Fake News Is Destroying America's Mainstream Media, NOT Trump

THE REAL NEWS TODAY IS THAT THE DEEP STATE / MEDIA WAR AGAINST TRUMP IS CRUMBLING. It began with what the media itself called "mistakes" but it has exploded into the biggest mainstream media Fake news story ever. And, President Trump is winning this war, going away. • • • TRUMP CALLS OUT THE MSM FOR ITS FAKE NEWS. TheHill reported on Sunday that President Trump ripped journalists, calling their work "a stain on America" after a series of reporting errors last week received extensive media attention. Trump tweeted : "Very little discussion of all the purposely false and defamatory stories put out this week by the Fake News Media. They are out of control -- correct reporting means nothing to them. Major lies written, then forced to be withdrawn after they are exposed...a stain on America!" The President's tweet comes after various journalists became targets of Trump and his supporters last week over a series of reporting errors. • The "errors" by CNN and ABC have been widely covered in the media, including on CNN, which featured a Sunday segment on "mistakes" in journalism. Trump referred to ABC News's Brian Ross as a "fraudster" on Friday, a week after he reported that Trump had directed his former national security advisor Michael Flynn to make contact with Russian officials during the campaign. ABC later corrected the report to say the President directed Flynn to contact Russia after he was elected. Trump also took aim at CNN after the network was forced to make a correction last Friday regarding documents Donald Trump Jr. received from WikiLeaks. Trump told a rally in Pensecola on Friday : "Oh thank you, CNN, thank you so much. You should have been apologizing for the last two years." Washington Post reporter Dave Weigel became Trump's next target on Saturday after the President demanded that he apologize for tweeting a photo of an empty arena before a Trump rally in Florida that had been taken hours before the event started. Weigel responded and apologized minutes after Trump tweeted that he had "put out a phony photo of an empty arena hours before I arrived." Trump has called for the Post to fire Weigel. • Everyone knows -- especially political journalists -- that Trump’s Friday night rally in Pensacola, Florida, was another jam-packed event with a near-capacity crowd of 12,000. But, Weigel appeared to be under the impression that the media had not already suffered enough black eyes for one week, so he used his verified Twitter account to openly attack Trump with photographic fake news -- The photo Weigel published was taken before the Trump rally began, and Weigel knew he was publishing a photo not taken during the actual rally. Weigel, who says he is an objective reporter, not only published a misleading photo, but the link at the top of his now-deleted tweet proves that he was responding directly to one of Trump’s tweets -- in other words, he publicly heckled the President personally. By directly answering the President wiht a Fake photo on Twitter, Weigel openly taunted Trump, going so far as to troll the President with his own “packed to the rafters” comment. • Directly jeering the President of the United States in this way is outrageously unacceptable behavior from any journalist. And, Weigel should ahve known better than to think that President Trump would let it slide by. Trump's tweet was a backhand to both Weigel and the Washington Post : "@DaveWeigel @WashingtonPost put out a phony photo of an empty arena hours before I arrived @ the venue, w/ thousands of people outside, on their way in. Real photos now shown as I spoke. Packed house, many people unable to get in. Demand apology & retraction from FAKE NEWS WaPo!" • It took minutes for Weigel to apologize, claiming the Fake photo was "confusion" on his part : "Sure thing: I apologize. I deleted the photo after @dmartosko told me I'd gotten it wrong. Was confused by the image of you walking in the bottom right corner." Trump was not interested in Weigel’s apology, and hit back with : “@daveweigel of the Washington Post just admitted that his picture was a FAKE (fraud?) showing an almost empty arena last night for my speech in Pensacola when, in fact, he knew the arena was packed (as shown also on TV). FAKE NEWS, he should be fired." Naturally, the elite media responded -- not by admonishing Weigel over his inexcusably inaccurate trolling -- but with their favorite claim that Trump is the one man in America who does not have the First Amendment right to criticize the media -- Kyle Griffin : "The president calling for a journalist to be fired seems like a