Attkisson does the heavy lifting
Here’s a list that Sharyl Attkisson has compiled of press falsehoods related to Trump.
It’s impressive—I mean on Attkisson’s part. A lot of work was involved in that.
But in a way it’s impressive on the press’s part, too (hmmm—is that a semi-pun? “impressive; press”?)—impressive in the sense that their errors (accidental and/or deliberate) represent a remarkable demonstration of extreme carelessness and/or monumental deceptiveness.
As frequently said on Instapundit
“Think of them as democrats with bylines”
and Lee Smith at The Tablet also has an excellent article on the toxic effect of the hoax
https://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/282448/system-fail
I think it’s important to take into account that this does NOT happen by accident.
Look again at the US map of who voted in the 2016 election for the “the woman who will never be President,” and remember that those living in the blue islands hate what this country stands for and hate with a raging passion those of us (President Trump especially) who believe the world needs a strong stable USA. They believe the world needs another failing socialist/communist/green fascist/globalist “utopia” and are trying to burn the house down to rebuild the house in that image.
The MSM cabal is just the front for all the Soros-style money behind this project.
This sort of thing will not go away until it is forced to go away.
A good first step would be for someone to unmask the real story behind the deep-sixing of the “Hillary server investigation” and then the FISA abuse/Steele dossier. For at least those two, someone needs jail time. Someone with a name like Clinton, Clapper, Brennan, Lynch, Comey…Ohr, Strozk, Page…the list could be a long one, but there needs to be jail time or it’ll happen again with Trump 2020.
She’s been doing the heavy lifting for years.
Along with several other intrepid, principled souls.
(To be sure, she had some extremely unpleasant “up-close and personal” encounters with Obama’s rogue—“scandal-less”—-administration. So no starry eyes for her.)
“Someone with a name like…”
…Obama (leading from behind).
Needless to say, the list is a work in progress. Ms Attkisson’s fake news compendium will eventually be a good historical resource.
78 is coincidentally three complete loops through the alphabet, starting with exhibits A through Z, moving on to A1 through Z1, and rounding out a third tour with A2 through Z2. Nicely done.
Sharyl’s list is an on-going project, as shown in the comments by their dates, and also those which mention “50” and “56” being the number of mistakes cited
(the lower number is also in the URL, although the headline is up-dated; FWIW, I’ve seen that discrepancy when Neo updates her headlines. I suspect it also happens when the MSM updates or corrects their reports — when they do — so that the lies are what are immortalized in the webz).
Most of these “mistakes” are ones that were covered here at Neo’s — she didn’t miss very many of them (or I missed the posts on them).
We are deeply obligated to Attkission, Lee Smith, and Byron York for most of the investigative work going on; almost all of the other pundits are just bloviating on the significance of what they developed. But, it entertains me to compare and contrast reactions, omissions, emphasis, and rhetorical style.
If you don’t share that interest, scrolling through my interminable copy-paste session is easy.
So that ymarsakar and Gringo don’t get too confused, I present this selection of comments without interpolation, except for a couple of instances in [brackets that look like this], although all the bolding and italics are mine.
Some are incidents that Sharyl missed on her list; some are just interesting on their own; some are memes/tropes/bon mots I haven’t seen before.
I skipped the ones that are the same boiler-plate you can see on most conservative sites. Be thankful for small favors.
https://sharylattkisson.com/50-media-mistakes-in-the-trump-era-the-definitive-list/#comment-55702
Leonard Pailet
June 10, 2018 at 9:26 pm #
About your item: taking Trump’s statements and events out of context
A slightly different take on what they did also included using an interpretation as a paraphrase. This is not technically taking statements out of context; it is a purposeful misreading of words to impute an entirely different meaning to them than Trump intended. A lot of modern literary criticism is based on this — O the author really meant to say that (thank you, Wolfgang Iser for telling readers that they really are the writer).
As a PhD with an emphasis in classical/Renaissance rhetoric, I did a carefully study of Trump’s speeches (viewed) vs. what was written by reporters when I read one report and just happened to see the speech by accident that I could click on. That immediately sent me off to see other speeches and compare them. The two biggest problems were interpretation, not paraphrase, and leaving out whole sections of Trump’s argument to link an idea Trump threw out to the audience only to reject in a section that was not mentioned in the report, and to link the rejected section to the conclusion, proving, in their minds, that Trump did not know what he was saying or that he was lying. Trump uses the oral style (not the written style). When you see his speeches, you hear the intonation and see the gestures and facial expression which tell you exactly how serious Trump is about what he is saying. You cannot duplicate this information in print paraphrase.
Brian
June 10, 2018 at 10:04 pm #
The article mentions “taking Trump’s statements and events out of context.” I used to watch most of Trump’s speeches and other events with him and/or other White House administration officials and almost every time I would see the media misreport or distort what was said in order to make him look bad. Also, they would quite often flat out ignore important events or statements that a normal “free press” society would absolutely find newsworthy and even when they would “cover” the event/statement, they would sometimes focus on a single sentence that they would sometimes take out of context in order to bash Trump’s White House. It became crystal clear why Trump calls the media “fake news” after observing this day after day. The propaganda in USA’s media is sickening. It’s so bad that I’ve completely and *permanently* shut out certain outlets that I used to give my attention.
