The 2017 Fake News Awards have finally come in! Cue the red carpet and applaud.
Last year was a barrage of unrelenting bias, shameful, discriminatory news coverage, and destructive rhetoric from the bleeding hearts of “journalists.” According to a report from NewsMax, 91 percent of media coverage on President Donald Trump was negative in 2017. The president decided to celebrate a year of relentless media attacks by hosting the first-annual Fake News Awards.
GOP, whose servers ended up crashing due to massive traffic, reported the winners of the Fake News Awards on their website.
“1. The New York Times’ Paul Krugman claimed on the day of President Trump’s historic, landslide victory that the economy would never recover.”
Yesterday, the Dow Jones closed above 26,000 points – the highest-ever close in the 121 history of the market. Since the election, the stock market has closed with record highs over 70 times and has gained over 8,000 points. Consumer confidence has increased to remarkable numbers and more and more U.S. companies are raising their minimum wages and giving employee bonuses, all citing the Tax Cut and Jobs Act.
This week, Apple announced they would be bringing their corporation back to the U.S. and the $350 billion it has in repatriation funds. The tech giant will be charged a 10 percent amnesty on the funds to be repaid as taxes. Moreover, the company is bringing with it over 20,000 jobs and over five billion dollars in new investments in the American economy.
“2. ABC News’ Brian Ross CHOKES and sends markets in a downward spiral with false report.”
Ross, former Chief Investigative Journalist, claimed the president’s national security adviser, General Michael Flynn, who had just pleaded guilty to making false claims to the FBI, was expected to testify against the commander-in-chief. Ross falsely reported that Flynn was instructed to speak with Russian officials regarding the 2016 presidential election by then-candidate Trump.
Ross has been criticized in the past for giving false reports. According to BBC, the journalist suggested that the mass shooting in an Aurora, Colorado, movie theater was done by a sympathizer the Tea Party, a conservative political group.
“3. CNN FALSELY reported that candidate Donald Trump and his son Donald J. Trump, Jr. had access to hacked documents from WikiLeaks.”
After these remarks were made, The Washington Post reported against CNN, calling them out for the false accusation. According to the report, the sender of the email in question was notifying members of the Trump family of already public documents.
“4. TIME FALSELY reported that President Trump removed a bust of Martin Luther King, Jr. from the Oval Office.”
This report stemmed from a tweet that was sent from a reporter falsely claiming the bust had been removed. During a few shots of President Trump’s Oval Office, the door was open, blocking the camera’s view of the Dr. King bust just beside the door.
People also forget Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a Republican.
“5. Washington Post FALSELY reported the President’s massive sold-out rally in Pensacola, Florida was empty. Dishonest reporter showed picture of empty arena HOURS before crowd started pouring in.”
David Weigel, a reporter for the Washington Post, later apologized to the president, who called him out for creating fake news, via Twitter. The picture was taken hours before a speech at Pensacola Bay Center featured Trump. The numerous empty seats were filled with thousands and thousands of the commander-in-chief’s supporters.
During his campaign, President Trump was subject to many tricks from the media involving camera work, often pointed out by Trump himself. Many times there were videos being shot of then-candidate Trump which only put the picture on his face or the dais at which he was speaking, not showing the sometimes tens of thousands of supporters attending his events and rallies.
“6. CNN FALSELY edited a video to make it appear President Trump defiantly overfed fish during a visit with the Japanese prime minister. Japanese prime minister actually led the way with the feeding.”
Although this originally started with a simple tweet, it made headline news around the country. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Trump were seen walking through a koi pond, tossing small spoonfuls of flakes to the fish. A clip of Trump appearing to dump his entire box of food into the pond went viral. However, after the social media firestorm, it turned out that Abe went first, dumping his box of fish food into the pond.
Even something as small as a tweet can create a national headline on the nightly news. This was just another example of how different video feeds being released out of order can cause a mass craze.
“7. CNN FALSELY reported about Anthony Scaramucci’s meeting with a Russian, but retracted it due to a ‘significant breakdown in process.'”
A media company whose motto is, “Seek truth. Break news. Hold the powerful accountable,” and consistently champions themselves on being vanguard’s of objective journalism suffered dire consequences for this mistake. According to the New York Times, Terence Burke, a top executive with CNN, had three reporters with the agency resign in the wake of the retracted article regarding Trump and his alleged relationship with Russian officials.
The stout reporting team included a Pulitzer Prize winning journalists and other up-and-coming media stars. Now, however, their last voice in mainstream media resulted in a classic case of fake news.
“8. Newsweek FALSELY reported that Polish First Lady Agata Kornhauser-Duda did not shake President Trump’s hand.”
Once again, another time a short video clip does not show an accurate timeline of action. When the extended clip was released after the accusations were made, it showed that the Polish First Lady did shake the president’s hand. The report was later corrected by Newsweek. This was also falsely reported on by Vanity Fair, a post that has often failed to be truthful.
“9. CNN FALSELY reported that former FBI Director James Comey would dispute President Trump’s claim that he was told he is not under investigation.”
According to CNN and their updated reports, the original article was published before Director Comey released his prepared opening statement in regards to his meeting with the president. Director Comey did not directly dispute that President Trump was told multiple times he was not under investigation.
“10. The New York Times FALSELY claimed on the front page that the Trump administration had hidden a climate report.”
The climate report had been available for months. It was originally published on a digital library of an environmental nonprofit last January. The report garnered very little attention by the public until it was published by The New York Times.
“11. And last, but not least: “RUSSIA COLLUSION!” Russian collusion is perhaps the greatest hoax perpetrated on the American people. THERE IS NO COLLUSION!”
Of course, Special counsel Robert Mueller, who was originally appointed by the Trump Administration, continues his investigation on the matter. However, every day, the truth comes out about what the president calls a “witch hunt” regarding the investigation into collusion that never happened, denouncing it as fake news.
Although a foreign actor may have been involved in the compromise of the personal email accounts of Democratic Party officials and political figures, it may just have shown the real surreptitiousness within the DNC. Former head of the DNC Donna Brazile tells it all in her book, Hacks, which outlines how the Democrats rigged the convention. That, of course, is not fake news.
The accomplishments of President Trump have been vastly overshadowed by the media’s portrayal of exaggerations and blatant falsehoods. The economy is booming in America. Consumer confidence has skyrocketed. Companies are investing in the nation and in their employees more than ever before. The burden taxes have on people has been lessened. The position America holds in the world is becoming stronger.
Americans, and most likely everyone else around the world, are beginning to grow tired of the fake news mantra dominating the news cycles. However, until the media begins reporting on all the news, including the great things that have been done by the Trump Administration, people will still be sheltered from the reality that surrounds them.