In this episode of The National Telegraph, Wyatt talks about a story about a CBC journalist having a meltdown at a press conference, and why it's really not a big deal. Listen to find out what happened, and if you like it, please consider becoming a supporter of the channel by becoming a patron.
00:00:00.040Hey guys, Wyatt Claypool here, and welcome back to the National Telegraph YouTube channel.
00:00:06.640Yes, I finally did go get that haircut I've been talking about for a while.
00:00:11.220I'm feeling refreshed, feeling breezier today, and for that reason we are going to talk about
00:00:17.200a fun story in Canadian politics, or at least a story that I consider fun.
00:00:22.680We're going to talk about a CBC journalist having a meltdown.
00:00:25.660Hopefully you agree that that is a fun story.
00:00:28.320Oh, the entitlement that giving a news organization $1.5 billion of taxpayer money fosters in a group of people.
00:00:38.220They are entitled, apparently, to a question at every single press conference.
00:00:44.320Kira Polyev and the conservative team didn't give a CBC journalist a question, and she crashed out, and it's on recording.
00:00:52.060So we are about to get to that video in just a second here.
00:00:55.700this is the image of how it starts out right now. You can already tell she's pointing at herself
00:01:00.960with that don't you know who I am energy. But before we get to it, I just want to remind you
00:01:05.960guys, if you like the channel, make sure to leave a like on this video. Subscribe if you are not yet
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00:01:21.940mobile and consider hitting the join button and becoming a member of the channel, making a small
00:01:27.480contribution each month to make the channel more sustainable for me. So to give you a little bit of
00:01:33.340prep, and I'm getting this from the Western Standard article that I believe Alex Zoltan
00:01:37.540ended up writing. So this reporter who is wearing purple here is named Caroline Bargut, and she is
00:01:45.500accusing Polyev and his team of basically sidestepping her at the press conference
00:01:51.800because they didn't want a question from the CBC. Now, if I was Polyev's team, I would actually just
00:01:57.860actively ignore the CBC all the time. We already have to give them our taxpayer money. We shouldn't
00:02:02.960also have to give them questions as well whenever they want them. But this is a press conference.
00:02:07.920You can already see it behind her. There's a lot of people here. Those are not conservative staff
00:02:12.480members. Now, some of them are security, some of them might be staff members, but a whole lot of
00:02:16.600those people are the journalists who are still there a few minutes after the press conference.
00:02:21.680From reports on the ground from Al-Gazoltan, there was like 14 different reporters there,
00:02:27.040each probably wanting to ask two or three questions. Now, party leaders or just politicians
00:02:33.340in general, whenever they do a press conference, they don't usually go for dozens and dozens of
00:02:38.100questions. They'll pick a handful of people, have one question, sometimes a follow-up, and that's
00:02:43.680it. You know, people got lives to live and they got places to be. The CBC, I shouldn't have to
00:02:48.760tell you, gets questions all the time at this stuff. And instead of letting the CBC have a
00:02:54.420question, Polyev let independent media have some questions. There are some mainstream media who
00:02:59.180got questions too, but you know, David Brett at the New Westminster Times, who in fact is the
00:03:04.260person who shot this video, and I will be linking him in the description below, he got to ask a
00:03:09.220question. It was a really good one that he asked. But apparently to Caroline Burgot, this is an
00:03:14.260affront to her and her God that she does not get to actually ask probably a sneering question to
00:03:20.200Pierre Polyev. I came all the way out here and I don't get to ask a question. Why do you let scum
00:03:25.580in front of me ask questions and not point at me? So now you're going to watch this whole thing
00:03:31.320play out. It's a minute and a half here. Did anybody see that? We all saw that. You
00:03:37.140intentionally refused to take my question. You don't even know what my question was.
