November 4, 2018

It's time for the media to stop spreading lies for Trump

Sam Smith - If I, in the course of an interview, were to tell a reporter that I had been married to Princess Diana before Prince Charles, the average journalist would not only not report that, they probably wouldn't regard much else I had said in the interview as worth reporting. And if it was reported it would be reported as a clear lie.

If I had said the same thing under oath in a court or to an FBI agent I would likely have been charged with a crime.

But the standard of journalism and the law is not being applied these days by the media dealing with Donald Trump. True, the Washington Post has tallied the score of roughly ten lies per day of his administration, but such a historic analysis doesn't counter a TV cable channel runnilng the president speaking lies in endless speeches  and not doing a damn thing about it.

The media must realize that to broadcast or print a presidential lie without identifying it as such makes it a partner in the offense, just as it was when German newspapers faithfully reported the lies of the Hitler regime.

The solution is simple: don't print or broadcast any Trump lie without identifying it as such. Do anything else and you're part of the presidential propaganda machine. 

3 comments:

Bill Bolivia said...

Might this foolishness have anything, Sam, to do with "access?" I might have misunderstood why the press--generally--has played the lackey role when it came to its queries of all incumbent administrations. In self-defense, the plea is the need to maintain access by maintaining good relations. Yes, there have been a modest number of journalists who've proven exceptions to this traditional and now-standardized approach; for example, I.F. Stone.

Anonymous said...

Wonder what parallel video presentation, side by side, showing Hitler's lies opposite the lies being told by Trump.

Greg Gerritt said...

Maybe a better ideea would be to conduct a week long strike against covering anything the liar in chief says. And if that works, make it permanent.