Donald Trump’s accusations of ‘fake news’ aren’t just disingenuous, they’re cowardly. Some of those accusations are specific, and those are usually smacked down, hard:
fact-checked as false repeatedly since 2016 –> https://t.co/eBaBgK3xmF https://t.co/HA3jP58qZl
— Glenn Kessler (@GlennKesslerWP) October 19, 2017
Those aren’t the ones I’m talking about. At least, in those cases, he’s making a claim that can be fact-checked. More often, it’s just poisoning the well against (essentially all) legitimate news organizations:
Somebody with aptitude and conviction should buy the FAKE NEWS and failing @nytimes and either run it correctly or let it fold with dignity!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 29, 2017
Congratulations to @FoxNews for being number one in inauguration ratings. They were many times higher than FAKE NEWS @CNN – public is smart!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 25, 2017
.@CNN is in a total meltdown with their FAKE NEWS because their ratings are tanking since election and their credibility will soon be gone!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 12, 2017
We had a great News Conference at Trump Tower today. A couple of FAKE NEWS organizations were there but the people truly get what’s going on
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 12, 2017
This is both transparently dishonest and cowardly. It’s cowardly because it allows him to throw shade on any negative claims without actually making any claims himself that could be refuted. It’s not that the major news organizations are without problems, nor that they don’t get things wrong. I’ve criticized many of them myself recently. But in those cases, I’m making a specific claim that is subject to being falsified, namely that Cuba didn’t attack Americans with a sonic weapon. If that turns out to be wrong, I’ll take my lumps.
Donald Trump wants to have it both ways: the press lies, so don’t believe them, but I’m not going to say what they lied about, so there’s no need (or way) to fact check. This is not how intellectually honest people argue; it’s how cowardly liars who don’t even believe their own bullshit argue.
Don’t even get me started on “lots of people say…”.
[…] negatively biased information.” However, the email provides neither evidence of bias nor examples of factually incorrect information. All of this builds up to a thinly-veiled threat of legal action, but it never specifies what Simon […]