00:03:42.140Was that a direction from Mr. Polyev or was that your own? No, there's clearly a direction. You
00:03:48.580refused to let me ask a question because I work for the CDC. Why is that? Then why didn't you let
00:03:55.580me ask my question? I was first in line. I kept telling you I'd like to ask a question and you
00:04:01.000intentionally went around should be a little bit better I would say that that might have helped
00:04:04.360that maybe you could tell me why you would not let me ask a question is that are you picking and
00:04:09.880choosing which outlets are allowed to ask questions well of course they're going to pick and choose
00:04:15.920who asks questions there's no like default seniority order where the CBC always gets to
00:04:21.640ask a question first and from the sounds of it there was not really like a lineup at most press
00:04:27.100conferences. I've been at tons of them at the BC legislature and elsewhere. Usually you get a bit
00:04:32.140of a horseshoe of journalists around the podium where the politician is speaking and whoever's
00:04:37.400behind him. In this case is Pierre Polyev and a few conservative MPs behind him. After they were
00:04:43.280done their opening remarks, it went to the journalists. And usually it's people being
00:04:46.900able to raise their fingers and say, like, you know, indicate they want a question. Someone
00:04:50.300will point at them, whether it's the politician themselves or their staff members. There's no,
00:04:55.980there's no like you know little car ticketing system where this where like she's declared that
00:05:01.040she's going to get the first question and then that's what's going to happen it's just embarrassing
00:05:05.000because do you really think i know that polyam and the team probably don't like the cbc no rational
00:05:10.760person does but they take cbc questions all the time he appears on cbc shows himself he'll appear
00:05:18.580on the show rosemary barton has multiple times he's not scared of a question from the cbc he got
00:05:25.380tough questions david barrett from the new uh from the new westminster times asked a good question
00:05:31.220even though he's a more conservative guy he asked a pretty hard-hitting question and she's mad really
00:05:37.120just because she thinks that somehow all these independent media people should be subservient
00:05:42.420uh to the cbc they should the cbc should go in there be able to do whatever they want and then
00:05:47.920the scraps are maybe left for the independent media afterwards and i can only take a certain
00:05:52.800You told us to line up, sir. I lined up. I followed your rules. And then I asked you if I could ask the question. I wasn't shouting into it. I wasn't shouting into it. You were standing right beside me. Thank you. I was polite and I was respectful and I had a very respectful question and I don't understand. I am shocked. Nobody is respectful. Thank you. I appreciate that.
00:06:22.800yeah this has never happened before you didn't get a question this has never happened before
00:06:31.600that's the problem you shouldn't always get a question do you think juno news always gets
00:06:36.680questioned rebel news like new westminster times western standard do you think they all always get
00:06:41.840a question no alex zoltan who's worked for both juno and now the western standard says he's been
00:06:48.260press conferences with conservative politicians friendly to his outlet and sometimes he still
00:06:53.700doesn't get a question it's just how the cookie crumbles sometimes and she can't handle it
00:07:00.180but i didn't want to talk to you i wanted to ask the leader of the conservative party
00:07:03.540a question okay and some other legacy media journals were like no she was very respectful
00:07:19.140she's obviously not being respectful now it's just how it works out sometimes there are 12
00:07:24.260to 14 different reporters there there's going to be six questions asked so if you do the math
00:07:29.620at the very least it's a 50 50 that you're going to be able to ask a question if not worse but
00:07:35.060she's from the cbc and so of course she should be able to get a question now i just want to you can
00:07:39.940here's another angle of it if you want to kind of see the attitude here this is from alex zoltan at
00:07:44.420the western standards own phone first video is from david brett at new westminster intentionally
00:07:50.340refused to take my question yes you did did anybody see that we all saw that you intentionally
00:07:58.180refused to take my question you don't even know what my question was was that a direction from
00:08:04.500mr polyev or we got your own no there's clearly a direction you refused well that's a stupid