Daniel Wall
June 10, 2018 at 11:33 pm #
I have to admit, when you first hear these stories they set a negative tone in your head and you can’t help but feel things are going very wrong for our country. Most people never read or hear about the corrections to the initial article.
Mary Jacobs
June 19, 2018 at 12:51 am #
Thank you Ms Attkinsson for these stunning and horrific examples of media bias. I’ve long suspected the full intent of certain news media outlets is to fully and completely manipulate the truth and obfuscate the facts to gain support for their Leftist agenda. It is NOT incompetence. These stories are reviewed by a minimum of 2 editors, likely more in the large outlets from major cities. They are liberals who never stop acting like the Leftist radicals they actually are. This list is a stunning example of media bias and manipulation. Sad we must work so hard to discover the truth in the reports we read. Thanks again, glad we have someone working hard to expose the manipulators.
M.L.Johnson
June 11, 2018 at 9:33 am #
With all due respect, Sharyl, I’m calling ‘fake news’ on your headline. ‘Definitive’ implies a level of completeness that 50 doesn’t cover. Also, doesn’t ‘mistakes’ sound as if they were inadvertent? ‘Malicious Lies’ would be more accurate.
But the headline is a minor, tongue-in-cheek quibble, this is a great resource. Thanks for it and everything you do.
Greg Penglis
June 11, 2018 at 9:50 pm #
[clarification added; Greg does a terrific job in his post]
I wrote an article a while back detailing the real quote[s] by Donald Trump, and the total distortion and propaganda of it [them] by the Leftist Media. Sharyl Atkinson I think you’ll find this interesting.
https://canadafreepress.com/article/are-you-a-conservative-or-are-you-in-the-liberal-propaganda-bubble
I’d also like to invite you to be a guest on my radio show on 1330 AM WEBY. It’s called “Action Radio” because we have our own citizen legislature writing bills. We don’t just talk.
Eskyman
June 12, 2018 at 10:37 pm #
An excellent list, though hardly “definitive.”
You should check out Don Surber’s three books on this subject, which are truthful and hilarious, and which I highly recommend:
-Trump the Press: Don Surber’s take on how the pundits blew the 2016 Republican race. (2016)
-Trump the Establishment: The Elitists Never Learned in 2016 (2017)
-Fake News Follies of 2017 (2018)
All available on Amazon, or through Don’s website: http://donsurber.blogspot.com/
It seems like the MSM is determined to provide material for endless books! I’m also getting your book “The Smear,” Sharyl- it’ll fit right in!
Thank God for actual investigative reporters, and there are none better than you!
Alex
June 14, 2018 at 7:24 pm #
Wow. The NYT – the paper of record – figures prominently. Either they lie outright or they’re incompetent. Clearly the tactic is: Just put it out there and worry about the consequences later so long as the initial impact stays in people’s minds.
Greg Taylor
June 18, 2018 at 11:40 am #
What about the claim that Charlie Rose made about Flynn being “flipped?” That was a top-5 media lie in my opinion.
Richie
June 18, 2018 at 2:52 pm #
Ms. Attkisson, great job!
One item that I would like to see added to an updated list is how the fake news handled the Nov., 2017 video of President Trump’s granddaughter, Arabella Kushner, reading Chinese poetry that Mr. Trump presented to Chinese President Xi Jinpinig. While America’s fake news raked Mr. Trump over the coals for what they claimed was cynical opportunistic manipulation of his granddaughter, the Chinese media and public opinion heaped praise and fell head-over-heels in love with Miss Kushner’s performance. Chinese web sites lauded the video as bringing the U.S. and China closer together.
Ron Smith
June 18, 2018 at 2:55 pm #
“Once is an accident. Twice is an unfortunate coincidence. Three times is enemy action.”
Fifty times? The conclusion draws itself…
Richard1725
June 18, 2018 at 3:02 pm #
Our biased MSM is so far left, when they look to their RIGHT, Karl Marx is standing there
b Snooker
June 18, 2018 at 3:54 pm #
Missing from the list: Icecreamgate.Only Trump gets two scoops.
[technically, this wasn’t a mistake – Trump was indeed the only one who got two scoops — because he asked for the second one; it was the press declaring that it heralded the second coming of Genghis Khan that was the mistake ]
DrDeuteron
June 18, 2018 at 4:46 pm #
Every time a reporter or new reader calls President Trump a “reality TV star”, they are engaging in Fake News. DJT was highly accomplished (far more than any community organizer) long before he hosted The Apprentice. Would we call Emmitt Smith a “reality TV star” for being on DWTS? No. When the MSM uses that term, it’s a smear, as if the likes of a J-Wow or Mike The Situation is running the country.
Earl
June 18, 2018 at 5:49 pm #
At almost every Trump rally he would challenge the news outlets to swing the cameras around to show the crowd size. They never did it.
Bjorleif Blank
June 18, 2018 at 5:50 pm #
Reading the links to links in “40. March 8, 2018” I find that the error is not from $4k in taxes to $43 in refund – they also forgot to deduct children and parent, for another $1500 in refund. This has not been corrected in the original story.
