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Fake news is a real phenomenon. I didn’t believe it was as bad as others thought it was until recently. This week was exceptionally horrible for the journalistic profession with three major gaffes, all involving President Trump.
As media fights to be first, they’re failing to be right
Today’s media is under extreme pressure to be first. The internet, 24-hour news channels, mobile devices, and social media have accelerated news demand exponentially when compared to just two or three decades ago. The difference between being the first to publish a story and being one among the multitudes of follow up stories referencing it is huge; the source story that breaks a big piece of news can get millions of additional visits to a site if the story is big enough.
This has created a portion of the “fake news” epidemic that we’re experiencing. I’m somewhat of an anti-mainstream-media hipster; I was writing about biased media well before President Trump made attacking them cool. I wasn’t alone, obviously, as media watchdog publications have been around for years. Despite our presence, it was only after Trump brought a focus to it that news outlets really started feeling the heat.
A fourth gaffe hit Twitter a few hours ago. This one was very minor compared to others. A Washington Post journalist, Dave Weigel, posted an image of a mostly empty arena where President Trump was to speak. He took a jab at the optics of the event, posting “Packed to the rafters” as a caption. It was funny, false, and meaningless. No big deal, right?
As he is wont to do, the President took great offense to an insinuation that he’s not the greatest, most bigly human being who ever lived, so he lashed out and demanded an apology and “retraction” from the Washington Post. Granted, anyone who represents an organization does so through their social media as well, but this wasn’t a story published by WaPo. It was a Tweet.
.@DaveWeigel @WashingtonPost put out a phony photo of an empty arena hours before I arrived @ the venue, w/ thousands of people outside, on their way in. Real photos now shown as I spoke. Packed house, many people unable to get in. Demand apology & retraction from FAKE NEWS WaPo! pic.twitter.com/XAblFGh1ob
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 9, 2017
Weigel complied. He was actually quite gracious about it all, explaining why he posted it and acknowledging he was wrong.
Sure thing: I apologize. I deleted the photo after @dmartosko told me I'd gotten it wrong. Was confused by the image of you walking in the bottom right corner. https://t.co/fQY7GMNSaD
— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) December 9, 2017
Done deal. End of story. Dear Leader wins again, right? If he’d left it at that, all would be well in Trumpland. All he had to do was keep a grasp on the high road he’d just taken and let his followers do all the bashing they needed to do.
All he had to do was keep quiet.
All he had to do was move on.
He’s Donald Trump. He didn’t move on. He had to push further after getting exactly what he asked for. By doing so, he took a dive right into the mud. It’s as if that’s the only place he’s comfortable.
.@daveweigel of the Washington Post just admitted that his picture was a FAKE (fraud?) showing an almost empty arena last night for my speech in Pensacola when, in fact, he knew the arena was packed (as shown also on T.V.). FAKE NEWS, he should be fired.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 9, 2017
To recap, he asked for an apology and a “retraction” of the “story.” He got what he wanted almost immediately. He then proceeded to rub it in the face of the man who apologized and called for him to be fired.
I’ve been sympathetic towards the President because he really does get too much negative attention from the same mainstream media that ignored any negative thing President Obama did. Every time I think President Trump may take the opportunity to do the right thing, he backslides to petulance.
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The media needs to learn that Trump is actually less mature than Obama was. As such, he ability to behave rationally and at a level above that of a 4th grade playground bully is non-existent.
It does not good to give him “the benefit of the doubt” because (as he did in this story) he will simply push further for more control and bigger concessions thinking he’s going up against “weaklings”.
Better that the media simply start mocking his rants and his laugh at him whenever possible. The laughter (at him) and mockery will have the best chance of acting as the “Emporer’s Charioteer” – the guy that would ride with Roman emporers, reminding them that they were NOT gods.
Since Trump surrounds himslelf with sycophants (as Obama did), he really has no one to keep him moored to reality and it’s clear that his grip on reality (very weak at the best of times) has loosened significantly in recent months.