The Apple Interview: Pierre Poilievre Makes The Media Party Crazy
“You don’t pull on Superman’s cape. You don’t spit into the wind. You don’t pull the mask off the old Lone Ranger. And you don’t mess around with Jim.”— Jim Croce
In modern five-second sound-bite journalism viewers seldom hear the reporter’s question (often it’s just an assertion) that prompted the clip. Whether a cornered politician or a humbled athlete, the game’s the same. Get a clip, score a click. So gotcha’ journalists rarely are exposed for the inadequate job of news-generating they often do with their closed-end, cliché-riddled efforts.
(Everything we know on the subject of interviewing we owe to the brilliant John Sawatsky who for decades has coached proper interview techniques— all of them ignored by the subject of this column.)
The job in gotcha' journalism is to draw blood and win the applause of your peers. This goes for right-wing journalists, too. But mainstream media is saturated by left-wing, progressive water carriers, so the overwhelming army of CBC insinuators and Toronto Star whaddabout’ scribes have a disproportionate effect on the issues. Seeing as how they only talk among themselves they can’t imagine a parallel universe where PMJT is not a benificent, wise leader.
To wit: the apple exchange gone viral between CPC leader Pierre Poilievre and Don Urquhart, editor of the Kelowna Times Chronicle. Mr. Urqhart went hunting for a big game with the CPC leader and wound up the main dish himself. Here’s the tale of the tape:
URQUHART: Uhmm, on the topic, I mean, in terms of your, sort of, strategy currently, you’re obviously taking the populist pathway …
POILIEVRE: What does that mean?
URQUHART: (nervous chuckle) Well, appealing to people’s more emotional levels, I would guess —
POILIEVRE: Whaddaya mean by that? Give me an example.
URQUHART: Certainly you, certainly you tap, ah, very strong ideological language quite frequently.
POILIEVRE: Like what?
URQUHART: Uhh, left wing, y’know, this and that, right-wing, they, you know, I mean, it’s that type of (unintelligible) —
POILIEVRE: I almost never talk about — I never really talk about left or right. I don’t really believe in that.
URQUHART: A lot of people would say that you’re simply taking a page out of the Donald Trump, uh, book —
POILIEVRE: A lot of people? Like which people would say that? (puzzled chomp)
URQUHART: Well, I’m sure — a great many Canadians, but …
POILIEVRE: Like who?
URQUHART: Haha, uh, I don’t know who, but …
POILIEVRE: Well, you’re the one who asked the question, so you must know somebody.
URQUHART: He-
heh, okay, I’m, I’m sure there’s some out there, but anyways, the point of this question is, why should, why should Canadians trust you with their vote, given … y’know … not, not just the sort of ideological inclination in terms of taking the page out of Donald Trump’s book, but, also —
POILIEVRE: (incredulous) What are you talking about? What page? What page? Can you gimme a page? Gimme the page. You keep saying that …
URQUHART: In terms of, in terms of turning things quite dramatically, in terms of, of Trudeau, and, and the left wing, and all of this, you make quite a, you know, it’s, it’s quite a play that you make on it. So. I’m. Just wondering…
It continued on this way for a short while longer when a dazed Urquhart finally ran out of PMJT talking points to hurl at Poilievre, and Poilievre moved on. It was cold. It was spontaneous. Like the making of sausage, it was something the public rarely sees.
A clip of the interview was quickly shared by Poilievre’s comms team. “How do you like them apples?” was the caption on Poilievre’s post. Within days the interview had gone global, a rebuke around the globe for earnest-but-inept Jimmy Olsens and Lois Lanes of the liberal press corps. Conservatives cheered. “Can we get him in our country?” asked U.S. podcaster Meagan Kelly.
In the friendly confines of liberal 416/613 media, however, Poilievre was quickly labelled a bully for exposing one of their fellow travellers. In the Globe & Mail Shannon Proudfoot played the sad trombone for Urquhart, declaring it bad form for Poilievre to not assist a guy who was looking to skewer him.
Proudfoot’s moist G&M colleague André Picard also mounted the “punching-down” defence. “Getting to the core of @PierrePoilievre’s biting B.C. interview. Kicking a journalist in the shins over and over then turning the exchange into a social-media flex is telling on yourself…” Venerable CBC panelist/ Star columnist Chantal Hébert (who should know better) echoed the pauvre p’tit take about Urquhart. “Agreed”.
Naturally the sob-sister line brought huzzahs from the wettest wet in Wet Town, Bruce Arthur of the Star. He embraced the bully pose even as he bullied Poilievre. “Kick-ass piece. “Making yourself a far-right hero by crapping on a small-town reporter is petty, and pathetic.” (So’s he defending someone who just disgraced his profession? Have we got that straight?)
Former Edmonton journalist Bill Doscoch also defended the indefensible. @billdinYEG “Picking on a local reporter when you're a national political leader is like pushing around a junior high student when you're a high school senior. It was great entertainment for mean-minded conservatives, but telling for the rest of us.”
There were plenty more crying towels for Uquhart from the usual suspects. All ending with predictable Trumpian screeds against the UPC leader going after a small-fry in the hinterlands. What they spackled over is that Urquhart was the adult editor of the paper, not an errand boy out of J-School. He went looking for a home run on the national, not local stage. He’d have scored a national scoop if Poilievre hadn’t schooled him.
Instead he struck out on three straight fastballs. He was neither innocent. Nor was he prepared to do his job. But he cashed in his Pity Party points to win sympathy from the fainting goats of the left— who normally remind us that journalism is a blood sport.
If CPC comms folks had tried to stage an episode to expose the herding instincts of Canada’s cloistered legacy media trying to stay relevant on the public purse, this was it. 1) Assumption that his back was protected if he just used approved “far-right-wing” buzzwords 2) Assumption that everyone hates PP already. 3) Incompetence tolerated by corrupted, failed outlets. 4) Truth its dependent on what jersey you wear. 5) Lather, rinse, repeat.
Unsurprisingly, Urquhart himself thought he’d done a swell job. When time came to write up his fateful orchard convo, he had his own self-serving take. “When asked why Canadians should trust him with their votes given his demonstrable track record of flip-flopping on key issues and what some consider his use of polarizing ideologically-infused rhetoric suggesting he simply takes pages out of the Donald Trump populist playbook, Poilievre became acerbic.”
No, Don he ate an apple. Proving he learned nothing and will pollute younger journalists with this bilge. So it’s no shock that recent polling contains what should be a surprise— but isn’t. Despite a decade of Justin Trudeau the abysmal-polling Liberals are still expected to win 90 seats of the 335 seats in parliament. That speaks volumes on the loyalty of his base.
A base that still sees Poilievre’s “polarizing ideologically-infused rhetoric”— in Urquhart’s infelicitous description— as a right-wing Trumpian intrusion into Trudeaupia . And will use any means— even their own professional failure.— to protect their jobs and worldview.
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Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada's top television sports broadcaster, he’s a regular contributor to Sirius XM Canada Talks Ch. 167. Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History, his new book with his son Evan, was voted the seventh-best professional hockey book of all time by bookauthority.org . His 2004 book Money Players was voted sixth best on the same list, and is available via http://brucedowbigginbooks.ca/book-personalaccount.aspx