Fake News, off and running
A 9/28 email sent to supporters by the Republican National Committee contained an ominous admonition from President Donald Trump:
"We cannot allow the Fake News media and obstructionist Democrats to flood the airwaves and mislead the American people."
Only the night before, I'd seen exactly the political press deceitfulness of which Trump warned. I'd seen how "fake news" is cheerily wrought by its unprincipled architects.
On 9/27, the Hill.com published "Meghan McCain rips report Trump physically mocking her father," by staff writer Jonathan Easley. The physical mockery alleged consisted solely of a 'thumbs down' gesture. But, as McCain is presently suffering cancer issues, the obvious implication was that the president was somehow assailing the Arizona senator on related, beyond-the-pale grounds.
Easley's entire deceptive effort cited only a single foundation, a brief Axios.com piece by Mike Allen. (Allen's resume features red flag-names like Time, Politico, and the New York Times.)
https://www.axios.com/trump-at-war-with-everyone-mocks-mccain-mcconnell-2490111904.html
Allen's Axios article -- "Trump, at war with everyone, mocks McCain, McConnell" -- opened with an unattributed claim: "In private, President Trump has taken to physically mocking M&M: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (slumped shoulders, lethargic body language) and Sen. John McCain (imitating the thumbs-down of his historic health care vote)."
And, that's it. No attribution -- not even the standard, after-assertion "according to insiders requesting anonymity" familiar to everyone who's ever picked up a paper, turned to a news broadcast, or in some other fashion been bilge-splattered by the politically biased and ethically ramshackle mainstream media.)
(If Allen would claim to have witnessed any of this personally, he does not inform readers. Nor would his unsupported word likely be deemed reliable by anyone familiar with his professionally dubious past. In 2013, the Washington Post exposed Allen's under-table marketing of favorable Politico coverage to businesses in return for advertising dollars, Remember, too, that he was ignominiously caught out giving Chelsea Clinton veto authority over campaign-era Politico interview questions.)
Unsurprisingly, the dirty work of Allen and Easley quickly realized
returns from undiscerning readers already loaded down with bias against America's president. Persons commenting online, many of whom hid behind the shadow-cover of anonymity, cheered the smear without critical consideration.
Often cited by them was then-candidate Trump's ridicule of flustered reporter Serge Kovalevski. And just that link in the public consciousness was surely one Fake News dirty-tricksters had hoped to inspire.
By the following day, the unproved story had assumed further animation. "McCain on Trump reportedly mocking him: Nothing I can do about it," by Hill staff writer Jordain Carney, was based on Easley's Hill article, which, in turn, was wholly based on Allen's unattributed Axios claim.
http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/352921-mccain-on-trump-reportedly-mocking-him-nothing-i-can-do-about-it
Postscript: Let's not allow PC prissiness to strangle humor or effective communication. Whether or not Trump ever impersonated anyone, caricatures amplify individual characteristics. They easily identify select subjects.
Obviously, decency dictates that handicaps and similarly unchosen impairments are not legitimate matters for mockery. But not every mannerism, vocal inflection, or idiosyncrasy belongs in that 'untouchable' category. To suggest otherwise, as would seem to be true of eager shovelers of this latest anti-Trump smear, advocates neutering a goodly portion of innocent commentary on the human condition.
In the 1980s, then-stand up Richard Belzer regularly and hilariously mimed a press-evading Ronald Reagan, pretending to not hear shouted questions over a helicopter's engine noise. Belzer effected a sort of rhythmic shuffle in which the former president alternately cupped an ear/shrugged his shoulders/stepped toward the 'copter/gestured bafflement, and screwed up his features. The entire process was repeated. And repeated. And repeated.
(Go to 1:12 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpSs18Yr2PQ)
It was funny because it was immediately recognizable. It captured its intended object in a manner familiar to audiences.
And there's nothing wrong with a good laugh. It's something free people do.
A 9/28 email sent to supporters by the Republican National Committee contained an ominous admonition from President Donald Trump:
"We cannot allow the Fake News media and obstructionist Democrats to flood the airwaves and mislead the American people."