Ron Lewis
June 18, 2018 at 5:55 pm #
Please tell us the real list – the lies they do not say, the most critical omissions, the most deceitful distortions, which issues were framed, and which were elevated for purely political purposes.
Joe McDonald
June 18, 2018 at 5:57 pm #
How do these clowns still have jobs?
b>[making these “mistakes” WAS their job]
John Denney
June 18, 2018 at 7:50 pm #
For me, the classic is when the President tweeted that the FAKE NEWS media is the enemy of the people, and the FAKE NEWS media immediately proved him correct with headlines like, “Trump says the press is the enemy of the people!”
The FAKE NEWS media seems to be adjective challenged, leaving off, “FAKE NEWS”, in this case, and “illegal” when the topic is “illegal immigrants”.
doug moore
June 18, 2018 at 9:40 pm #
AP is suppose to be non-bias and yet most of the articles in the list are AP.
now how can that be?
Scott
June 19, 2018 at 11:24 am #
The NY Times is the feed for nearly all of the content broadcast by the AP. The widespread belief that the AP is an independent unbiased news source is false and they are merely another source of fake news.
David
June 19, 2018 at 1:58 am #
Wow! I’m glad I saw this because I remember some of these stories but never heard the correction.
I try to keep up but sometimes between my job and other events, I’m MIA for a few days and don’t hear or read the news.
Seabee201
June 19, 2018 at 3:49 am #
That egg on you face…it’s sunny side up for Trump in 2020.
Jerry L Scafidel
June 19, 2018 at 2:07 pm #
EXCELLENT!
Thanks for your hard work. My pet peeve is the chyrons and headlines from CNN and others that nearly always include “falsely” or similar adjectives in ADDITION to “claims,” to make clear their opinions of the president. It is not enough to say, “President Trump claims,” they will say “President Trump falsely claims…”
Thanks, Sharyl
Ritchie Tiemann
June 21, 2018 at 6:40 pm #
The biggest whopper of all which Sharyl missed: That Trump mocked the disability of a reporter. Jake Tapper repeated this falsehood in a Rolling Stone interview last August, and at a commencement speech he gave at UMass Amherst in May. And I might as well note that Meryl Streep peddled the lie at the Golden Globe Awards in January. The New York Slimes reported the lie without comment. It can be seen frequently in various media still. I guess it will never die.
[Brandon Straka cited this incident as precipitating his #WalkAway from the left, because he couldn’t get any of his friends to even acknowledge that it had happened; he then went out and collected his own list like Sharyl’s]
Joseph Parisi
June 21, 2018 at 10:16 pm #
Here’s that 6/21/2018 Washington Post correction I referred to previously. It was atop the article for awhile, but has since been removed.
This story has been updated to clarify how migrant parents will be processed going forward. An earlier version incorrectly stated the Trump administration was suspending prosecutions for parents of migrant children. The senior Customs and Border Protection official quoted below was describing how the agency’s operations would change to no longer refer parents of migrant children for prosecution. Decisions whether or not to prosecute are the purview of the Department of Justice.
Priscilla Hochhalter
June 28, 2018 at 11:21 am #
Can you please add the time when the mainstream media kept showing an edited video in which they claimed Trump ignored a handicapped child, when the full video clearly showed him greeting the child? Lying through editing. Priceless.
Ray Van Dune
June 28, 2018 at 6:49 pm #
When anyone comments to me about Trump’s “raising” tariffs, I merely ask them whether our current tariffs are higher, lower, or the same as the other side’s. They will usually admit they don’t know, but often claim it somehow doesn’t matter!
So I ask them: if there was one week left in the season, would you take a bet on which of two sports teams will finish the season with the best record, without looking at their current won-lost record? As they look at me with mouth hanging open, I finish them off by pointing out that since the media NEVER compares the CURRENT tariffs, it pretty much tells you the other side’s are higher, doesn’t it!
JohnS
January 4, 2019 at 9:38 am #
“The great enemy of truth is very often not the lie–deliberate, contrived and dishonest–but the myth–persistent, persuasive and unrealistic. Too often we hold fast to the cliches of our forebears. We subject all facts to a prefabricated set of interpretations. We enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.” -JFK-
The leftist pravda media enjoys the comfort of existing in their leftist echo chamber. Creating and perpetuating false narratives is how they are attempting to destroy society. “The orange man is bad,” that is all people need to know, according to these soulless and diabolical leftist automatons.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqqwTgk8ri0
Jack Cross
January 26, 2019 at 10:42 am #
You missed Trump erasing Obama Climate Website on inauguration day, when of course it was archived with all of obama’s sites. (which they had warned people of for monthe beforehand)
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/01/trump-white-house-deletes-all-mention-of-climate-change
https://www.theepochtimes.com/spygate-the-inside-story-behind-the-alleged-plot-to-take-down-trump_2833074.html
And then there’s this…
Great link. The only word is “WOW!”
“The Epoch Times” does it again. (What are the chances of such a piece of investigative journalism appearing in the NYT?…)