'Fake News?' Look Who's Talking
"Fake news?" Look who's talking.
Trump's selective dismissal of polls he does not like reminds me of Evillene, the grumpy witch in the musical "The Wiz" who sang, "Don't Nobody Bring Me No Bad News." Trump simply calls it "fake news" and moves on.
But, of course, we the people want border security, extreme vetting and any other serious measures that will make us safer. But that doesn't excuse the rushed, raggedy and downright cruel way that Team Trump wrote and executed his travel ban, igniting televised chaos, confusion and protests at airports.
Which makes it all the more ironic that his counselor and frequent spokeswoman Kellyanne Conway in at least three interviews referenced "the Bowling Green massacre," which, as you probably have heard, never happened. At least she acknowledged her mistake later. I'm still waiting for her boss to say the same about Obama's birth certificate. (That's right, Mr. Trump, some of us will never forget.) Trump reached new heights of lowdown media bashing in a speech Monday at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida in which he accused the media of deliberately minimizing coverage of Islamic State terrorists.
"It's gotten to a point where it's not even being reported," Trump told his military audience. "And in many cases, the very, very dishonest press doesn't want to report it. They have their reasons and you understand that." What reasons?
No, Mr. Trump, I don't understand that. Neither do the hardworking journalists who have been covering the Islamic State terror story, some at the cost of their lives.
Asked for evidence to back up Trump's claim, the White House released a list of 78 attacks since September 2014. Sure enough, all were covered by U.S. and international media, some for days on end. The terror list became one more Trump mess for his staff to clean up.
Yes, it would be courteous and respectful to say that, at best, our current president plays fast and loose with facts. But one of my father's favorite lines is closer to the point: "Maybe the truth just ain't in him."
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(E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@chicagotribune.com.)
(c) 2017 CLARENCE PAGE DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.
