybe it would be 20%. Or 15%. It would certainly be lower.

This is what many people are talking about when ‘media bias’ is brought up.

Having worked at university student newspapers in the past, I’ve seen that – while most people who go into the media truly believe they are unbiased – they tend to be left-wing to begin with (there are some exceptions of course). As a result, they are inherently more sympathetic to Liberal and left-wing politicians, and hostile (often unconsciously) towards Conservatives.

This leaks out into their coverage, and then gets weaponized by the elites and turned into a more deliberate attempt to suppress and silence conservatives.

This bias is also what is behind the attempt to control social media.

As more and more people have noticed the bias in the establishment press, a growing number of Canadians are sharing our opinions and bypassing the biased establishment media filter by using social networks to communicate.

As a result, the media is losing their power and authority, and the leftist elites are noticing how their useful media tool is not as powerful. The loss of that tool is a massive threat to the power of the elites themselves. So, they feel they must silence social media, while bailing out the biased establishment media.

It’s all about preserving power.

That’s why the issue of the totally divergent media coverage received by conservative politicians like Doug Ford compared to liberal politicians like Justin Trudeau is part and parcel of the battle against government control over social media, and the fight against the media bailout.

It’s a fight for democracy, freedom of speech, freedom of expression, and the core values of what a free nation is supposed to represent. And that fight must be won, otherwise Canada as we know it will be lost forever.

Spencer Fernando is one of the most popular and prolific political writers and independent journalists in Canada. He is an Election Fellow for the National Citizens Coalition. For more from Spencer, visit his website, and follow him on Facebook and Twitter. 

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