2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumNew Yorker - "Trump and the Truth"
Trump lies so frequently and blatantly and is so vindictive against those who call him out on such lies that the MSM has started to just gloss over his lies even though each statement whether it be his flip flops on deportation, his lie that the wall was not discussed when he met with Mexico's President, or being fined for his bribe of the Florida AG, would be enough to bring down any politician if the MSM gave it the same singular focus they give to Hillary and e-mails.
Sadly, it seems that the more Trump lies, the more effort the MSM puts into creating a false equivalency between Trump and Clinton. Every story has to discuss them as both having trust issues even though Trump's lies are unprecedented in scope. Put another way, the worse Trump acts, the more the media attacks Hillary Clinton in an effort to create the illusion of a tough choice between the two.
Here the New Yorker while engaging in the pro forma reference to Hillary also having issues with telling the truth (obligatory pander to being "fair" , does focus a bit on Trump's amazing willingness to lie with impunity.
http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/introducing-a-new-series-trump-and-the-truth
No President has not lied, even Lincoln. Honest Abe once said, I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so.
But sometimes there really is something new under the political sun. Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for President, does not so much struggle with the truth as strangle it altogether. He lies to avoid. He lies to inflame. He lies to promote and to preen. Sometimes he seems to lie just for the hell of it. He traffics in conspiracy theories that he cannot possibly believe and in grotesque promises that he cannot possibly fulfill. When found out, he changes the subjector lies larger.
We are not alone in noticing this characteristic of Trumps. It has been the central preoccupation of much of the decent journalism produced in the past year. Trumps capacity for lying inspires equal parts awe and revulsion. Even journalists raised in the Nixon era cannot but be impressed. The accounting is revealing and requires updating on a daily basis. Fact-checking sites such as Politifact have focussed an intelligent lens on Trump, and so have many excellent reporters from the Washington Post and the New York Times.
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In recent weeks, reporters and the fact-checking department at The New Yorker have put their efforts into a series of reported essays about Trump and lying. No one here is suggesting that Trump is the only politician ever to unleash a whopper. In fact, Hillary Clinton has had her bald-faced momentsmoments that are too kindly described as lawyerly. But, in the scale and in the depth of his lying, Donald Trump is in another category; this effort, which begins with Eyal Presss essay on Trump and immigration and will continue every week through the election, is by way of keeping track of a record that appears to know no bounds, and certainly no shame.
Control-Z
(15,682 posts)We need to see articles like this on the front page of every newspaper, every day, and as part of every news report.
world wide wally
(21,749 posts)"Responsible" journalists with access to the MSM are a rare breed these days