During the 2016 presidential election, I’ve been concerned with how the news media is poorly covering the serious issues, and instead reporting on their own often fabricated tabloid-style sensationalized topics. Although I’ve been a Bernie Sanders supporter, and now lean more toward Jill Stein of the Green Party, I still care about accuracy in the media and fair treatment of people — even Donald Trump. I’ve found at least 11 major news stories that the media got wrong about Donald Trump. The Star of David controversy is just one of them.
Dan Scavino, the social media director for the Donald Trump campaign, re-posted a meme from Twitter that was critical of Hillary Clinton.
Apparently a Fox News poll had been conducted where Hillary Clinton was determined to be the most corrupt candidate ever, in part because of the money she’s made through public speeches, corporate donors, and foreign money coming into her foundation.
Trump Campaign as a Rorschach Test
Someone apparently saw the post and claimed that the Trump Campaign created it intentionally using a Star of David overtop of money with the word “Corrupt” in the star to convey that the Jews are corrupt with their money. As with a Rorschach test, one tends to see what they project from their own existing biases. This fueled the ‘Trump is Hitler’ rhetoric that’s become a significant part of the anti-Trump message. One of the more popular images of Trump used is the one shown here that attempts to make Trump look like Hitler with his right hand raised up in a Nazi salute. This was likely a still-frame-shot of Trump waving at a crowd.
Clip Art is Not the Star of David
I immediately recognized the star image as one of the built-in Microsoft clipart shapes, and not a Star of David. Curious about the graphic, I attempted to create something similar, to reverse engineer what might have happened during the creation of that image. I was able to recreated the star in a few clicks using Microsoft Word (insert image, choose star, fill-color red, rotate, etc.)
To illustrate the difference between a clipart image and the Star of David, I posted the following to my Twitter account and brought this to the attention of the campaign.
Trump Campaign Response
The Trump Campaign posted a public response on Facebook in regard to the media frenzy over the issue. Scavino stated:
“The social media graphic used this weekend was not created by the campaign nor was it sourced from an anti-Semitic site. It was lifted from an anti-Hillary Twitter user where countless images appear. The sheriff’s badge – which is available under Microsoft’s ‘shapes’ – fit with the theme of corrupt Hillary and that is why I selected it. As the Social Media Director for the campaign, I would never offend anyone and therefore chose to remove the image.”
On Twitter, Scavino defended himself against media claims that he is anti-semitic:
“For the MSM (Main Stream Media) to suggest that I am antisemite is AWFUL. I proudly celebrate holidays w/ my wife’s amazing Jewish family for the past 16 years.”
Trump’s daughter Ivanka converted to Judaism years ago. Her husband and his family are Jewish. Trump has been endorsed by Jews for his strong support of Israel. So, it seems incongruous that Trump would have family and top employees who are Jewish if he is anti-Jewish.
While I don’t agree with the Trump campaign on a lot of issues, I’m glad that they are holding the mainstream news media accountable, and also asking tough questions about Hillary that otherwise would not be asked.