25 Feb 2017
Fake news is in the news, and Saturday’s Hamilton Spectator contained
two perfect examples of it. The one was headlined, “Are Trump’s
Denunciations of Hatred Good Enough?” and the second was, “Trump Advisor Asked
FBI to Dispute Russia Reports.”
Besides being fake news, the first piece was also an example of the media echo
chamber in action.
The first Spec story was reprinted from the notorious
Washington Post, which in turn created the report from a show the writer saw on the Clinton
News Network. CNN commentator Kayleigh McEnany asked Steven Goldstein,
director of the Ann Frank Center a set-up question, "Do you think the president
does not like Jews and is prejudiced against Jews?
If you know anything
about Mr. Goldstein and the Ann Frank Center, you knew already what his answer to the set-up question would be: “You bet!” he answered. (The Ann Frank Center describes itself as "a progressive voice for social justice fighting hatred of refugees and immigrants.... The McEnamy question was meant to elicit Mr. Goldstein's controversial opinion.)
When challenged about Trump’s daughter and son-in-law being
Jewish, Goldstein exploded, “I’m tired of commentators on the right trotting
out his daughter…” He concluded his tirade with, “Have you no
ethics?” And thus begins a narrative about President Trump being
anti-Semitic, based upon eliciting the controversial opinion of one ideologue most people never heard of. Then it echoes through the media. And the proof that the busy Mr. Trump is secretly anti-Semitic? He didn’t
denounce anti-Semitism fast enough and fiercely enough 35 days into his first term (in the opinion of a committed ideologue!)
The second example of fake news proffers the narrative that Reince
Priebus improperly pressured the FBI to falsely discredit another media
narrative, that the Trump campaign had nefarious connections with Russian
intelligence during and after the election campaign. But the timeline of
the story never gets mentioned.
The New York Times publishes a
false story given it by outgoing Obama Administration officials. Deputy
FBI Director Andrew McCabe at a morning meeting tells Priebus that the Times
story was based on pure bunkum. Priebus asks Deputy Director McCabe if
there is something the FBI can put out that would say that. McCabe says,
give me a few hours and I’ll find out. Priebus calls a few hours later,
and McCabe says there is nothing the FBI can do, officially.
Hence, the
storyline is: “Priebus asked FBI to dispute Russia reports,” not: “Times spoofed,
Reports of contacts based on ‘bunkum’.”
Narratives that live by the
unnamed source deserve to die by the unnamed source, except when Trump is the
target.
Of course, the Spectator can’t vet everything that comes
across the wires; but when too-convenient news that's anti-Trump and originates
with CNN, the Washington Post, NBC, CNBC, the New York Times and LA Times comes across the wires, it deserves to be checked on Fox, if only to get a second opinion.
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