Berl Falbaum
Having reached the first 100 days in office by the second Trump administration, it may be a good time to focus on dereliction of duty through the Trump years by the mainstream media: how they have dealt — or more accurately not dealt — with Trump’s pathological lying.
This burr has been under my journalistic saddle for a decade.
For 10 years, it seems the media were more representative of a secretarial pool than journalists given their failure to confront Trump on his countless lies.
It is impossible to look back at the past decade and enumerate his lying in a relatively short column, so let’s just examine some comments he made on the Ukrainian-Russian war.
Trump blamed Ukraine for starting the war. “You (Ukraine) should have never started it (the war),” Trump said, and, like an echo chamber, the entire media, in one voice, reported this as a main story.
Not one — and I checked many media outlets, online publications, newspapers, political magazines — challenged the president with something along these lines:
“Mr. President, that is not true, that is a lie, that is false (take your pick). It is Russia that launched an unprovoked attack on Ukraine in February 2022. The entire political world condemned President Putin for this military onslaught.
Can you respond?”
But that was not the only lie he told during that news conference. Here are a few others:
• Ukraine President Zelensky refused to meet with Russia. Fact: He did just the opposite. He continually said he wanted to negotiate an end to the war. He called for talks five days after the war started.
• Zelensky’s poll numbers are down to a 4 percent approval rating. Fact: While they have decreased through the three years of war, Zelensky’s approval rating is reported at 57 percent, up 5 percent from last December, and 10 percent over Trump’s 47 percent.
• Russian wants to stop the war. Fact? Russia has continually said it would not halt its military assault until all of its objectives were achieved.
• The U.S. has provided $350 billion in financial aid to Ukraine. Fact: The total is $119 billion.
But the above are just some “minor” examples of what we have witnessed for 10 years. The Washington Post reported Trump made 30,573 false or misleading statements by the end of his first term in 2021. It may not be an exaggeration to consider that figure is now double if we include his speeches, press conferences, and comments during his four years out of office.
True, some publications publish “fact-checking” columns after Trump speeches or press conferences. Given Trump’s constant lying, these have become a staple in covering the president. All well and good. But they do not penetrate the public’s political consciousness as deeply as Trump’s lies. Moreover, while these are admirable attempts to set the record straight, they don’t repair the damage.
I need to make one correction: Once in 2020, Huffington Post Senior White House Correspondent S.V. Dáte asked the president if, after 3-1/2 years, “Do you regret at all the lying you’ve done to the American people? All the dishonesties?”
The president did not respond; he simply invited another question. Dáte’s question was so unusual it made national headlines.
MSNBC Host Lawrence O’Donnell, in scathing commentary, took the White House press pool to task for their complicity.
“There are some very good White House reporters,” he said on one of his shows. “But enough of them are so weak and ineffectual that they become essential components of the clown show themselves. They are characters in the clown show.” Fact-checking, he said, is “way too late and utterly useless.”
The problem with letting Trump’s lies go unchallenged is two-fold:
First, the consuming public will assume Trump is telling the truth. Many scholars in history and politics have written that truth as, we have historically known it, already has paid a dear price. We have been conditioned to accept Trump’s falsehoods, and it has become much more difficult to differentiate truth from (Trump) political fiction.
The following from Wikipedia:
Historian Douglas Brinkley stated that U.S. presidents have occasionally "lied or misled the country," but Trump is a “serial liar.”
Donnel Stern, writing in Psychoanalytic Dialogues, declared: "We expect politicians to stretch the truth. But Trump is a whole different animal," because Trump "lies as a policy", and "will say anything" to satisfy his supporters or himself.
Second, in abdicating their role as watchdogs for the public, the media are, even if unintended, accessories in having Trump’s lies accepted as facts. After all, silence equates to complicity. In addition, the public is justified in concluding, if the pros (journalists) accept Trump’s statements without any pushback, they must be true.
Admittedly, even if challenged, Trump may not be deterred from his prevarications and his MAGA followers would continue their total allegiance to the man.
Trump understands that as long as he keeps repeating a lie, eventually it will be accepted as fact.
Former Trump White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said, in an interview, that Trump told her, "As long as you keep repeating something, it doesn't matter what you say."
But just maybe, if Trump had been challenged daily on his lies, it might -- just might -- have made a difference.
That goes for Trumpite officeholders as well. They have never been challenged on the character issue. Never — and I use “never” advisedly — have they been asked:
Does character matter? Should public officials be honest and have integrity? Is Trump a man of good character? Do you believe he is honest? How can you support a man who lies constantly, has been convicted of sexual assault, real estate fraud, charged with assaulting dozens of women? And finally: How do you explain your support of this man to your children and grandchildren?
The media owe it to the public and to themselves to do their job and try to hold this man (and his supporters) accountable. It isn’t rocket science; it is Journalism 101.
During a 2018 interview, Trump assured us, "I always want to tell the truth. When I can, I tell the truth…I always like to be truthful.” Building on The Washington Post’s total of Trump lies, that is lie number 30,574.
Since he “likes” to be truthful, but apparently can’t do so, perhaps a challenge or two will help him along the way.
At a Selma, North Carolina rally, Trump said modestly, “I think I'm the most honest human being, perhaps, that God ever created." (As much as we tried, we were unable to confirm that.)
