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The Right Way to Challenge Fake News
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By Stephen Lendman
Global Research, February 26, 2017
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Url of this article:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-right-way-to-challenge-fake-news/5576793
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Trump is right challenging fake news. It’s about time someone in high office did it. He’s going about it the wrong way.
Without speech, media and academic freedoms, all other rights are threatened.
Barring certain media outlets from attending Friday’sWhite House
press briefing while letting others in was wrongheaded and
counterproductive.
The NYT falsely called the move unprecedented, “something no administration of either party has ever done.”
Not quite. In 2009, the Obama White House said it would no longer
conduct interviews with Fox News as a member of the press pool, an
unprecedented act at the time.
Other media outlets objected. The White House relented. It remained hostile to Fox News criticism of its policies.
On February 24, NYT editors blasted Trump’s move, absurdly calling it
“a backhanded compliment to the reporters whose honest work provoked
the president’s latest foot-stamping tantrum” – a gratuitous insult,
falsely referring to barred news organizations as “trustworthy.”
Far from it! The Times and other media scoundrels feature fake news, suppressing what’s most important to report.
They’re largely anti-Trump, inventing reasons to bash him.
Justifiable criticism is warranted. Biased reporting defiles what
journalism is supposed to be.
On Friday, Trump called media “the opposition party…mak(ing) up stories and mak(ing) up sources.”
Candidate Trump said he wasn’t “running against crooked Hillary. I’m
running against the crooked media,” he stressed – referring to the media
as the “lowest form of humanity.”
Throughout the campaign, they went all out to get him, continuing
post-inauguration. The power of scoundrel media manipulated public
sentiment works.
Fiction substitutes for important facts. News is sanitized, dissent
marginalized. Supporting wealth, power and privilege substitutes for
full and accurate reporting.
Wars of aggression are called liberating ones. They’re glorified in
the name of peace. Civil liberties are suppressed for our own good.
Patriotism means supporting what harms the public welfare.
Might is justified as right. Raping nations is called democracy
building. Looting them is considered economic development. Free
societies are threatened. Tyranny stalks America.
Truth-telling is a vital disinfectant. The way to challenge media
scoundrels isn’t by barring them from press briefings. It’s by exposing
their fake news with hard, irrefutable facts.
Trump has bully pulpit power. He has over 25 million Twitter
followers plus other ways to counter media lies if done responsibly.
On Friday, he tweeted “FAKE NEWS media knowingly doesn’t tell the
truth. A great danger to our country. The failing @nytimes has become a
joke. Likewise @CNN. Sad!”
Most Americans distrust the media for good reason. Growing numbers
rely on alternative sources to stay informed. It’s the only way!
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
His new book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.”
http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html
Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.
Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on
the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.
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Disclaimer: The contents of this article are of sole
responsibility of the author(s). The Centre for Research on
Globalization will not be responsible for any inaccurate or incorrect
statement in this article.
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