Trump’s Fake News
I had no idea before Donald Trump became president that there is so much “fake news” about. Maybe he’s right. With 6 corporations owning 90% of American media I’ve no doubt that there are certain subjects they just don’t cover: the perils of concentrated media ownership for one, why the rich don’t need further tax cuts might be another.
Saying that corporate owned media controls the message through censorship may be accurate. But saying that the news our journalists do report is categorically false, or fake, may be a bit of a leap. When Trump says that NBC’s news is fake, he is presuming that all of its journalists are either stupid or in on an ongoing conspiracy to lie to the public. Okay, maybe some are stupid, but the truly dumb ones tend to get weeded out long before making it to a national level. As far as the later, not only does the likelihood of a conspiracy diminish exponentially with the addition of each person needed to carry it out, but this very notion is against the grain of what motivates most to be a journalist in the first place. In fact, asking journalists, of all people, to conceal a conspiracy of such magnitude would be like saying, “here, wolf, guard my sheep.”
I don’t buy the President’s reckless claims of widespread fake news. I just think there is news he doesn’t like. Thomas Jefferson wrote: “When the speech condemns a free press, you are hearing the words of a tyrant.” Maybe our President is giving himself away. Or he could be saying that the press isn’t free, and is therefore fake. Hard to say. He’s seldom clearer than a riddle. If so, I haven’t seen any effort on his part to ensure the full and proper functioning of an American free press. Instead he just tells us they are lying, that we should ignore perhaps our nation’s biggest check on Presidential power.
A mild mistrust of any message can be healthy. I have a healthy skepticism about how corporate media owners, all of whom stand to have their growth, income, and power at least slowed by “liberal” regulations, could be running a “liberal media.” I’ve no problem with anyone suspecting my honesty and integrity in this editorial. Just please don’t scream to the world that I’m full of it unless and until you have proof. Not liking what I say is not proof.
No one wants to be gullible or easily mislead. However, using the presidency to tell America that she can’t trust anything that comes from (non-right-wing) journalists is, at the very least, highly irresponsible, and at worst, acid on the already distressed fabric of our civil peace. Trump’s claims are also unbelievable since anyone who cheers and sings his praises, like Sean Hannity, is decidedly not fake news. I suspect that if our president started conducting himself more presidentially he might find that his foes in the media are suddenly reporting more accurately.
Life's Whistle Blower 