public threat to the First Amendment." // Maggie Haberman : "And apologized as Trump demanded. And then Trump said that’s not enough. Almost feels like wanting the apology wasn’t the point." // Adam Serwer : "A head of state publicly calling for a journalist to be fired is a textbook threat to freedom of speech....The best reporters make errors; @daveweigel is a great reporter who made a mistake and corrected it, only to end up bullied by the President of the United States, who has a lengthy record of false statements and a nonexistent record of correcting them." • The mainstream madia was not embarrassed or contrite. They simply continued to attack President Trump because they hate him and are prepared to lie and cheat in order to destroy him and his presidency. They are a hyena pack. And the Washington Post is employing and paying many of these Fake journalists, as is CNN, ABC and NBC. • • • JEFF SESSIONS DID NOT LIE TO CONGRESS ABOUT FOREIGN CONTACTS. On Tuesday, the Daily Caller published an article daying that : "CNN has quietly walked back more of their 'bombshell' reporting on the Trump-Russia collusion narrative, and this time it’s a story relating to Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ security clearance forms." Here is the Daily Caller explanation : "In May, CNN reported that Sessions had failed to disclose meetings he had with the Russian ambassador when he was a Senator. Justice Department officials told CNN that Sessions had not listed those meetings on a security clearance form, even though the form says to list 'any contact' with the 'foreign government' or its 'representatives' in the past seven years. CNN framed the non-disclosures as more evidence of collusion between Russia and the Trump team, writing, 'He has come under withering criticism from Democrats following revelations that he did not disclose the same contacts with Kislyak during his Senate confirmation hearings earlier this year.' " • When the CNN story first broke, Sessions said he was told by the FBI not to list meetings “connected with his Senate activities.” CNN’s "legal expert" denied those claims, and CNN further reported : "“A legal expert who regularly assists officials in filling out the form disagrees with the Justice Department’s explanation, suggesting that Sessions should have disclosed the meetings." Of course, the mainstream anti-Trump media picked up the CNN story that purported to uncover non-disclosures by a Trump official trying to hide problematic meetings with the Russians. • HOWEVER, CNN admitted early Monday that FBI emails prove that Sessions’ explanation for the non-disclosures is accurate. CNN wrote on Monday : “A newly released document shows that the FBI told an aide to Attorney General Jeff Sessions that Sessions wasn’t required to disclose foreign contacts that occurred in the course of carrying out his government duties when he was a Senator,” indicating that Sessions was following what the FBI told him and was not intentionally trying to mislead the DOJ about his meetings with Russians. • • • DONALD TRUMP JR DID NOT HAVE PRIOR ACCESS TO WIKILEAKS DOCUMENTS ABOUT THE DNC. LAst Friday ,CNN -- who else? -- had to correct another “bombshell” report that claimed Donald Trump Jr. had advance access to Wikileaks documents stolen from the Democrats. It was again the Daily Caller that scooepd the story. Daily Caller reporter Chuch Ross wrote : "CNN has yet to offer a full explanation for how it butchered a story alleging that the Trump campaign was provided a preview of documents stolen from the DNC during the presidential campaign. The network, which bills itself as 'the most trusted name in news,' says its journalists, Manu Raju and Jeremy Herb, went through the proper editorial process and therefore won’t be disciplined. CNN also claimed that the sources for the story did not intend to deceive. By providing that cover, CNN avoids having to identify its anonymous sources." Ross says that a review of CNN’s backpeddle reporting on the story raises questions about both the defenses. And, says Ross : "neither Raju nor the network want to talk about it. Raju declined comment, and referred questions to CNN spokeswoman Lauren Pratapas. Pratapas did not respond to a request for comment." • The problem centered on email dates. Here is the Daily Caller account :"Raju reported early Friday morning that Donald Trump Jr. had turned over to investigators with the House Intelligence Committee an email from a man named Mike Erickson which provided a link to a batch of DNC documents along with a decryption key. Erickson also mentioned documents that had been stolen from former