Fake News alert: Bloomberg's Kartikay Mehrotra spreads anti-Trump falsehood

From Twitter page

In September 25 Bloomberg News article "Judge Asks If 'America First' Is Code for Racial Hostility," writer Kartikay Mehrotra refers matter-of-factly to a "Trump January Twitter rant in which the president dubbed the African continent and Haiti 'shithole countries.'"

That phrase  was not originally claimed to be contained in a Twitter posting And Mehrotra didn't mention that President Trump had denied making the remark.

Mehrotra linked to a January 18, 2015 Bloomberg article, presumably for evidentiary support. (Many readers might not follow links, but assume their presence to indicate foundation.)

That particular one, though, did not validate Mehrotra's Twitter claim. Written by Erik Larsen, it dealt with an NAACP court filing re equal protection and US international funding.

Larsen characterized the supposed "shithole countries" remark as among ones "Trump is said to have made in private meetings that were leaked to the media." And, unlike Mehrotra, Larsen told readers President Trump had denied making the claimed remark.

The Larsen article, in turn, links to another Bloomberg piece. That one was credited to Jennifer Epstein, Erik Wasson, and Arit John, and detailed the origin of the alleged remark: Illinois Democrat Senator Dick Durbin claimed to reporters he'd heard the president refer to "shithole countries" during a closed-door meeting.

In a subsequent Twitter post, the president flatly denied Durbin's unsupported and scurrilous accusation. The authors quoted the president's message which read, in part: "The language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough, but this was not the language used."

So, Mehrotra's "Twitter rant" claim was false. Why did he make it? There are at least two possible reasons: He may have misrepresented the matter with malice aforethought, or he may have heard and read so many falsehoods about Trump that he came to accept them without critical investigation, and passed vicious fiction along in his own writing because of professional injudiciousness.

Whichever is the case, Kartikay Mehrotra surely needn't worry about Bloomberg reader complaints or professional repercussions. A select market is accepting of Fake News that diminishes President Trump, and media executives seem to delight in it.

Mainstream journalism is no longer about accuracy or realities. It's now about manipulation of news to advocate ideology, and catering to audiences' political bigotry.

Whether those goals are realized honestly or dishonestly is entirely beside the point. The end justifies the means.