Tuesday, June 27, 2017

Fake News Brigade

Earlier today there was an interesting moment during the White House Press Briefing.  In a recently rare briefing that allowed cameras Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders goes after the media by telling them how dishonest they are.  This is based on one story published by CNN about Trump friend Anthony Scaramucci and a disputable anonymous source.  The people involved in the soft-story were fired and the heads of CNN issued a statement saying that any articles relating to the Trump-Russia investigation will need clearance before publishing.  During her speech Brian Karem, columnist for Playboy and the Montgomery County Sentinel, interrupts her to let her know how most of the press feel about this barrage.



Karem's main point is when he says, “this administration has done that as well. Why in the name of heavens? Any one of us are replaceable, and any one of us, if we don’t get it right, the audience has the opportunity to turn the channel or not read us.”  That is a very true statement as it was reported (mentioned above) that the people behind the bad Scaramucci article were released as a result.  

 The fact that the Trump administration is trigger-ready to attack the media when it slips up, but they have no issue making up their own fake news to make themselves look good.  Remember Sean Spicer's infamous first press briefing?

Not only was it actually true that the numbers for the Trump inauguration were far below their estimates, but the National Park Service was cleared of posting the inauguration attendance comparison between Obama and Trump today.  Was Spicer held accountable with his job for such an outrageous lie?  Definitely not.  In fact, Kellyanne Conway had to defend Spicer's remarks in an even more infamous segment in which she straight up said that not only did Spicer not lie, he was only giving "alternative facts".

It all boils down to this: the Trump administration will go to great lengths to cover up real stories in order to lie to deceive their own supporters.  By doing so their voting base thinks they have done an excellent job.  They pick and choose what looks good and deem anything that looks bad as "fake news."  To support that claim I did an investigation of my own based on Trump's approval rating.  Here is where we see the Trump propaganda machine at work (pay attention to the dates):

Exhibit A: Fox News posts a Quinnipac Poll that is close to the average approval rating of Trump.
Exhibit B: Trump posts on Twitter that according to one of the poll reports that he has an approval rate of 50%
Exhibit C: New tweet from Fox News saying that "half of Americans approve of Trump."

Exhibit D: Fox News posted an approval rating closer to Exhibit A than to B on the same day as Trump tweeted out the 50% number from Rasmussen.  I remember commenting on the Fox News twitter account about how that didn't match what Trump had and I can't find the tweet ANYWHERE!  It's as if they were told to post what Trump tweeted and to used that as the defacto rating so they deleted their original approval rating for that day!

If that doesn't scream out "state sponsored news" I don't know what does!

Lastly I will end my investigation with this tweet to show how much the approval polls differ from one another:

The Rasmussen poll shows the highest rating for Trump out of any of the other polls so of course he is going to use that one to say that he has been doing a terrific job.  Fox News, having earlier posted a juxtaposing approval rating, removes their post and within a span of a day, day and half, reiterates Trump's post of that very same 50% approval rating in order to keep that voter base happy.  Of course Fox News is completely willing to do that because they are really the only major Republican/Conservative news organization around (you don't count Breitbart).  For them to use this sort of propaganda to promote the "conservative" agenda is something they are more than willing to do.

To reiterate what I said earlier in the article the Trump Administration needs to be held accountable for their lies as much, if not more so, than they believe the media should.  Most of the press are starting to show that they are becoming restless with the chicanery and soon they may just need to take Keith Olbermann's advice:
If this was to happen you will see a couple of niche networks stay plus Trump's biggest news allies: Fox News and Breitbart.  Maybe then we will get a happy Spicer because Fox and Breitbart will never throw hardball questions to harm their own team if you catch my drift.

Trump needs to keep the lines of communication open.  The constant no cameras, only audio briefings as well as the increased rhetoric against so-called fake press can only go on for so long before there is a definite breaking point and the press is getting to that point sooner than later.
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