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Thread, by famous Trump real-time fact checker @ddale8. @MEPFuller had noted anodyne national media coverage of Trump’s campaign rally in Green Bay last night. #Wisconsin media, if anything, did worse.
Here’s a story in @journalsentinel, the largest paper in Wisconsin, to which @MollyBeck & @patrickdmarley contributed. These are competent observers of state politics. But to them, the brazen lies with which Trump filled his speech were not a story. jsonline.com/story/news/pol…
Trump’s denunciation of something he called the “collusion delusion” was a story. Other claims were reported w/out comment. Political strategists & professors were quoted, as was one rally attendee. Bernie Sanders was mentioned - his campaign had bought an ad for the occasion.
Little better was @msommerhauser writing for @madisondotcom. His story offered more political analysis, including a discussion of party identification in Wisconsin and how pivotal the state was likely to be in 20/20 (thanks, @PollsAndVotes ). madison.com/wsj/news/local…
There’s even “in a shot at rivals, Trump vowed America would never be a socialist country.” Which rivals? The rivals — most of the Democratic field — who have explicitly dissociated themselves from socialism? @msommerhauser doesn’t say. He just puts up the quote.
I’m no journalist, but a President coming to Wisconsin and lying his head off for an hour and twenty minutes seems to me a much bigger story than a President coming to Wisconsin. The lies aren’t even that difficult to fact check, because Trump uses the same lies over and over.
I’m not the first person to note the sad truth that the preeminent real-time fact checker of Trump speeches, @ddale8, doesn’t even write for an American paper (he’s a @globeandmail guy, and skipped yesterday to watch the Raptors in the NBA playoffs).
It’s not as if I don’t recognize this is awkward for state journalists, who don’t see many Presidents. It’s not just out of the ordinary professionally; a big part of the media audience here likes the lies. The lies show Trump’s passion and showmanship and contempt —...
...for Democrats, liberals and a somewhat lengthy list of other groups and individuals. I understand some of the Green Bay crowd on Saturday even got involved in favorite Trump rally chants, against CNN for example, like so many trained seals.
So truthful reporting of Trump’s many untruths would upset some people. If wanting to avoid upsetting people is a motivation for journalists, maybe that’s a good story too.
I’ll add just one thing, about one of Trump’s newer lies.
I’ll add just one thing, about one of Trump’s newer lies.
This was the one about women and doctors “executing babies,” as the President of the United States put it in our state last night. Credit to Wisconsin journalist @MSpicuzzaMJS for flagging this one. Trump probably got it off some right-wing web site. Or Fox & Friends.
Anyway, here’s a thread about what he was really talking about, by an RN in Michigan. In this context, isn’t his lie about executing babies a little bit bigger story than Never Trump suburban Republicans coming home to their party? twitter.com/votepulver/sta…
Here a better link:
Just for fun, and documentation: @thamburger with @washingtonpost list of, ahem, “false and misleading statements” by the President of the United States.
