Driving.ca is anti-Tesla

Earlier, I wrote about one particular biased headline I’d found on driving.ca, a Canadian PostMedia web site. On further reading, driving.ca seems to have a considerable anti-Tesla bias. This is shown in their choice of headlines, their choice of stories, their comparisons of Tesla with other EVs and other brands.

Examples of Bias

1. Biased headline – Tesla to recall 135,000 vehicles under pressure from safety regulators. But other brnds had the same recall (for possible issues with the touchscreen), and Tesla initiated the recall the day they got the notice. Why single out Tesla in the headline? Why suggest they had to be “pressured” to do the recall?
2. Excluded from a story about Canada’s 10 best-selling luxury vehicles in 2020 “Tesla sold more than 11,000 Model 3s in Canada in 2020, more than enough to make it the number-one vehicle on this list. But because we don’t get reliable, quarterly, market-specific sales figures from Tesla, we’ve left it off the list.“ Yes, you read that right. Even though “Model 3 is a high-volume vehicle that undoubtedly earns a spot somewhere in the top 10, almost certainly at or near the top,” they deliberately chose to ignore it.
3. Focus on Tesla negative: The new Jeep Wagoneer, a Tesla driveway fire, and more. Yep, let’s report the Tesla that burned.
4. Selective reporting – Google “car spontaneous combustion” and you’ll find stories about a Toyota, a Porsche, a Chevy Bolt EV, and 1.4 million Toyotas and Kias recalled for risk of spontaneous combustion! Search driving.ca for the same words and you start to see a pattern:
   • Exploding Kona in Montreal prompts investigation by Hyundai
   • Tesla is (literally) going up in flames
   • ‘Aladdin’ star sues Tesla after he claims wheel flew off car
   • Tesla sales stall, a Model S catches fire, and what to make of Rivian

Not every story about Tesla in driving.ca is negative, but enough of them are that the bias becomes clear.