00:08:10.500question i was like is this a direction coming from mr polyev or something you chose to do
00:08:14.260and he's like there's no direction and you know we're just choosing questions as we go and she's
00:08:18.100She's like, no, no, there is a direction. Apparently, the CBC is not biased, but a CBC
00:08:23.640reporter knows when there is bias in the question-selecting process. Now, I want to jump over
00:08:28.860now to a different CBC moment here where people were pointing out, quite rightfully so, the CBC
00:08:35.600seems oddly giddy about the floor crossing of Marilyn Gladue to the Liberal Party. This is a
00:08:43.020great segment clipped by CBC Watcher. And again, just notice the attitude of CBC reporters
00:08:49.380reporting on Marilyn Gladju coming over. There's a strange gleefulness to the news that they are
00:08:55.180reporting, where if it happened in reverse, it would be dour. It'd be very serious. Why did this
00:09:00.280person leave? We need to follow up and ask questions. They kind of asked questions to
00:09:04.920Marilyn Gladju at a press conference yesterday. They weren't that difficult. You know, they were
00:09:09.820pretty straightforward questions and she completely fell on her face. Watch them never follow up with
00:09:14.020her in the future, just as they have with Chris Dontremont, Michael Ma, Matt Jenneru, Laurie
00:09:19.300Idlout, and now Marilyn Gladju. They're going to ask questions for about a week and then it's going
00:09:24.440to dissipate. And they'll just keep being these implications. Oh, this proves that Polyev's
00:09:29.400leadership's on shaky ground. Now, I'm not saying that Polyev's leadership is on rock solid ground.
00:09:35.360Obviously, you don't like losing people, but we keep hearing, oh, this is a reflection on Polyev's
00:09:39.800leadership style. Okay, well, how about we have one of the floor crossers come out and tell us
00:09:44.480what about poly have caused them to leave? Because none of them have actually come out and explained
00:09:48.400it yet. It's almost like if they told the whole story, they would not look like heroes. But here
00:09:54.100is this segment from CBC News at the Liberal Convention. Three by-elections on Monday could
00:09:59.900tip the balance of power inside the House of Commons. Liberals are keenly aware of that. They
00:10:04.980can talk of little else at their party convention in Montreal. Our Catherine Tunney is there.
00:10:09.920She joins us now live. So Cat Liberals have a bit of a balancing act to maintain at this gathering
00:10:15.800as they are just one seat shy of a majority that could come to them on Monday, maybe sooner if
00:10:23.020there's another floor crossing, who knows? But what's the mood like? Yeah, well, you know,
00:10:28.860right? Lots of laughter, lots of, you know, high spirits here in this room and in the
00:10:34.820hallway. And that's because, as you say, I think, you know, they can almost taste that
00:10:38.820majority government. They, of course, gathered here in downtown Montreal the day after Marilyn
00:10:44.180Cladieu announced that she was leaving the Conservative benches to come join the Liberals.
00:10:48.520And of course, this whole gathering happens just days, almost hours until those by-elections
00:10:54.740on monday those three crucial by elections so uh you know while there clearly are lots of things
00:11:00.540going on in in the world inside this room it's you know spirits are are pretty high lots of laughter
00:11:07.040lots of jokes um including this one from the conservative mp who kind of started this whole
00:11:12.000floor crossing trend sorry like the reporting of the general details is fine here but do you notice
00:11:19.180an attitude difference when the cbc is talking about conservatives especially when they're not
00:11:23.380given a question at a conservative press conference. And the way the reporters on the CBC
00:11:28.080joke around, have a levity to the way they talk about the liberals doing well in politics. Oh,
00:11:33.340they're probably going to secure these by-elections. Oh, everyone's having a great time.
00:11:37.360There's lots of jokes and laughter and levity. And now let's jump over to Chris Dontremont,
00:11:42.700who the CBC has still never actually asked to justify why he crossed the floor. It's just
00:11:46.720one of those assumed things that Paulie of bad, and that's why he left, even though he's never
00:11:51.340actually told the story. I've been trying a couple of different lines as I've been speaking to folks
00:11:58.780in the foyer and as we've been going to different events today. So I don't know whether to introduce
00:12:03.680myself as a recovering conservative or just that I was a liberal and I didn't know it.
00:12:12.980So you guys tell me, give me some feedback later of what that should be.