Who would not want to hear a reporter demand that Trump offer proof for that statement?
This burr has been under my journalistic saddle for a decade.
For 10 years, it seems the media were more representative of a secretarial pool than journalists given their failure to confront Trump on his countless lies.
It is impossible to look back at the past decade and enumerate his lying in a relatively short column, so let’s just examine some comments he made on the Ukrainian-Russian war.
Trump blamed Ukraine for starting the war. “You (Ukraine) should have never started it (the war),” Trump said, and, like an echo chamber, the entire media, in one voice, reported this as a main story.
Not one — and I checked many media outlets, online publications, newspapers, political magazines — challenged the president with something along these lines:
“Mr. President, that is not true, that is a lie, that is false (take your pick). It is Russia that launched an unprovoked attack on Ukraine in February 2022. The entire political world condemned President Putin for this military onslaught.
Can you respond?”
But that was not the only lie he told during that news conference. Here are a few others:
• Ukraine President Zelensky refused to meet with Russia. Fact: He did just the opposite. He continually said he wanted to negotiate an end to the war. He called for talks five days after the war started.
• Zelensky’s poll numbers are down to a 4 percent approval rating. Fact: While they have decreased through the three years of war, Zelensky’s approval rating is reported at 57 percent, up 5 percent from last December, and 10 percent over Trump’s 47 percent.
• Russian wants to stop the war. Fact? Russia has continually said it would not halt its military assault until all of its objectives were achieved.
• The U.S. has provided $350 billion in financial aid to Ukraine. Fact: The total is $119 billion.
But the above are just some “minor” examples of what we have witnessed for 10 years. The Washington Post reported Trump made 30,573 false or misleading statements by the end of his first term in 2021. It may not be an exaggeration to consider that figure is now double if we include his speeches, press conferences, and comments during his four years out of office.
True, some publications publish “fact-checking” columns after Trump speeches or press conferences. Given Trump’s constant lying, these have become a staple in covering the president. All well and good. But they do not penetrate the public’s political consciousness as deeply as Trump’s lies. Moreover, while these are admirable attempts to set the record straight, they don’t repair the damage.
I need to make one correction: Once in 2020, Huffington Post Senior White House Correspondent S.V. Dáte asked the president if, after 3-1/2 years, “Do you regret at all the lying you’ve done to the American people? All the dishonesties?”
The president did not respond; he simply invited another question. Dáte’s question was so unusual it made national headlines.
MSNBC Host Lawrence O’Donnell, in scathing commentary, took the White House press pool to task for their complicity.
“There are some very good White House reporters,” he said on one of his shows. “But enough of them are so weak and ineffectual that they become essential components of the clown show themselves. They are characters in the clown show.” Fact-checking, he said, is “way too late and utterly useless.”
The problem with letting Trump’s lies go unchallenged is two-fold:
First, the consuming public will assume Trump is telling the truth. Many scholars in history and politics have written that truth as, we have historically known it, already has paid a dear price. We have been conditioned to accept Trump’s falsehoods, and it has become much more difficult to differentiate truth from (Trump) political fiction.
The following from Wikipedia:
Historian Douglas Brinkley stated that U.S. presidents have occasionally "lied or misled the country," but Trump is a “serial liar.”
Donnel Stern, writing in Psychoanalytic Dialogues, declared: "We expect politicians to stretch the truth. But Trump is a whole different animal," because Trump "lies as a policy", and "will say anything" to satisfy his supporters or himself.
Second, in abdicating their role as watchdogs for the public, the media are, even if unintended, accessories in having Trump’s lies accepted as facts. After all, silence equates to complicity. In addition, the public is justified in concluding, if the pros (journalists) accept Trump’s statements without any pushback, they must be true.
Admittedly, even if challenged, Trump may not be deterred from his prevarications and his MAGA followers would continue their total allegiance to the man.
Trump understands that as long as he keeps repeating a lie, eventually it will be accepted as fact.
Former Trump White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said, in an interview, that Trump told her, "As long as you keep repeating something, it doesn't matter what you say."
But just maybe, if Trump had been challenged daily on his lies, it might -- just might -- have made a difference.
That goes for Trumpite officeholders as well. They have never been challenged on the character issue. Never — and I use “never” advisedly — have they been asked:
Does character matter? Should public officials be honest and have integrity? Is Trump a man of good character? Do you believe he is honest? How can you support a man who lies constantly, has been convicted of sexual assault, real estate fraud, charged with assaulting dozens of women? And finally: How do you explain your support of this man to your children and grandchildren?
The media owe it to the public and to themselves to do their job and try to hold this man (and his supporters) accountable. It isn’t rocket science; it is Journalism 101.
During a 2018 interview, Trump assured us, "I always want to tell the truth. When I can, I tell the truth…I always like to be truthful.” Building on The Washington Post’s total of Trump lies, that is lie number 30,574.
Since he “likes” to be truthful, but apparently can’t do so, perhaps a challenge or two will help him along the way.
At a Selma, North Carolina rally, Trump said modestly, “I think I'm the most honest human being, perhaps, that God ever created." (As much as we tried, we were unable to confirm that.)
Who would not want to hear a reporter demand that Trump offer proof for that statement?
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