Thanks to a campaign initiated by The Boston Globe, over 350 newspapers across the country issued op-ed pieces in a coordinated defense of the media from Donald Trump’s calls of “fake news.”
The Trumpster, in predictable fashion took to Twitter to rant: “THE FAKE NEWS MEDIA IS THE OPPOSITION PARTY. It is very bad for our Great Country….BUT WE ARE WINNING!”
THE FAKE NEWS MEDIA IS THE OPPOSITION PARTY. It is very bad for our Great Country….BUT WE ARE WINNING!
The Boston Globe, which was sold to the the Failing New York Times for 1.3 BILLION DOLLARS (plus 800 million dollars in losses & investment), or 2.1 BILLION DOLLARS, was then sold by the Times for 1 DOLLAR. Now the Globe is in COLLUSION with other papers on free press. PROVE IT!
There is nothing that I would want more for our Country than true FREEDOM OF THE PRESS. The fact is that the Press is FREE to write and say anything it wants, but much of what it says is FAKE NEWS, pushing a political agenda or just plain trying to hurt people. HONESTY WINS!
There was a sense of irony in that the posting and subsequent traffic caused the website to crash.
In any case, if you’re wondering what’s really bothering Donald Trump these days, here are his biggest pet peeves in terms of “news” from his first year in the White House.
1. The New York Times’ Paul Krugman claimed on the day of President Trump’s historic, landslide victory that the economy would never recover.
2. ABC News’ Brian Ross CHOKES and sends markets in a downward spiral with false report.
3. CNN FALSELY reported that candidate Donald Trump and his son Donald J. Trump, Jr. had access to hacked documents from WikiLeaks.
4. TIME FALSELY reported that President Trump removed a bust of Martin Luther King, Jr. from the Oval Office.
5. Washington Post FALSELY reported the President’s massive sold-out rally in Pensacola, Florida was empty. Dishonest reporter showed picture of empty arena HOURS before crowd started pouring in.
6. CNN FALSELY edited a video to make it appear President Trump defiantly overfed fish during a visit with the Japanese prime minister. Japanese prime minister actually led the way with the feeding.
7. CNN FALSELY reported about Anthony Scaramucci’s meeting with a Russian, but retracted it due to a ‘significant breakdown in process.’
8. Newsweek FALSELY reported that Polish First Lady Agata Kornhauser-Duda did not shake President Trump’s hand.
9. CNN FALSELY reported that former FBI Director James Comey would dispute President Trump’s claim that he was told he is not under investigation.
10. The New York Times FALSELY claimed on the front page that the Trump administration had hidden a climate report.
11. And last, but not least: “RUSSIA COLLUSION!” Russian collusion is perhaps the greatest hoax perpetrated on the American people. THERE IS NO COLLUSION!
On that last issue, it is well known that no final report has been filed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, so Trump’s assertion that “there is no collusion” is merely his own used-car salesman hyperbole.
Sane folks should wait for the conclusion of the investigation to determine whether or not someone from Team Trump somehow cooperated with Russian agents during the 2016 election.
The Washington Post has taken the time to actually delve into the reality behind each of these. I encourage you to read the brief details behind them all here.
Here’s the WaPo’s summary:
To sum up, at least eight of the “Fake News” winners resulted in corrections, with two reports prompting suspensions or resignations.
Two of the winners were simply tweets that were quickly corrected and never resulted in news articles.
One was an opinion article in which the author later retracted his prediction.
This 2017 Fake News Awards… coming from an Australian you guys look like a goddamn joke to the world right now. Your government is about to be shutdown and this is what the president is focused on.
Looking at Trump’s list for the 2017 Fake News Awards, I can’t help but notice just about every example he listed was of the institutions issuing retractions and apologizing.
So Trump’s idea of a bad thing is owning up to a mistake and apologizing. How revealing.
Washington Post reporter interviews “Jaime Phillips” regarding fake Roy Moore story she brought to the Washington Post
Wow. A far-right organization that attempts to embarrass mainstream news media has failed to fool The Washington Post with a phony pregnancy story about Alabama Republican Roy Moore.
A woman who falsely claimed to The Washington Post that Roy Moore, the Republican U.S. Senate candidate in Alabama, impregnated her as a teenager appears to work with an organization that uses deceptive tactics to secretly record conversations in an effort to embarrass its targets.
In a series of interviews over two weeks, the woman shared a dramatic story about an alleged sexual relationship with Moore in 1992 that led to an abortion when she was 15. During the interviews, she repeatedly pressed Post reporters to give their opinions on the effects that her claims could have on Moore’s candidacy if she went public.
The Post did not publish an article based on her unsubstantiated account. When Post reporters confronted her with inconsistencies in her story and an Internet posting that raised doubts about her motivations, she insisted that she was not working with any organization that targets journalists.
But on Monday morning, Post reporters saw her walking into the New York offices of Project Veritas, an organization that targets the mainstream news media and left-leaning groups. The organization sets up undercover “stings” that involve using false cover stories and covert video recordings meant to expose what the group says is media bias.
