Politics –
Fake News Showdown
At The White House

Donald Trump’s continuous claims that every legitimate news outlet is ‘fake news’ and he is the only reliable source took a tumultuous turn on Tuesday during a heated exchange.

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During Tuesday’s briefing, Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders openly complained to the media about the use of “unnamed sources” and “the constant barrage of fake news” aimed at the administration. That’s when Brian Karem, a reporter from the Sentinel Newspapers, let it be known that he had had enough of the wild claims and tore into both Sanders and Trump.

“If any one of us doesn’t get it right, the audience has the opportunity to turn the channel or not read us,” Karem said. “You have been elected to serve four years at least — there’s no option other than that.”

Although Karem was speaking for himself, he was echoing the sentiments of all of his colleagues, who have been frequently degraded by Trump as “fake news” and who have been banned from televising White House press briefings.

“We’re in here asking you questions,” Karem boldly continued. “You’re here to provide the answers and what you just did is inflammatory to people all over the country who look at it and say, ‘See, once again, the president’s right, and everybody else out here is fake media.’ And everybody in this room is trying to do their job.”

As expected, Sanders immediately went on the defensive.

“I disagree completely. I think if anything’s been inflamed, it’s often the dishonesty that takes in the news media. And I think it’s outrageous for you to accuse me of inflaming a story.”

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Earlier, Sanders was asked why the prompt resignations of the CNN reporters (who retracted an inaccurate story regarding a “Russian investment fund with ties to Trump officials”) only thrust Donald Trump into “See, I was right” mode as if it were concrete proof that all the networks peddle “fake news.”

“I think it’s the constant barrage of fake news directed at this president probably that has garnered a lot of his frustration,” Sanders replied. She then used the example of a video from conservative rabble-rouser James O’Keefe — that appeared to show a CNN medical producer saying the network’s coverage of possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 presidential election is “mostly bullsh*t” — as her weapon of proof.

“There’s a video circulating now — whether it’s accurate or not I don’t know — but I would encourage everybody in this room and frankly everybody across the country to take a look at it,” Sanders said. “I think if it is accurate I think it’s a disgrace to all of media, to all of journalism. I think that we have gone to a place where if the media can’t be trusted to report the news, then that’s a dangerous place for America.”

In spite of her admonition of the press, Sanders did not address why Donald Trump believes any news outlet which doesn’t agree with him is ‘fake news,’ why he has regular trouble presenting a clear and sensible message, and why he’s so afraid of the media that he no longer allows television cameras to film what he or his press secretaries say.

Still, Karem was having none of it.

“I don’t like bullies and I don’t like the entire situation of the press and free speech being castigated for no other reason than we either get stories wrong — which happens, and it should be then responsibly corrected — or because we report news the president doesn’t like — which seems to happen even more often than getting stories wrong,” Karem later said.

Ouch!

OK WASSUP! discusses politics:
Fake news at The White House?