President Trump took to Twitter Sunday once again to denounce the mainstream media, calling it a ‘stain on America’.
Very little discussion of all the purposely false and defamatory stories put out this week by the Fake News Media. They are out of control – correct reporting means nothing to them. Major lies written, then forced to be withdrawn after they are exposed…a stain on America!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 10, 2017
Trump was referencing CNN’s damage management to their botched WikiLeaks report, as well as a plethora of inaccurate reports concerning the subpoena sent to Deutsche Bank by Robert Mueller last week.
Trump spent much of last week calling out fake news, particularly CNN, and Washington Post reporter Dave Weigel:
.@DaveWeigel @WashingtonPost put out a phony photo of an empty arena hours before I arrived @ the venue, w/ thousands of people outside, on their way in. Real photos now shown as I spoke. Packed house, many people unable to get in. Demand apology & retraction from FAKE NEWS WaPo! pic.twitter.com/XAblFGh1ob
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 9, 2017
CNN’S slogan is CNN, THE MOST TRUSTED NAME IN NEWS. Everyone knows this is not true, that this could, in fact, be a fraud on the American Public. There are many outlets that are far more trusted than Fake News CNN. Their slogan should be CNN, THE LEAST TRUSTED NAME IN NEWS!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 9, 2017
Fake News CNN made a vicious and purposeful mistake yesterday. They were caught red handed, just like lonely Brian Ross at ABC News (who should be immediately fired for his “mistake”). Watch to see if @CNN fires those responsible, or was it just gross incompetence?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 9, 2017
Meanwhile CNN itself engaged in mass damage control, with host Brian Stelter leading a panel of ‘experts’ who all defended CNN’s fake news output.
Stelter noted that there will be no disciplinary action against the CNN writers who botched the Wikileaks report because they followed the “standards process” of the network.
“The sources have been reliable in the past. But they were not this time. The spokeswoman said CNN had no reason to believe this was malicious, meaning the sources weren’t trying to trick the reporters, the sources were just mistaken,” Stelter claimed.
Reporter Carl Bernstein went out of his way to make it clear that the media REALLY REALLY tried to report accurately:
“We have to get back to the notion that — which is absolutely correct, that most of the media really tries, the mainstream media – the big news institutions from The Washington Post and The New York Times to The Wall Street Journal to CNN really go out of their way to be accurate, factual, contextual and we do and we have done a pretty good job of it,” Bernstein said.
In a stark example of Orwellian doublethink, former Republican David Frum stated that inaccurate reporting is exactly why the media should be trusted.
“I would say, the mistakes are precisely the reason the people should trust the media.” Frum urged.
“Look, astronomers make mistakes all the time because science is a process of discovery of truth. Astrologers never make mistakes or at least they never own up to them, because what they are offering a closed system of ideology and propaganda.” he added.
The panel then concluded that all of this is President Trump’s fault, and reverted to what they do best, attacking him.
“The worst mistakes that press organizations have made in the coverage of Trump has precisely occurred in their effort — their overzealous effort to be fair to the President.” Frum ridiculously claimed.
“Our record as journalists in covering this Trump story and the Russian story is pretty good, especially compared to the record of Donald Trump and his serial lying.” Bernstein chimed in.
Remarkable.
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