James O’Keefe, the founder of Project Veritas who was convicted of a misdemeanor in 2010 for using a fake identity to enter a federal building during a previous sting, declined to answer questions about the woman outside the Project Veritas office, a storefront in Mamaroneck, N.Y., on Monday morning shortly after the woman walked inside.
“I am not doing an interview right now, so I’m not going to say a word,” O’Keefe said.
Besides exposing the woman and Project Veritas for the shenanigans, the article is an engrossing read for demonstrating the detailed research that goes into the WaPo’s reporting.
The article shows how researchers:
• Noted the woman’s Alabama cell phone number even though she said she only lived there a summer as a teen.
• Found a GoFundMe page by a woman of the same name asking for money to help her move to NYC where she had just accepted a job with a “conservative media movement to combat the lies and deceipt of the liberal MSM.” When confronted with the page, the woman said she was referring to a job at The Daily Caller, another right-wing outlet. But when the WaPo dialed The Daily Caller, they’d never heard of her. The page was amended within hours that same day to say the campaign was closed.
• The WaPo called a company she claimed she works for outside of NYC and no one there had ever heard of her.
All in all, it looks like the story only helped to show the lies some right-wing groups will go to, and the professionalism of the WaPo to get to the truth before printing a story.
The Washington Post made a point of sharing that they don’t usually print stories that come from “off the record” interviews, but Martin Baron, The Post’s executive editor, had this to say:
“This so-called off-the-record conversation was the essence of a scheme to deceive and embarrass us. The intent by Project Veritas clearly was to publicize the conversation if we fell for the trap. Because of our customary journalistic rigor, we weren’t fooled, and we can’t honor an ‘off-the-record’ agreement that was solicited in maliciously bad faith.”
In the end, all Project Veritas succeeded in was to confirm that The Washington Post does solid reporting.
Watch this video via The Washington Post. By the time the reporter makes it clear the info they’ve found, it’s pretty awesome to see “Jaime Phillips” get busted.
The man who once made fake TIME Magazine covers of himself and proudly had them on display in his golf clubs has the stones to call for a “Fake News” contest.
Donald Trump tweeted this morning, “We should have a contest as to which of the Networks, plus CNN and not including Fox, is the most dishonest, corrupt and/or distorted in its political coverage of your favorite President (me). They are all bad. Winner to receive the FAKE NEWS TROPHY!”
We should have a contest as to which of the Networks, plus CNN and not including Fox, is the most dishonest, corrupt and/or distorted in its political coverage of your favorite President (me). They are all bad. Winner to receive the FAKE NEWS TROPHY!
Aside from the content of the tweet, two things jump out as I read this:
1. Trump somehow believes he is America’s “favorite” president
2. He interestingly put “me” in parentheses. He felt he had to identify himself as president? Maybe he doesn’t believe he’s president?
And let’s check in with the Twitterverse for reaction:
Who do trust more, Donald Trump or:
ABC. ABC, 54/36 CBS. CBS, 54/36 NBC. NBC, 54/36 New York Times. New York Times, 54/37 CNN. CNN, 52/37 Washington Post. Washington Post, 52/37 https://t.co/XIY6vnb1i7
I think the idea of a trophy for networks that produce the most news that Trump just happens not to like might actually be pretty great. https://t.co/WCcyKk2rFf
Hmmm…FAKE NEWS TROPHY? Biggest inauguration crowd Wiretapp Nobody respects women more… The best words… Know more than the generals… I can be presidential… FAKE TIME MAGAZINE COVER?
Fake news trophy? Is that like getting a degree from Trump University?— Palmer Report (@PalmerReport) November 27, 2017
Donald Trump is handing out a fake news trophy. Robert Mueller is handing out plea deals and indictments.— Palmer Report (@PalmerReport) November 27, 2017
• Ignacio Pérez Rey (above) ain’t afraid of no Hump Day.
• A disbarred former anti-LGBT Michigan assistant attorney general who terrorized an openly gay student at the University of Michigan says he wants his law license back because this is now Trump Nation: “With Donald Trump now in the White House, conservative Christians like me will no longer tolerate being railroaded by the liberal elite.”
• Democrat Doug Jones has (barely) taken the lead in the upcoming special election race for U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ former U.S. Senate seat. Fox News puts the Dem one point ahead of anti-LGBT GOP candidate Roy Moore 46%-45%.
• The Defense Department has issued orders that no green card holders may enlist in the Army effective immediately. This is contrary to federal law which states any “alien who is lawfully admitted for permanent residence” may be enlisted in “any armed force.” #ThingsThatMakeYouGoHmm
• According to a new Morning Consult/Politico poll, 46% of those surveyed agree with Donald Trump that the mainstream media makes up “fake news” about Donald Trump. I disagree – I know many major news reporters and producers and they care about their reputations as professionals too much to lie just for a quick click.
• Watch below as Kellogg characters Tony the Tiger, Ernie Keebler and more share an important tomorrow’s Spirit Day message, encouraging everyone to speak out against bullying.