Secretary of State Colin Powell. Raju reported that the email was sent on September 4, 2016. That date was significant because it was 10 days before a Russia front group called DC Leaks released stolen Powell emails. If Erickson had indeed provided the hacked documents to Trumpworld in advance of their public release, CNN would have uncovered the first evidence that the Trump campaign was aware of Russian hacking prior to it being made public." BUT, CNN’s story fell apart four hours after publication, as showm by the Daily Caller : "The Washington Post first reported that the email from Erickson was dated September 14, 2016 and not September 4, 2016. The Daily Caller obtained and published a copy of the email soon after. It turned out that the day before Erickson’s email, Wikileaks had teased the release of a batch of DNC documents on Twitter. In its tweet, the group also provided a decryption key. Also on September 13, 2016, DC Leaks published Powell’s stolen emails. CNN corrected the story on air nearly two hours after The Post first reported on the email. And though the correction was so significant as to make the initial story worthless, CNN has refused to retract the report." • The CNN PR group issued a statement announcing the correction on Friday, giving the statement to one of its own reporters, Oliver Darcy, a CNN reporter who covers the media beat -- not a reputable way to 'retract' any error. Brian Stelter, the host of CNN’s Sunday media show, “Reliable Sources,” provided more details about CNN’s thinking about the false report. Stelter reiterated that it was not believed that Raju’s sources intentionally misled him and that the sources for the story have been reliable in the past. • That led the Daily Caller to ask some penetrating questions -- not as yet answered by CNN : "Raju’s reporting strongly suggests that his source works on the Democratic side of the House Intelligence Committee. In his reports, he referred to Congress’ handling of the Trump Jr. emails and also cited comments that Trump Jr. made during an interview he gave to the panel on Wednesday. Trump Jr.’s lawyer, Alan Futerfas, also speculated that Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee leaked the information. CNN anchor Jake Tapper had an opportunity on Sunday to probe the top Democrat on that Committee about the email leak. But during his interview of California Representative Adam Schiff, Tapper avoided the flawed report altogether. The spokesman for committee Democrats did not respond to the Daily Caller’s requests for comment. Raju’s reporting also indicated that he did not see the Erickson email. But he and CNN have not addressed what information he was actually provided by his 'multiple sources.' Raju reported Erickson’s name but appears not to have been told about other information contained in the email that would have shed more light on who he was. Raju reported that 'investigators are not certain who this individual is and we were not able to make contact with this person.' In another segment, Raju reported that 'we tried to find a Mike Erickson. We were not able to identify this person. Congressional investigators don’t know who the person is.' But the actual email undercuts that reporting since Erickson is easily identifiable in the email. The copy provided to the Daily Caller shows that Erickson’s email address is clearly listed. Erickson’s positions with two aviation companies are also listed at the bottom of the email....A simple Google search returned a phone number and address for Erickson. He did not respond to emails or multiple phone calls from The Daily Caller. CNN has yet to say whether its reporters also attempted to contact Erickson prior to publishing the story. Among the questions posed to CNN (which its spokeswoman did not respond to) : 1.) What was Raju told about the Erickson email? Was he provided Erickson’s email address and the name of the companies he worked for? 2.) Did Raju attempt to contact Erickson? If so, how? 3.) Did Raju’s sources tell him that they could not figure out who Erickson was? If that’s what Raju was told, then his sources were either lying or not fully informed about the email. 4.) If the sources told Raju that they did not know who Erickson was, then how can CNN say that they did not intend to mislead the network? 