Bob McCoskrie: A masterclass in media training

The leader of the Conservative party in Canada Pierre Poilievre (pull-ee-ev) gave a masterclass on how to handle left-wing journalists recently. The video went viral – for good reason. And he eats an apple while he’s doing it. If you ever have to deal with the mainstream media, check this out.

Pierre Poilievre is the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada who’s currently the leading the polls to be the next Canadian prime minister – yep, to hopefully replace the awful Justin Trudeau.

Pierre was eating his fruit, standing outdoors, when a Vancouver-based reporter Don Urquhart interviewed him.

In the video, Urquhart asks Pierre about his populist approach, but each time he tries to get a foothold on the question, Pierre sails in with a cross-check: What does populism mean? Who says I’m taking a page out of Donald Trump’s book? And which page, anyway?

He does all of this while eating an apple, which suggests an extra level of contempt for the person he’s talking to.

Once he puts the reporter on the back foot, he gets a simple question – the one the interviewer should have started with – and Pierre gives a perfect answer.

So have a watch of the interview. Note how everytime the interviewer asks a question with a loaded term like “populist” or “emotional levels” or “ideological language” “right wing” “Donald Trump” “a lot of people” “page out of donald trump” “make a play”

Do you see what he does. Whenever the interviewer doesn’t just ask a question but basically labels Pierre with loaded terms and puts in his own opinion during the question, Pierre simply asks him to define the question. Define the terms.

Here’s the lesson. Never accept the labels that people put on you – unless they’re true of course. And then affirm them.

If you’re in a media interview, listen carefully to the question and if there’s a loaded term, immediately ask for a definition. What do you mean by TERF? What does that mean? What do you mean by bigoted? What does fundamentalism mean? Define disinformation? Define right wing? How do you define extremism? Define transphobic.

They generally don’t know. They’re simply trying to load a perception of you for the benefit of their audience.

According to media reports

Following the interview, Don Urquhart wrote up his experience with the politician and said that ‘Poilievre became acerbic’ when he asked him questions about his Trumpian ‘populist playbook.’

Yep – correct. Have a look at the article that Urquhart wrote. The interviewer that you just watched wrote this:

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. Ultimately the answer was: “Common sense.”

Currently, most opinion polls show Justin Trudeau significantly trailing his newest rival, Conservative leader Poilievre. Last month, the Conservatives led the Liberals 39 percent to 30 percent, according to a poll. Some 60 percent of Canadians want Trudeau to step down to allow Liberal Party members to pick a new leader.

Meanwhile, Poilievre is building his own narrative with TV ads portraying him as a family man.

Aside from the excellent media training this politician gives for dealing with left wing woke media, he deserves a medal because anyone who may remove Trudeau from his castle deserves all the encouragement we can give him. And on a family platform – even better.

But there is your media training for the day. In fact, next time you watch the news, or watch a political interview, listen for the loaded terms in the questions. You’ll be surprised just how many are there that you were never aware of.

Bob McCoskrie is the National Director of Family First New Zealand, he has a Masters of Commerce with Honours from the University of Auckland and a Diploma of Teaching from the Auckland College of Education. He posts regularly on McBlog - Where this article was sourced.