Perspective: Fact-checking President Trump isn’t enough
By Margaret Sullivan Margaret Sullivan Media columnist Email Bio Follow Media columnist May 1 at 6:00 AM It’s a tsunami of lies.
“As the election approaches and the number of rallies, debates and opportunities to discuss policy is magnified, we are expecting all-time highs in the number of false statements from President Trump,” said odds consultant John Lester of BookMaker.eu After Trump gave his first address from the Oval Office last January, the site had to pay out nearly $300,000 to people who had bet that he would tell more than 3½ lies during his televised talk.
But it does matter. Lies — especially repetitive lies — are a crucial part of how propaganda works. Truth is a basic part of a functioning democracy.So, to do their jobs, the news media can’t engage in business as usual.But they also have to bring some new tools and techniques — and maybe a new attitude — to the project.
“I think our job as journalists is to call things what they are. And so if someone commits 100 crimes, you don’t say, ‘We’re gonna call the first two ‘crimes’ and the second one’ — I don’t know what the softer word would be — ‘non-legal behavior.’ ” But when appropriate, say so, as a Post editorial did recently with this headline on Trump’s border separation policy: “Lie No. 10,000 is really a whopper.”
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