Justin Trudeau is now experiencing a common trait of political journalism in Canada.

It is, as the Toronto Sun’s late, great Peter Worthington used to say, that the media are either at your feet, or at your throat.

And often, the same media that used to be at your feet, are now at your throat.

Here at the Sun, we’ve always had our doubts about the competence of young Mr. Trudeau and whether he’s truly qualified to be Canada’s next prime minister, despite his political pedigree.

But some of the most nasty stuff about him now is coming from pundits and media who used to grovel at his feet.

On Wednesday, even the European-based and non-partisan Reuters news service stuck the shiv in Trudeau with a long feature headlined, “Backers fear that missing-in-action, Trudeau losing bid to lead Canada”, describing him as “a former teacher and one-time snowboard instructor.” Ouch!

What’s happened is that the media, taking its cue from the polls which now show the Liberals in third place behind the NDP and Tories, have done an about-face on the previous media narrative about Trudeau.

That’s from just a few months ago, when, according to the polls, Trudeau’s Liberals were in first and many in the media were declaring him a sure thing to occupy 24 Sussex Drive after the Oct. 19 election.

Now, we’re told, he’s a sure miss.

But I wouldn’t bury him, or anyone else, just yet.

Because what this all really shows is that, to use a colloquial phrase when it comes to political prognostication, “nobody knows nothing”.

Certainly not the media and not the pollsters upon whom we over-rely to predict the future.

The problem is that polls are much better at telling us about what’s already happened than about predicting the future. (Sometimes, even the near future.)

The danger in falling into a media narrative about a politician is that it can blind you, at least temporarily, when the facts on the ground start to diverge from the narrative you’re telling.

We in the media love media narratives because they seemingly help bring order to the chaotic world of politics.

But the problem is media narratives create a false sense of certainty and predictability about politics, which is a chaotic system.

Think of all the media narratives we’ve told you over the years which turned out to be wrong or suspect. Here’s just a few of them.

* Angry Tom Mulcair could never become prime minister.

* Christian Conservative Stephen Harper, with his ‘hidden agenda”, could never become prime minister.

* Finance Minister Paul Martin would be the founder of a new Liberal * political dynasty, post Jean Chretien.

* “Yesterday’s man”, Jean Chretien, could never become prime minister.

* The NDP could never win a provincial election in Tory Alberta.

* The Liberals could never win a provincial election in Tory Ontario.

* Former teacher, ski instructor and golf club manager Mike Harris, would never become Ontario premier.

I’ve been predicting the politically corrupt Ontario Liberals couldn’t possibly win another provincial election ever since 2007, when Dalton McGuinty defeated John Tory.

Tory, whom I predicted was finished as a politician in 2007 after three significant political defeats, is now mayor of Toronto.

That’s the problem with media narratives about politicians. Often, they’re just wrong.