Corporate owned and controlled mainstream media is placating Democrats, liberals, and progressives by providing fluff pieces and sensationalized tabloid-style articles critical of Donald Trump. Unfortunately, the independent media, entertainment/comedy news, bloggers, and YouTubers are following that example.
Eight Media Misrepresentations about Donald Trump
Initially Trump’s hair and skin color were the focus of much attention. For the past year, using selective soundbites, the media has tried to portray Trump as a vulgar, hateful, divisive, racist, sexist, nationalistic, anti-immigrant, fear mongering bigot. The two-pronged approach also includes shaming Trump supporters into no longer supporting him, at least not publicly. Unfortunately, the personal attacks of Trump border on character defamation and slander because they aren’t sufficiently supported by facts. Here’s a list of eight examples where the media was wrong about Donald Trump.
- Brexit. The media told us that upon arriving in Scotland, shortly after hearing the news about the UK Referendum, Trump was happy that there might be an economic crisis because then more people would be coming to play golf at his new resort. Some stories gave more time and attention to a protestor at the start of the event than they did to Trump’s press conference. At 19:50 into his press conference he answers questions about Brexit. He spoke for about 20 minutes on the topic of Brexit. The media told us that when Trump was asked about Brexit he replied, “There’s nothing to talk about.” That’s it. That’s the sound bite. In reality, the press conference video is about one hour long and he had plenty to say. The sound bite provided to us form the mainstream media was at 23:17 into the press conference.
- David Duke. The media has repeatedly reported that KKK member David Duke endorsed Donald Trump. Here’s the problem, David Duke left the KKK 40 years ago, and he’s gone on record stating that he has NOT endorsed Donald Trump. To imply that Trump is aligned with racist and violent hate groups is slanderous. He obviously can’t control who endorses him. There are a variety of reasons why high profile controversial people like Louis Farrakhan would support Trump given that Hillary Clinton is the alternative. It doesn’t mean that Trump agrees with the views and actions of everyone who has endorsed him or supported him.
- Immigrants. To state that Trump is anti-immigrant seems questionable considering that Trump’s wife Melania is a Slovenian immigrant, and his previous wife Ivana was a Czech immigrant. Trump’s mother was a Scottish immigrant. So, Trump has always been part of an immigrant family. He’s gone on record as saying that immigrants build this nation and have made America great. His concern is with some illegal immigrants who come here with the intention of breaking the law and harming others.
- Isolationist Nationalism. Because of his America First proclamation, Trump is accused of being an isolationist. Yet, his numerous international business dealings demonstrate ongoing working relationships with people of various nationalities.
- Mexicans. The media referred to Trump’s comments about Mexicans as “the ‘Mexicans are rapists’ comments” in an effort to make it seem like Trump believes all Mexicans are rapists. Trump was not talking about all Mexicans. Trump was not talking about Mexican immigrants who come to the U.S. legally. He was talking about some of the drug dealers and gang members who come into the country illegally for the purpose of illegal activity, who after getting arrested and released multiple times for multiple crimes continue to engage in illegal activity. What Trump has actually said about Mexico and Mexicans is this: “I love the Mexican people. I love Mexico.” He didn’t say Mexicans are rapists. The ‘Mexicans are rapists’ story was so convincingly told that numerous corporations cut ties with Trump over that incident. It’s a clear case of defamation where a misrepresentation was made and damages were incurred. In a climate where Trump is portrayed as believing ‘Mexicans are rapists’ it’s understandable that Trump would be concerned about the impartiality of the judge who was overseeing his Trump University case, since that judge is of Mexican heritage. Again, it’s not the case that Trump is racist, he’s been portrayed as a racist, and understands that some people believe he is racist, and they have acted on that in very vicious and retaliatory ways.
- Minorities and Women. Anyone with a few minutes of free time for fact checking can easily browse YouTube and find numerous videos of Latinos, Muslims, African Americans, women and immigrants who support Donald Trump who speak persuasively and passionately about why they support Trump. Listening to the diverse voices of these supporters it’s not difficult to conclude that Trump isn’t racist, nor is he divisive, but he’s bringing people together under a common goal.
- Orlando. The media repeatedly and loudly stated that Trump’s first response to the Orlando shooting was to congratulate himself on being right about Islamic terrorism. They used this excerpt from one of his tweets, “Appreciate the congrats for being right on radical Islamic terrorism.” They left out the rest of that tweet which continued with these words, “I don’t want congrats, I want toughness & vigilance. We must be smart!” Prior to those statements however was his actual first response to the Orlando shooting which was this tweet, “Horrific incident in FL. Praying for all the victims & their families. When will this stop? When will we get tough, smart & vigilant?” He was horrified like everyone else. His subsequent comment about being right on Islamic terrorism, was to emphasize that we need to take meaningful action.
- Womanizer. An article published by the New York Times featured a 1964 yearbook photo of Trump holding a girl’s hand, and that photo was used as evidence of Trump being a womanizer. The article was subsequently criticized by readers, and then debunked by one of the primary women featured in the article. Trump’s organization has more women than men in executive positions.
Independent Media Must Do Better
Independent media has the best opportunity to provide deeper analysis of specific issues without getting caught up in tabloid-style sensationalism about Trump.
The Young Turks have done a good job with holding Hillary Clinton accountable, not shying away from her various scandals. Yet with Trump, they seem to follow the lead of mainstream media in what seem to be fairly shallow and superficial criticisms, some based on misinformation from mainstream media.
The only substantive reporting critical of Trump is some reporting coming from Democracy Now as shown in the two videos below. However, when compared to the illegal wars of current and previous administrations, these stories don’t have as much shock value.