Only the night before, I'd seen exactly the political press deceitfulness of which Trump warned. I'd seen how "fake news" is cheerily wrought by its unprincipled architects.
On 9/27, the Hill.com published "Meghan McCain rips report Trump physically mocking her father," by staff writer Jonathan Easley. The physical mockery alleged consisted solely of a 'thumbs down' gesture. But, as McCain is presently suffering cancer issues, the obvious implication was that the president was somehow assailing the Arizona senator on related, beyond-the-pale grounds.
Easley's entire deceptive effort cited only a single foundation, a brief Axios.com piece by Mike Allen. (Allen's resume features red flag-names like Time, Politico, and the New York Times.)
https://www.axios.com/trump-at-war-with-everyone-mocks-mccain-mcconnell-2490111904.html
Allen's Axios article -- "Trump, at war with everyone, mocks McCain, McConnell" -- opened with an unattributed claim: "In private, President Trump has taken to physically mocking M&M: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (slumped shoulders, lethargic body language) and Sen. John McCain (imitating the thumbs-down of his historic health care vote)."
And, that's it. No attribution -- not even the standard, after-assertion "according to insiders requesting anonymity" familiar to everyone who's ever picked up a paper, turned to a news broadcast, or in some other fashion been bilge-splattered by the politically biased and ethically ramshackle mainstream media.)
(If Allen would claim to have witnessed any of this personally, he does not inform readers. Nor would his unsupported word likely be deemed reliable by anyone familiar with his professionally dubious past. In 2013, the Washington Post exposed Allen's under-table marketing of favorable Politico coverage to businesses in return for advertising dollars, Remember, too, that he was ignominiously caught out giving Chelsea Clinton veto authority over campaign-era Politico interview questions.)
Unsurprisingly, the dirty work of Allen and Easley quickly realized
returns from undiscerning readers already loaded down with bias against America's president. Persons commenting online, many of whom hid behind the shadow-cover of anonymity, cheered the smear without critical consideration.
Often cited by them was then-candidate Trump's ridicule of flustered reporter Serge Kovalevski. And just that link in the public consciousness was surely one Fake News dirty-tricksters had hoped to inspire.
By the following day, the unproved story had assumed further animation. "McCain on Trump reportedly mocking him: Nothing I can do about it," by Hill staff writer Jordain Carney, was based on Easley's Hill article, which, in turn, was wholly based on Allen's unattributed Axios claim.
http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/352921-mccain-on-trump-reportedly-mocking-him-nothing-i-can-do-about-it
President Trump has been right about many things. That the mainstream media is unscrupulous and unethical is one fine illustration.
Postscript: Let's not allow PC prissiness to strangle humor or effective communication. Whether or not Trump ever impersonated anyone, caricatures amplify individual characteristics. They easily identify select subjects.
Obviously, decency dictates that handicaps and similarly unchosen impairments are not legitimate matters for mockery. But not every mannerism, vocal inflection, or idiosyncrasy belongs in that 'untouchable' category. To suggest otherwise, as would seem to be true of eager shovelers of this latest anti-Trump smear, advocates neutering a goodly portion of innocent commentary on the human condition.
In the 1980s, then-stand up Richard Belzer regularly and hilariously mimed a press-evading Ronald Reagan, pretending to not hear shouted questions over a helicopter's engine noise. Belzer effected a sort of rhythmic shuffle in which the former president alternately cupped an ear/shrugged his shoulders/stepped toward the 'copter/gestured bafflement, and screwed up his features. The entire process was repeated. And repeated. And repeated.
(Go to 1:12 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpSs18Yr2PQ)
It was funny because it was immediately recognizable. It captured its intended object in a manner familiar to audiences.
And there's nothing wrong with a good laugh. It's something free people do.
posted by DC Larson at
September 28, 2017
1 Comments:
Good report and commentary. You wonderfully dissected how the msm goes about generating the fake and smears. Nicely done!
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