90 Miles From Tyranny

Wednesday, June 20, 2018

50 Media Mistakes in the Trump Era: The Definitive List

We the media have “fact-checked” President Trump like we have fact-checked no other human being on the planet—and he’s certainly given us plenty to write about. That’s probably why it’s so easy to find lists enumerating and examining his mistakes, missteps and “lies.”

But as self-appointed arbiters of truth, we’ve largely excused our own unprecedented string of fact-challenged reporting. The truth is, formerly well-respected, top news organizations are making repeat, unforced errors in numbers that were unheard of just a couple of years ago.

Our repeat mistakes involve declaring that Trump’s claims are “lies” when they are matters of opinion, or when the truth between conflicting sources is unknowable; taking Trump’s statements and events out of context; reporting secondhand accounts against Trump without attribution as if they’re established fact; relying on untruthful, conflicted sources; and presenting reporter opinions in news stories—without labeling them as opinions.

What’s worse, we defend ourselves by trying to convince the public that our mistakes are actually a virtue because we (sometimes) correct them. Or we blame Trump for why we’re getting so much wrong. It’s a little bit like a police officer taking someone to jail for DUI, then driving home drunk himself: he may be correct to arrest the suspect, but he should certainly know better than to commit the same violation.

So since nobody else has compiled an updated, extensive list of this kind, here are:

50 Notable Mistakes and Missteps in Major Media Reporting on Donald Trump

1. Aug. 2016-Nov. 2016:
The New York Post published modeling photos of Trump’s wife Melania and reported they were taken in 1995. Various news outlets relied on that date to imply that Melania—an immigrant—had violated her visa status. But the media got the date wrong. Politico was among the news agencies that later issued a photo date correction.

2. Oct. 1, 2016:
The New York Times and other media widely suggested or implied that Trump had not paid income taxes for 18 years. Later, tax return pages leaked to MSNBC ultimately showed that Trump actually paid a higher rate than Democrats Bernie Sanders and President Obama.

3. Oct. 18, 2016:
In a Washington Post piece not labelled opinion or analysis, Stuart Rothenberg reported that Trump’s path to an electoral college victory was “nonexistent.”

4. Nov. 4, 2016:
USA Today misstated Melania Trump’s “arrival date from Slovenia” amid a flurry of reporting that questioned her immigration status from the mid-1990s.

Gallup: “Right track” response highest in 12 years – Trump approval ties his personal best...

Liberals require misery to win. A happy, successful, country is not a place where their doomsaying can find purchase, so the better things are going, the harder it is for them to sell their class-warfare ideology. If people are happy, they’re not looking for a scapegoat – and the blame game is the only operational strategy the left has.

So, if you’re a lefty looking for a big midterm victory, the newest round of Gallup polling has some bad news for you. People are pretty pleased with the way things are going…

“The satisfaction rate, which Gallup has measured at least monthly since 2001, has now topped 35% three times this year — a level reached only three times in the previous 12 years (once each in 2006, 2009 and 2016).

…The rise in satisfaction over the past two months comes amid a spate of positive economic news — including the shrinking of the unemployment rate to levels last seen in 2000 and the continuation of an economic expansion that is now the second longest on record. ”

Oof. That’s a hard pill to swallow if your entire 2018 Midterm message is built upon the idea that everything is awful. At least progressives can still go out there and scream about the President, right? After all, the Pelosis of the world are constantly telling us that we’re just minutes away from massive, nationwide, anti-Trump riots!

Uh-oh.

President Donald Trump’s job approval rating averaged 45% in Gallup polling last week, tying his personal high. His previous 45% rating occurred in the first week after he was inaugurated as president.

The recent increase in Trump’s approval puts his rating on par with...

There will likely be a TON of leaks coming out of the just-concluded meeting between President Trump and Republicans in Congress.

The main reason is this: Donald Trump let them have it with both barrels. Apparently, it was Trump unleashed like the D.C. Swamp hadn’t yet seen.

“You really want to try and win your election in November without me? I don’t think so.”

UPDATE: “I’m following the law as it’s written. If you don’t like the law then Congress needs to change it. It’s simple. Simple. I’m with you but if you don’t like it you need to do something about it…It looks bad. Sure. Really bad. If you want to change that then change the law. DO SOMETHING. You people (Congress) have to change it. That’s how it has to be done.”

UPDATE #2: “We all know what it is. It’s fake. Fake news. CNN…it’s fake. The pictures…that was Obama’s, during his administration, not mine. You can’t let it scare you. That’s what they want. That’s why they do it. This law, you just need to change it if you don’t like it. And that’s the way it is. I’m not here to save you. I’m here to let you know I’ll support you but you have to do something. Or not. But if you don’t do something don’t come crying to me about it okay? Right?”

UPDATE #3: “Why is this coming up now? I mean, it’s so obvious am I right? Mitch knows. The economy, jobs, North Korea, there’s so much great news they had to do the fake news. I’m not saying the pictures aren’t bad. They’re bad. Certainly not good. They make it look bad. You have to do something. You have to work together. It could be such a big, beautiful thing if you did that. The Democrats won’t help. We all know that. They think this is good for them. We’ll see about that. But doing something, working together, isn’t that why you’re here? It should be. And if you don’t...

You have come across a mystery box. But what is inside?

It could be literally anything from the serene to the horrific,

from the beautiful to the repugnant,

from the mysterious to the familiar.

If you decide to open it, you could be disappointed,

you could be inspired, you could be appalled.

This is not for the faint of heart or the easily offended.

You have been warned.

Girls With Guns

Recent data, released today by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), revealed that the government granted amnesty to 53,000 illegal aliens -- 7% of all DACA recipients -- with existing criminal convictions under Pres. Obama's DACA executive amnesty. Of those criminal aliens approved for DACA, 10 were granted status despite being arrested for murder.

Additionally, the DHS report revealed that almost 8,000 more illegal aliens ended up with criminal charges after they were granted amnesty through the program. The data also show that of those criminal DACA recipients, 31 were charged with rape, 500 allegedly committed sex crimes, and more than 2,000 were arrested for driving while intoxicated.

"You have to have a conviction. You can be arrested a whole lot of times and get DACA," USCIS Director Francis Cissna said in a Fox News interview.

According to the report, more than 1,200 DACA recipients were granted amnesty, despite having between five and nine arrests on their records. Another 24 were granted amnesty, despite having been arrested more than 19 times, and regardless of the severity of the crime.

The report's release comes as the House is scheduled to vote on the Ryan Amnesty plan that would grant amnesty to at least 1.8 million illegal aliens. Because the Ryan Amnesty, like DACA, allows illegal aliens with criminal charges to still qualify, it would enable illegal aliens with multiple arrests for crimes to be eligible for...