Fact-checking website Snopes looked into a photo which went viral after last weekend’s white supremacist violence in Charlottesville, Virginia and found the image had been doctored to look like an anti-fascist protester beating a police officer.
Neo-nazis/white supremacists shared the pic as proof that protesters denouncing the “white power” rally were just as violent as the haters themselves.
Not true.
The pic was actually taken during a clash between police and protesters in Athens, Greece in 2009.
Watch the video below, and remember: everything you see on the internet isn’t
Fact Check: Antifa Member Photographed Beating Police Officer?
Late Night with Seth Meyers’ “A Closer Look” segment ticks off pretty much every funny thing to laugh about Donald Trump this week.
From fawning Fox News hosts to that now-infamous “fake news” TIME magazine cover that hangs in about 8 Trump golf clubs, plus Trump butt-boy Sean Hannity making sure the world knows about that secret dossier that “talked about Trump, at a Ritz-Carlton, in Moscow, with two prostitutes urinating on his bed.”
The internet is all abuzz today wondering if Chicago Cubs outfielder Albert Almora surreptitiously flipped President Trump the bird during the Cubs’ White House visit today.
The framed copy of Time magazine was hung up in at least five of President Trump’s clubs, from South Florida to Scotland. Filling the entire cover was a photo of Donald Trump.
“Donald Trump: The ‘Apprentice’ is a television smash!” the big headline said. Above the Time nameplate, there was another headline in all caps: “TRUMP IS HITTING ON ALL FRONTS . . . EVEN TV!”
This cover — dated March 1, 2009 — looks like an impressive memento from Trump’s pre-presidential career. To club members eating lunch, or golfers waiting for a pro-shop purchase, it seemed to be a signal that Trump had always been a man who mattered. Even when he was just a reality TV star, Trump was the kind of star who got a cover story in Time.
But that wasn’t true.
The Time cover is a fake.
There was no March 1, 2009, issue of Time magazine. And there was no issue at all in 2009 that had Trump on the cover.
In fact, the cover on display at Trump’s clubs, observed recently by a reporter visiting one of the properties, contains several small but telling mistakes. Its red border is skinnier than that of a genuine Time cover, and, unlike the real thing, there is no thin white border next to the red. The Trump cover’s secondary headlines are stacked on the right side — on a real Time cover, they would go across the top.
And it has two exclamation points. Time headlines don’t yell.
“I can confirm that this is not a real TIME cover,” Kerri Chyka, a spokeswoman for Time Inc., wrote in an email to The Washington Post.
You may recall that during a speech in January addressing CIA staff, Trump declared he had been on more Time covers than anyone else: “I think we have the all-time record in the history of Time magazine.”
Actually, that’s incorrect, and kind of ironic given Trump’s current FBI investigation status.The record holder is President Richard Nixon.
Of course, the Trumpster had to deny and deflect via Twitter this morning:
The #AmazonWashingtonPost, sometimes referred to as the guardian of Amazon not paying internet taxes (which they should) is FAKE NEWS!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 28, 2017
With much fanfare, President Trump visited Saudi Arabia last month and his administration announced that he had negotiated a $110 billion arms deal with the kingdom.
That’s what he does – makes deals. Right?
But hold on second there, Skippy. There’s a reason why Trump likes the term “fake news.”
Because that’s what he makes. Fake News.
Turns out there isn’t any “deal” in place with the Saudis.
I’ve spoken to contacts in the defense business and on the Hill, and all of them say the same thing: There is no $110 billion deal. Instead, there are a bunch of letters of interest or intent, but not contracts. Many are offers that the defense industry thinks the Saudis will be interested in someday. So far nothing has been notified to the Senate for review. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency, the arms sales wing of the Pentagon, calls them “intended sales.” None of the deals identified so far are new, all began in the Obama administration.
None of the deals identified so far are new, all began in the Obama administration.
An example is a proposal for sale of four frigates (called multi-mission surface combatant vessels) to the Royal Saudi navy. This proposal was first reported by the State Department in 2015. No contract has followed. The type of frigate is a derivative of a vessel that the U.S. Navy uses but the derivative doesn’t actually exist yet.
Another piece is the Terminal High Altitude Air Defense system (THAAD) which was recently deployed in South Korea. The Saudis have expressed interest in the system for several years but no contracts have been finalized. Obama approved the sale in principle at a summit at Camp David in 2015.
Also on the wish list are 150 Black Hawk helicopters. Again, this is old news repackaged. What the Saudis and the administration did is put together a notional package of the Saudi wish list of possible deals and portray that as a deal. Even then the numbers don’t add up. It’s fake news.
Bringing hundreds of billions of dollars back to the U.S.A. from the Middle East – which will mean JOBS, JOBS, JOBS!
• No tax bill has been introduced to the US House of Representatives. • No tax bill has been introduced to the US Senate. • The White House has not released a tax plan that is detailed enough for experts to assess its economic or fiscal impact.
