As Daniel Patrick Moynihan once put it: “You are entitled to your opinion. But you are not entitled to your own facts.”
It’s going to be a long four (or, God forbid, eight) years. But at least the mainstream media are finally, belatedly, holding Trump’s feet to the fire.
(In case I’ve not mentioned it before, I abhor Kellyanne Conway almost as much as her boss. But her deflection and “alternative facts” declaration are best heard directly from her.)
I hope they really do hold Trump’s feet to the fire, because I simply don’t know how to argue with people like that…
At least this time Todd persisted. He so often lets interviewees steamroll him. But yes, Trump has declared open war on the press and it’s quite obvious now that they’ve dedicated themselves to pointing out every mistep, every lie, every exaggeration that comes from Trump or his administration. They’re going to fact check every word that comes from the White House and report every deviation from the truth. Trump will rue the day he poked the American press in the eye.
(But I will continue to believe that their lack of diligent fact checking throughout Trump’s campaign contributed significantly to his election.)
P.S. I’m reminded of the old saying, “Don’t spit in the well; you might want a drink someday.” If Trump isn’t careful, someday he’s going to call a press conference and no one will show up. Someday he’s going to want to make a big announcement, and no one will report it. He hasn’t figured it out yet, but he needs the press.
We all need a free ad fearless press, not the ‘entertainers’ they’ve allowed themselves to be turned into by big money TV people. The fact that we’ve lost so much respect for them is the very thing that makes them seem so weak to people like Trump. A LOT more of what we saw from Todd we be required to turn that ship around.
I can’t stop complaining about the free ride they gave Trump for so many months — when they should have been doing hardcore investigative reporting. They should have hounded him into releasing more financial information, or dug it up themselves. But I’ve ranted for years about the loss of serious journalists and journalism.
I think the press would be wise to do just that – ignore the call. There’s a strategy in behavior modification called “extinction”. You want to change a certain behavior, you ignore it. The child acting out will soon learn that his actions aren’t achieving the desired results, so he changes his tactics.
Yep, right now he thinks the press are his toadies, and that’s exactly how they’ve been acting. If they start pressing him too hard on some issue, he throws out a tweet to deliberately distract them. Squirrel!
Kellyanne Conway is a scary person—she can say the most destructive, untrue things while smiling right at the camera. But look closely at her eyes—cold as a snake! Yes, at last the media (esp.CNN) are pushing back. They sense their own destruction, I’m afraid!
She has the same arrogant, smug, self-assured expression and attitude that Trump always has. And it’s gotten even worse since she was named one of his closest advisers. She is indeed a snake, and just like Trump, she cares only about self-aggrandizement.
She struck me a vile type of person, when this was shown on OUR news, way up here in the Southern Hemisphere. Couldn’t lie straight in bed!
I actually watched it. I will not watch her, lord master and groper! (She looks like she’d be grateful for his grope)
Must really be getting to the media when they start showing this stuff to foreigners, uncut.
They normally just show us the ‘good’stuff or what puts them in a good light.
Hah, hadn’t heard that expression before (“Couldn’t lie straight in bed”). Trump must have hired her for that ability, because she certainly doesn’t fit the beauty queen type that he likes to surround himself with.
Very descriptive expression I’m sure you’ll agree.
Gads. Just couldn’t believe that insane foolishness.
Kind of like watching a slow train wreck, isn’t it?
She creeps me out.
Me too.
Trump made a huge mistake declaring war on the media. Every act, large and small, by him and his cronies will be scrutinized and relayed to us. He worked the media expertly during his campaign. Now he is going to find out how hard they can work to expose bad conduct and wrongdoing.
Yep, the media are making up for lost time now. They’re fact-checking every word he or his cronies utter, and their reports are noting every divergance from the facts or unsubstantiated claim. They are absolutely shredding him and will continue to do so until he changes his tune (and I don’t think he’s capable of doing that).
A good example would be this article in today’s Washington Post: “The first days inside Trump’s White House: Fury, tumult and a reboot.” Trump’s not going to be able to control this sort of exposure.
And there will be constant disclaimers and qualifiers, such as “With no evidence, Trump claims that up to 5 million illegal ballots cost him the popular vote,” another story in today’s WaPo. Trump made his bed; now he has to lie in it.
The media seems to be worried about saying it’s a lie. If you say something that is not true, it’s a lie.
Call out a lie for what it is.
Conway is a master at say horribly offensive and straight out lies with a smile and high pitch childish voice. It’s a ploy to stop being called out, it’s a good manipulation.
If you say something that’s not true, but don’t know it’s not true, then it’s a misstatement, a mistake, or ignorance. If you know it’s not true but say it anyway with the intent to mislead or deceive, then you’re a liar. Calling someone a liar when they aren’t could get you sued for defamation. So yes, the media have to be careful about calling someone a liar.
That’s a good point. I think they need to be more savy. It’s a difficult situation but somehow they need to be called out.
Maybe the bull in a China shop method isn’t always appropriate but I’d like to see more of it.
Absolutely, in every way possible and in every instance, anything less than the truth needs to be called out.