Topic of the Week: Smoke from Canadian Wildfires Affects the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic

Hundreds of wildfires in Canada have left portions of the United States covered in smoke. Last week, President Trump threatened to impose new tariffs on the country due to its “willful negligence” in not controlling or preventing the fires. Our analysts rated media coverage in our Topic of the Week.

Three articles from our content set were rated by our team to have a “middle” bias. The BBC lays out the facts about the wildfires and Trump’s reaction to the smoke blanketing portions of the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic. Analysts found the reporting to be comprehensive and detailed, placing it in the category of “mix of fact reporting and analysis.”

An article by USA Today also gives the facts about the fires and threatened tariffs but focuses on complaints by the U.S. that Canada is mismanaging its forests. It quotes from a letter to Canada sent by four Republican lawmakers in Michigan that says, “American lungs are paying the price for Canadian inaction, year after year.” It also quotes the premier of Ontario, who says his province “has repeatedly helped the U.S. with wildfires.” Analysts found the article to be a “mix of fact reporting and analysis.”

Salon focuses its reporting on President Trump’s reaction to the wildfires. Its article headline reads: “The latest thing Trump wants to stop at the border: smoke.” It quotes from Trump’s social media post threatening tariffs and discusses how an environmental concern has political implications. “Some problems can cross borders regardless of tariffs, political boundaries or enforcement measures. Wildfire smoke is one of them,” the article says. Analysts found the headline to be a bit negative toward Trump, but the reporting overall is a “mix of fact reporting and analysis” with a “middle” bias.

A video clip from the “Carl Higbie FRONTLINE” show on Newsmax earned a rating of “analysis” with a “strong right” bias. In the clip, host Lidia Curanaj interviews Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lee Zeldin, who criticizes Canada’s forest management, stating they should “engage in mitigation activities that prevent a fire from spreading in the first place.” He compares how Canada is fighting the fire to the Palisades fire in California last year. Zeldin says “because this isn’t the first time this is hitting Canada, there might be just less tolerance and more frustration from Americans.” Curanaj asks if the U.S. should sue Canada over this, and Zeldin replies that the most important thing right now is putting the fire out. This leading question by Curanaj and the video’s overall message of blaming Canada and defending Trump led to its bias rating to the right.

On the flip side, a video from TYT’s “The Damage Report” received a bias rating of “hyper-partisan left.” Host John Iadarola mocks Republican lawmakers who threaten Canada because of the smoke, calling their comments “stupid nationalistic jingoistic nonsense.” He says the Republican threats are not about the environment or air quality: “This is about Donald Trump deciding that we’re at war now with Canada and so all of them need to line up and find whatever stupid excuse they need to justify it.” Commentator Yasmin Kahn says Republicans can’t talk about the global warming that’s causing so many wildfires because they say “it’s all a hoax. But they can blame Canada as if they are doing this intentionally and then blowing their smoke down to us.” Iadarola agrees, telling Republicans that they “have no capacity to weather the climate that you’re contributing to creating. So maybe we should stop the problem before it gets even worse.” Analysts found the video to be an “insult-laden rant” that criticizes Republicans and climate change deniers. It earned a reliability rating of “unfair persuasion.”

The lowest-rated reporting from our content set came from an article by Daily Signal, which begins with this headline: “Americans Are Tired of Canada’s Forest Fire Smoke. It’s Time to Do Something About It.” Opinion writer Jarrett Stepman complains about health problems from the smoke, stating that “our snooty, supposedly climate-conscious neighbor up north can’t handle its business.” He agrees with Republican calls to punish Canada for the smoke: “Maybe it’s time for President Donald Trump to turn up the heat on Canada since it seems so lackadaisical in turning it down and putting it out.” He says the smoke is “downright dystopian. And no small matter for the quality of life in America. The toxic smoke is a huge hazard leading to all kinds of nasty health conditions, ER visits, and even a few deaths.” This statement led analysts to rate this article as “misleading” because there have been no deaths reported in the U.S. It earned a bias rating of “strong right” because Stepman chides “the Left and their allies in the media” for claiming that climate change contributed to the wildfires, which he calls “nonsense.”

Follow along with our weekly Topic of the Week exercise by visiting our website. New Topics of the Week are posted each Monday. Read the articles and watch the videos yourself, then come back on Wednesday to compare your scores with our analysts. Learn more here.

Beth Heldebrandt is Director of Communications at Ad Fontes Media. She has more than 35 years of experience in the fields of journalism and public relations, and was an adjunct instructor of journalism for 17 years at Eastern Illinois University. Beth has a B.A. in journalism from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale and an M.A. in English from Eastern Illinois University. She’s a mom and grandma, and enjoys traveling, puzzles and reading.