00:12:16.520so a little taste of kind of the jabs that are going on by the way did any of this coverage
00:12:25.980follow the the federal conservative convention did was there like a lot of like highlighting
00:12:32.380all the levity and people joking around or or playing clips of jasmine lane making jokes about
00:12:38.280the liberals when she made a speech on the stage there's none of that here that's the thing that's
00:12:42.680so frustrating about all this there's so clearly a double standard going on where the the press
00:12:48.980kind of always likes to highlight the positives the silver lining the fun going on to liberal one
00:12:53.580when they cover the conservatives all intense poly of in a stable position his leadership
00:12:59.560is going to prove himself to conservative members is he going to be able to do it is there a split
00:13:03.920in the party at the liberal convention it's just there's not very many questions even about the
00:13:08.240fact that is this good that he's basically upending democracy by having background negotiations to try
00:13:14.200and get a majority government that Canadians did not give him? No, no, it's just it's just assumed
00:13:18.400that this is a positive political story with no implications at all. No questions needing to be
00:13:22.380asked. Here, as I mentioned, Chris Donderman was the first MP to cross the floor. There are now
00:13:27.560five of them in total. And to do some quick math, you know, that brings them up to 171 MPs,
00:13:33.660one shy of a majority government, a technical majority government, although clearly MPs here
00:13:39.460are looking for to add more, to get some more breathing room in the House of Commons, because
00:13:44.560a majority government isn't just about bragging rights, although I'm sure liberals will be very
00:13:48.960happy, you know, if they get one on Monday. But there are some important things that would change
00:13:54.300in the House, you know, the speed at which bills... So now I just want to jump now to another part of
00:13:58.840this segment to, again, give you a little more flavoring of just what, you know, again, trying
00:14:04.000to spin this whole thing as normal. There's nothing wrong with floor crossings if you're a CBC viewer
00:14:08.660at home. This is just how the democracy works. This is just boldly okay. Above board. No questions
00:14:14.520to be asked, as I am saying. These people were just, they were always liberal. Oh, it's just
00:14:19.580that they really liked how nice Mark Carney's suit was, and so they joined. Oh, well, in Marilyn
00:14:25.760glad you's case she was always she was always pro-choice even as she was super pro-life before
00:14:30.960she was always this way like shouldn't this and this is really the thing how there is such a
00:14:37.360dereliction of duty in the legacy media when it comes to these floor crossings there are they're
00:14:41.920not hounding these politicians to actually give non-boiler plate answers for why they joined all
00:14:46.720the answers are basically like if you ask one of these floor crossers why they left they're like
00:14:50.640uh mark harney is is the leader we need right now it's like what does that mean that means
00:14:57.780literally nothing uh but here's that cbc segment uh justifying the floor crossings
00:15:03.040so interesting perspective about from someone who knows exactly what it's like to work with
00:15:09.260the other parties and try to get things through in a minority um government especially that word
00:15:14.520she mentioned it a stability we've heard that over and over this would give us stability this
00:15:18.000would give us stability and I think some breathing room,
00:15:21.180especially, you know, depending on where politics might go
00:15:25.960Is there, though, Kat, a political risk that comes with a majority
00:15:29.960one through floor crossings versus at the ballot box?
00:15:33.100This is a question that people have been asking.
00:15:37.480Yeah, I think Conservative leader Pierre Paliyev
00:15:39.980would like to see a risk for Prime Minister Mark Carney
00:15:44.060and would like to see perhaps, you know, some accountability there.
