Donald Trump hands out inaugural ‘Fake News Awards’
TRUMP awarded the first ever “Fake News Awards” to the media that he claims are out to get him. But things didn’t get off to a great start.
DONALD Trump’s inaugural “Fake News Awards” got off to a bad start.
The US President’s latest salvo in his ongoing battle with the mainstream media was eagerly awaited.
But it wasn’t the red carpet that went askew, or a cringe-worthy opening monologue, because there were neither of those.
No, in true Trump tradition, the President sent out a tweet with a link to the awards on the Republican Party website. But rather than a list of the “winners” all you got was an “Error 404 page”. The Republican Party said, “Traffic was off the charts. Come back soon.”
Once the golden envelope was opened, it was some of the biggest names in the US media who were invited up to the podium to collect their dubious honour.
And the FAKE NEWS winners are...https://t.co/59G6x2f7fD
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 18, 2018
Tonight, https://t.co/YTZAIJpNhb saw more traffic than ever before. Even though the servers were scaled up, the interest was even greater than anticipated. Traffic is off the charts. Come back soon.
— GOP (@GOP) January 18, 2018
The Fake Media awards are HUGE! In the Error category alone there's 404 nominations! #fakenewsawards
— The Opposition (@TheOpposition) January 18, 2018
“2017 was a year of unrelenting bias, unfair news coverage, and even downright fake news,” read the release on the Republican Party website.
“Studies have shown that over 90 per cent of the media’s coverage of President Trump is negative.”
Sadly, those “studies” weren’t on the page so couldn’t be interrogated.
The president singled out 11 news items for being “fake”. The New York Times, ABC USA, Time, Newsweek and the Washington Post were all on the list.
Big Little Lies dominated the Golden Globes and Trump clearly thought his news channel nemesis, CNN, told a few of those, awarding the channel four — count ’em, four — Fakeys.
Breitbart News, the former home of one-time Trump whisperer Steve Bannon, was not on the list. The President agrees that none of its news was fake.
THE TOP GONG GOES TO ...
However, it was his Manhattan neighbours that topped the chart. The New York Times took out the fake gong for the top “fake” story because of an article that claimed the stock market would “never” recover from the Trump presidency. They’ve been doing very nicely, thank you very much, aided by a huge corporate tax cut gifted to Wall Street (repeat after me, “not the elite”).
Other proud recipients, in the award’s own words, were:
“2) ABC (USA) News’ Brian Ross’ bungled report on former national security adviser Michael Flynn;
“3) A CNN report that the Trump campaign had early access to hacked documents from WikiLeaks;
“4) Time report that Trump removed a bust of Martin Luther King, Jr. from the Oval Office;
“5) The Washington Post’s Dave Weigel tweeting that Trump’s December rally in Pensacola, Florida, wasn’t packed with supporters;
“6) CNN’s video suggesting Trump overfed fish during visit with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe;
WELP the #fakenewsawards is more stupid than I could have possibly imagined, but I love the idea that this gif of Trump overfeeding fish stressed him out enough to make the list. pic.twitter.com/RiEQjPDcEX
— Sarah Rogers (@sarahnrogers) January 18, 2018
“7) CNN’s retracted report claiming Anthony Scaramucci-Russia ties;
“8) Newsweek report that Polish First Lady Agata Kornhauser-Duda did not shake Trump’s hand;
“9) CNN report that former FBI Director James Comey would dispute President Trump’s claim he was told he was not under investigation;
“10) The New York Times report that the Trump administration had hidden a climate-change report;
“11) In Trump’s words, “‘RUSSIA COLLUSION!’ Russian collusion is perhaps the greatest hoax perpetrated on the American people. THERE IS NO COLLUSION!’”
Now, here’s the thing, the President has something of a leg to stand on with some of these.
For instance, he didn’t have early access to WikiLeaks documents and a reporter did tweet an image of an empty rally venue, just before anyone had arrived for said rally.
Some stories, such, as the Martin Luther King bust furore, seem to be misunderstandings that got a life of their own but were swiftly corrected.
Most of the reporters on the innacurate #FakeNewsAwards stories faced negative consequences. Trump has faced none for his 2000 + documented lies in the White House.
— Jason Le Miere (@JasonLeMiere) January 18, 2018
LIES, LIES AND UNTRUTHS
But before we all join the faux rodeo and trot off blissfully into a golden future of Trumpian truths, it’s worth noting the big man himself is hardly above the odd fib.
Like all those years when he insisted that Barack Obama was not a US citizen at all and so was ineligible to be President. NOT TRUE!
Or more recently, when he blamed Obama for spending billions on a new US embassy in London which he subsequently has refused to open. NOT TRUE! It was President George W. Bush who signed off on that sweet deal.
While Trump may trumpet the news stories that have later been proven to be mistaken or lacking in rigour, he is still struggling to shake off the view that he fails to tell the American people the truth.
Last week, the Washington Post (they got a Fakey) calculated that Trump had just uttered his 2000th falsehood while in office — an average of 5.6 lies per day.
The “Lie2K”, as it’s been dubbed, took flight last Tuesday, the paper claimed, when Trump said: “We can build [a border wall with Mexico] in one year and we can build it for much less money than what they’re talking about.”
The paper said that “under no scenario can the wall on the Mexican border be built in just one year. It’s at least a four-year project that could cost US$25 billion”.
TRUST GONE
On Tuesday, USA Today, who were not named on the Fake News list, called Trump an “inveterate liar” surrounded by other liars.
Referencing the recent “s**thole” saga, where Trump was accused of denigrating several nations, USA Today said it beggared belief many of the senior people who were in the room denied he uttered the word in question or said they couldn’t remember it.
“Five days after word leaked out that President Trump used bigoted and vulgar remarks during an Oval Office meeting on immigration, it’s clear who’s telling the truth. Spoiler alert: It’s not the President and his enablers.”
But damage to the mainstream media — through their own doing or constant nit picking from their opponents — may already have been done.
A Gallup/Knight Foundation survey, released on Tuesday, found that while eight out of 10 Americans believe news media is essential to democracy, their trust in it is low.
Less than half of Americans can name a single news source they believe reports the news objectively. While 66 per cent say most news media do not do a good job of separating fact from opinion. In 1984, only 42 per cent held this view.
The Fake News Awards may be laughed off by some but the lack of faith in news by growing numbers of people is no laughing matter.
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