News Covering: April 11, 2025 – April 17, 2025
I had an interesting week this week. With the impending Canadian election, I’ve spent a lot of time listening to political podcasts, as well as both the English and French debates. Every year my best friend and I play a game: Who can guess how many seats each party will win? We play this game for both the American and Canadian election (albeit that the American election is much easier), we also host debate nights where we watch political leaders spit key messages and hate on one another, what a fun night! We also sit back and watch the numbers roll in the night of the election too, after all, we have to see which one of us was closer right? In reality, it usually becomes a game of which one of us “did the least bad.”
If you are Canadian, please do go out and vote, and also, maybe guess some seats and watch the big screen on election night to see the results role in. It makes the election a little more lively and fun, and who says important things can’t also be a little fun?
I’m talking about this this week, because I rather conveniently had it listed that I wanted to review some terms from my old Research Methods textbook, and then when listening to a podcast about the election, I listened to Nik Nanos, from Nanos Research, explain how public opinion polling works. I highly recommend a listen if you have questions, or if that’s your jam. (The Decibel: Campaign Call: Debate prep and an inside look at polling).
Now for me, I’d just look to provide some pretty short definitions for a couple of terms when it comes to research methods, specifically quantitative research and qualitative research. Quantitative research is, well, numbers. It’s research that involves numerical data, often collected via surveys with close ended questions with two or more selections. Qualitative research is less numbers and more words, like interviews or focus groups, more open ended. Generally, we see them referred to as numbers vs words. But you can also have a mixed methods approach to research, which is a combination of both quantitative and qualitative methods. Now these are just the overarching terms within research methods, and there are oodles more, like samples, sampling types, population, and margin of errors, to name very few (and trust me, there are a LOT of terms), but I think that’s getting a little too complex. The reason I’m introducing these concepts is because I’m laying down a light foundation for future work and future posts. It’s like making a sandwich, I’ve got to get the bread down and the spread on before adding the meat, cheese, and of course lettuce.
I find if you have an understanding of how research works, and what makes good research you can appreciate the work that pollsters do for example. A lot of the work I’ll be doing over the next two years will rely heavily on public opinion data, voter intention, and voter turnout, in other words, a lot of quantitative research. My intent is to use a mixed methods approach as well, kind of similar to what we’ve been doing each week, breaking down various late-night show coverage. I’ll be reading articles, listening to podcasts, and maybe even conducting my own interviews too! I find the mixed methods approach allows you to find a more complete picture of the story, allowing you to, yes, collect numbers and data, but also perhaps get to the “why?” question for that data.
A few other things I’m up to and looking forward to:
- I’ve been listening to Rick Mercer’s Talking to Canadians, while I’m only a couple hours in I do highly recommend, as it’s already provided plenty of laughs.
- There’s also a report coming out about Press Freedom on April 30 from the Committee to Protect Journalists, which will likely be an interesting read.
With that, let’s take a look at what folks covered this week. With the caveat that Meyers was off this week, and I did not replace him (oops).
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
Episode 8 – Monday, April 14, 2025
Minor Story Mentions:
- Boris Johnson’s run in with an ostrich
- Education secretary discussing AI in school, calling it A1 rather than AI.
- A fish doorbell in the Netherlands (need I say more?).
Main Story – trump’s Tariffs:
- Trump suggesting those nervous in the stock market are PANICANs, “a new party based on Weak and Stupid people.”
- Trump pausing tariffs for 90 days, which Trump’s top trade representative didn’t even know about until it had happened.
- John Oliver stating “He’s right. Shit!” when it was explained that tariffs wouldn’t change behaviour of many poorer trading partners.
- Lutnick talking about how they shouldn’t tax mangoes because they can’t be grown in the US… but they ended up not being excluded from tariffs.
- The complexities of supply chains.
- JD Vance calling Chinese people “peasants.”
- Canadian Prime Minister, Mark Carney, stating that the global market has changed forever due to the tariffs.
- Republicans’ unwillingness to vote against Trump in congress.
Monday, April 14, 2025
Jon Stewart on Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s Deportation and How Trump Fails to Deliver | The Daily Show
Stewart covered:
- The continued case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, and the refusal to return him to the United States, as well as the willingness of the administration to send “home grown” criminals to El Salvador.
- Trump’s cabinet meeting where they were simply praising Trump.
“But the key to the authoritarian regime is the suspension of the normal processes by which you understand the world, the manner by which data and your experiences paint a cohesive, grounded picture of reality. The calling card of an authoritarian regime is that you must suspend that reality, that rationality. And then you test people by pushing the limits of that absurdity.” – Jon Stewart
- The release of Trump’s medical examination.
- Fox News’ Senior Medical Analyst, Marc Siegel, suggesting that sense of humour decreases stress, and that’s why Trump’s health is so good. It’s because he has a good sense of humour. “Sense of humour decreases stress that he has, everyone that knows the President, knows how funny he is. That decreases stress.”
- Right-wing media praising Trump, and him playing chess, or wait, 3-d chess, no no, 4-d chess, WAIT, 5-d chess.
- The suggestion of the GOP renaming an airport after trump, adding Trump to Mount Rushmore, making his birthday a holiday, and putting him on either a $100 bill or a new $250 bill.
Vance’s Fumble | Why Gayle Went To Space | Examining Trump’s Body | Bernchella
Colbert covered:
- Vance fumbling a trophy for the NCAA football championship.
- Blue Origin launching an all-female celebrity crew into space.
- The release of Trump’s health physical.
- Trump’s meeting with El Salvadorian president, Nayib Bukele.
- The arrest and deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. With both the trump administration and Bukele stating that it was in the hands of the other.
- Bernie Sander’s making a surprise appearance at Coachella.
Tuesday, April 15, 2025
Trump Defies SCOTUS, Sets Off Constitutional Crisis | “Homegrowns” Are Next | Harvard Pushes Back
Colbert covered:
- The arrest and deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, and how the Supreme Court has ordered the Trump administration to facilitate the return of Abrego Garcia from El Salvador. The administration is presently deifying the Supreme Court order.
- The administration is now saying that Abrego Garcia is a member of MS-13.
- Trump suggesting that the US send “homegrown” criminals to El Salvador.
- Harvard University refusing to obey the Trump administration’s demands to “shut down any programming related to diversity, equity, and inclusion… conduct plagiarism checks on all current and prospective faculty members… [and] report foreign students who commit conduct violations immediately to federal authorities.” To which the trump administration froze over $2 billion in funding to the school.
Wednesday, April 16, 2025
Trump vs. The Courts | El Presidente Targets “Homegrowns” | Iowa Seniors Turn On Sen. Grassley
Colbert covered:
- The significant drop in tourism to the United States.
- Federal judge finding probably cause to find the Trump administration in Criminal Contempt.
- Trump suggesting that they could send “homegrown” criminals to El Salvador.
- Republican town halls going poorly, with people confronting their representatives on Abrego Garcia.
- Trump intending to cut funding for NPR and PBS.
Thursday, April 17, 2025
Happy Easter And 4/20 | The Trump Whisperer | We Found Aliens! | Was Blue Origin Space Flight Faked?
Colbert covered:
- Trump’s meeting with Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni.
- The Food and Drug Administration possibly ceasing routine inspections and food facilities, and other programs.
- The National Weather Service intending to cut 300 employees.
- Astronomers detecting the possibility of life on a distant planet.
- A conspiracy theory suggesting that the Blue Origin space trip was faked.
And there you have it…
Another busy any chaotic week covered comedically.
Comedy Communications 