00:15:47.880he was pushing you know this idea that we hear often when floor cross when a floor crossing
00:15:52.060happens that you know mp should go run for a by-election and said we took that question to
00:15:56.540a lot of people here out on the floor and you know perhaps because we're at a very very partisan
00:16:01.740um event no one seemed too bothered by that question you know what is this coverage like
00:16:08.620she even just admitted right there well we walked around the convention hall and it's a super
00:16:12.340partisan liberal event but no one was that bothered i'm like almost like you're at the
00:16:16.400liberal convention but when when the host brought up well could this be a political risk for mark
00:16:21.940carney that this maybe looks sleazy and by the way there's polling to back that up polling shows
00:16:26.260people even the kind of casual liberal voter actually does kind of find this slightly gross
00:16:32.320there was this one cbc segment where they went to the sarnia lamb did riding and pretty much
00:16:37.420everyone was against it the only person who's in favor of it was obviously a federal liberal
00:16:42.680supporter from 2025 saying oh well you know it's good that she uh did this because trump it was
00:16:48.940basically that shallow uh because carney is the leader we need and we need to stand up to trump
00:16:54.040as if somehow you were not standing up to trump if you're part of the conservative side and that
00:16:58.700is a narrative that the media wants to platform the idea that liberals are like the standing up
00:17:03.740for canada party and the conservatives are something else you fill in the blanks but like
00:17:08.480Again, she brings up as soon as the idea of is this a political risk for the prime minister based on potential backlash, how sleazy this feels, immediately what she said, if you noticed, was, well, pure poly of all want it to be a political risk.
00:17:22.780And then she uses some counterfactual counter evidence, counterfactual evidence.
00:17:36.220you're supposedly a reporter and analyst in one, have a thought. Not a dismissive answer that
00:17:43.080indicates the CBC viewer, unless you're that pro-Trump puppet Pierre Polyev, you shouldn't
00:17:50.640think this is a risk. It's the framing that makes me hate the CBC. Technically, a lot of the
00:17:56.800information they tell you is accurate. It's the spin, it's what's left out, and it's this kind of
00:18:02.540eye-rolling framing that they use to try and indicate to the viewer that you're supposed to
00:18:07.920take the liberal side like anyone who watches the cbc and thinks they're like a smarter political
00:18:12.820watcher because of it is like falling for the most obvious like psyop on the planet and when i say
00:18:20.020that i mean it like a literal sense psychologically they are trying to get you to roll have your
00:18:25.780marble roll into the liberal hole and if they just told you to vote liberal in a certain sense i think
00:18:31.520a lot of people would chafe against that. They would realize that doesn't feel like fair play
00:18:34.520from the CBC, and they may actually do the opposite vote conservative. What the CBC does,
00:18:38.540because they're somewhat smart, is that they just kind of arrange a bunch of puzzle pieces for you
00:18:42.920in the most, you know, not together. They don't put the puzzle pieces together for you at the
00:18:46.860conclusion they want you to come to. They just kind of leave them right next to you. And it's
00:18:51.200like, oh, well, just come up with what do you, how do you think those puzzle pieces go together?
00:18:55.640And like the pieces pretty much only go together in the way that the CBC wants you to. The very
00:19:01.500Variations, at best, are like mildly conservative.
00:19:04.620If you're already conservative, you can kind of maybe like deduce the information from the liberal reporting and still come to a conservative conclusion.
00:19:12.020But for the vast majority of people, they think they're smart because, oh, wow, the CBC told me a bunch of facts and I stuck them together and I came to a pro-carny, pro-liberal conclusion.
00:19:21.200It's like it's almost like that's what you're meant to do.
00:19:23.600They're never going to tell you to come to the pro-liberal conclusion, but the puzzle pieces are like almost together.
00:19:28.220and then you'll put it together as a viewer
00:19:57.720Eric Grenier obviously we see him a lot on CBC you know about this question and he said you know
00:20:03.160yes while polls show that Canadians don't love this practice of floor crossing it isn't Mark
00:20:09.480Carney who's being punished by it take a listen we do see in polls that Canadians say they don't
00:20:15.960really like floor crossing but we also see from the same polling that people thought that the
00:20:21.160recent flow of floor crossers looked good for Carney looked bad for Polia and we also see that
00:20:27.560But in elections, voters rarely punish floor crossers, especially when they're crossing to another party that is also in contention for a seat.
00:20:36.080So while we do see in polling that people don't really like the idea of it, I'm not sure that we actually see that it actually has any impact on support for the parties or any real implications when it comes to actually voting in an election.