5.) Did Raju ask his sources whether they had seen the email? What did they say? 6.) Will Raju’s sources be used in the future? Will CNN allow its reporters to write stories based upon readouts of emails that they have not seen? 7.) Did Raju figure out the significance of the September 4 date himself, or was he clued into that significance by his sources?" • CNN is the Godfather of Fake News. It appears that neither its reporters nor its management can any longer tell a straight story OR do the necessary journalistic digging into sources and 'facts' before rushing out to slam President Trump. Sad, isn't it? CNN used to be a great news network. Ted Turner must be ashamed. • • • THE ANTI-TRUMP MEDIA DO NOT SEE A PROBLEM WITH FAKE NEWS. TheHill called the Fake news "mistakes," accusing Trump and his son of "capitalizing on the "mistakes" : "Both the president and his son Donald Trump Jr. have tried to capitalize on the media’s mistakes this weekend in an attempt to discredit journalists. Trump on Sunday blasted the "out of control" media for being "a stain on America," while Trump Jr. slammed news outlets for not contacting him in their reporting : 'If they were really trying to get to the truth you would think they would reach out to the other side before running with it. They all have my number...they couldn’t care less about the truth." • TheHill also says that : "The mistakes provide additional fodder for Trump's claim that the media is overhyping the investigation into Russia's election meddling, a concern also raised on Sunday shows." • But, the Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway, a prominent conservative writer, suggested during a Sunday interview on Fox News’s “Media Buzz” that “the real scandal” could be journalists "perpetuating" the "Russia-Trump collusion narrative." Shall we say it again -- THERE IS NO EVIDENCE. • Former Trump aide David Bossie told "Media Buzz" on Sunday : ““They can’t help themselves. They hate this President. They will never let him succeed.” Bossie also slammed Washington Post reporter Dave Weigel, who apologized Saturday after tweeting out the photo of an empty arena hosting a Trump rally that was taken hours before the event began : “We have story after story after story of fake news." • But one MSM genius, the Atlantic editor David Frum, who was a GW Bush speechwriter, said the "mistakes" are "precisely the reason the people should trust the media." Frum told CNN that journalism is a process, saying that readers gradually consume news over time to discern the truth : “In the process, there are going to be overshoots and undershoots." • I'm waiting for the first Trump-positive overshoot from the Progressive media -- ain't gonna happen. • And, as always, a ProgDem House member, Tim Ryan -- no relation of Speaker Ryan -- made the usual Progressive anti-Trump comment after President Trump said that the media is a “stain on America.” Representative Ryan said : “The stain here is your repeated attempts to weaken and undermine the 1st amendment to project your own disingenuous reality onto the public." • • • THE LIBERTARIAN DAILY BELL CHIMES IN ON TRUMP'S SIDE. On Sunday, the Daily Bell, which has a purely libertarian view on world events, wrote a response to the media defense of its Fake news : "Even if the news is dripping with errors, boiling with bias, and presenting a false narrative, it is important to trust them. That’s what media outlets are saying in response to multiple melt-downs this week. They just can’t seem to get the facts straight…or stop themselves from lying. Obviously, Trump is going to call them out on this. Is anyone surprised? But some people think this is a threat to free speech. Adam Serwer of the Atlantic was among those who pointed out that a head of state “publicly calling for a journalist to be fired is a textbook threat to freedom of speech.” Incorrect. If Trump called for government regulations allowing them to fire journalists for “fake news” THAT would be a textbook example of a threat to free speech. But Trump didn’t say that. Trump’s issue was with a Washington Post journalist who tweeted a photo of a half-empty stadium before a Trump rally in Pensacola on Friday. The only problem…the photo was taken hours before the rally, and by the time the rally started, the stadium was packed. This 'journalist' was caught red-handed spinning a false narrative about how popular Trump is. That isn’t someone that should be trusted to deliver unbiased real informative news. Yet if Trump didn’t call him out, he likely would have kept the photo up. That is literally reporting fake news. The journalist says Trump is so unpopular that his speeches are empty. The truth is that his speeches are full." • The Daily Bell says : "President Trump feels that he has moved the 'fake news' argument from the fringe to the conservative mainstream, according to close Trump associates....The mistakes -- ABC’s Brian Ross on Michael Flynn’s plea, financial outlets on a Mueller subpoena of bank records, and CNN on an email about WikiLeaks -- give Trump fodder for one of his favorite, and most damaging, tropes. Why shouldn’t this be damaging? Media screwing up or deliberately misleading viewers is cause for alarm. It is high time people realize that news agencies have an agenda....The journalist that tweeted the misleading photo of a Trump event apologized, but Trump still called on him tobe fired....Perhaps if he is fired, others will think twice before spinning a false narrative. They characterize the photo as a simple mistake. That is silly. He lied. He was called out. He backed down. Does Trump need to call out every reporter spinning their false narratives in order to hold them accountable?" • And, the Daily Bell, being libertarian, ends with a truly libertarian comment : "If anything good comes from Trump’s Presidency, it will be widespread distrust of media and government. Those with agendas in the media and government will clearly see this distrust as a bad thing. They have worked together for a long time to make sure people hold unrealistic expectations from the government and the media. The more people that disengage from this fantasy the better." • • • DEAR READERS, Sarah Huckabee Sanders has been jousting with the White House press corps every day for months -- ever since the lackadaisical Sean Spicer hit the road. Sarah Sanders must infuriate the press corps -- almost all of them are are ProgDem lapdogs -- because she has a rapid fire delivery that spits out facts while most of her inquisitors are trying to figure out what the topic is. • But, it got really hot in the White House press room on Monday. Reeling from a series of high profile retractions and corrections from some of the biggest names in broadcast and print -- ABC, CNN and The Washington Post have all been accused of publishing Fake news by the White House over the last week, and all the stories have resulted in corrections, retractions or deletions -- the press corps must have decided to take out their frustrations on Sarah. NOT a good idea. When asked about the series of journalistic errors and if they are different from organized disinformation, Sanders said : "The President is calling out a very direct and false accusation lodged against him. There was nothing more than an individual trying to put their bias into their reporting, and something that frankly has gotten a little bit out of control. We have seen it time and time again over the last couple of weeks. A number of outlets have had to retract and change and rewrite and make editor’s note to a number of different stories. Some of them with major impacts including moving markets. This is a big problem. We feel it should be taken seriously." Then, CNN’s Jim Acosta, who seems to enjoy being bashed by President Trump at every press conference -- chimed in, complaining that “journalists make honest mistakes and this does not make them fake news.” So, instead of a Trump-bashing, Acosta got a Sarah-bashing. Sanders began to respond to Acosta, saying, “Journalists make honest mistakes, they should own up to them…” but the press secretary was interrupted mid sentence by Acosta. Sarah Huckabee Sanders then let the room know who was at the podium, saying loudly, “I am sorry -- I am not finished.” Sarah Sanders continued : "There’s a very big difference between making honest mistakes and purposely misleading the American people. Something that happens regularly. You cannot say that it is an honest mistake when you are purposely putting out information that you know to be false or when you’re taking information that has not been validated, hasn’t been offered with any credibility and continually denied by a number of people including people with direct knowledge of an instance. I am speaking about the number of reports over the last couple weeks. I am stating that there should be a certain level of responsibility in that process." Someone foolishly asked Sarah to name one "misleading report." Sanders did not have to think twice : "The ABC report by Brian Ross. I think that was misleading, and it is very telling that individual had to be suspended because of that reporting. I think that shows the network took it seriously and recognized that it was a problem." Ross was suspended without pay for an inaccurate report he took to air about Trump and Russia. • You can check out the Sarah-takes-charge video at < http://dailycaller.com/2017/12/11/sarah-sanders-gets-into-it-with-cnn-over-fake-news-question-im-not-finished/?utm_medium=email > while we wait for the Alabama Senate election results to hit our TV screens.