Donald Trump Media Battle: The Vicious Cycle Of ‘He Said, They Smear’
The Donald Trump media battle hasn’t slowed down since it began well over a year ago, and lies are the name of the game, at least the name of the media’s game.
It seems to many that as soon as Trump announced his intention to run for president of the United States (and some would argue once he chose to run as a Republican), the media, unofficially, of course, declared war with the real estate billionaire, and boy have they done a brilliant job of painting a dark portrait of Trump.
It started, more or less, after Donald gave a speech summarizing his intentions shortly after announcing his run for president. Whilst speaking about his concerns regarding illegal immigration into the U.S., he said something that was all too easy for the media to smear, and they knew it, thus marking the beginning of the Donald Trump media battle.
Most, if not all, mainstream media outlets purposely misinterpreted Trump’s words when he said, “They’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime, their rapists, and some I assume are good people.”
https://youtu.be/bbyoUb3mp1E
News outlets across the country exploded with headlines akin to, “Trump Called Mexicans Rapists!”
No, he didn’t. It’s all in how one interprets the word “their” in the quote. “Their” and “they’re” sound the same but have totally different meanings. Trump clearly was saying that Mexicans are bringing their drugs, crime and rapists. He did not say, “They’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime, they’re rapists.” He paused after saying “crime” and omitted the words “they’re bringing” with “their.”
If you watch the video, it’s clear to see what he meant when he spoke those words, but unfortunately for Trump, he gave the media the perfect smear story.
When you consider all the people you come across on social media who don’t know the difference between “they’re” and “their,” you can see how easy it was to spread this lie to the masses.
The lies that have resulted from the Donald Trump media battle has even annoyed a writer from the ultra progressive news outlet Salon. If you’re at all familiar with this source, you know that speaking out in defense of the current Republican presidential nominee goes against pretty much everything they stand for.
Alberto A. Martinez penned an article for Salon in which he called out the media’s lies about Trump’s “Mexicans are rapists” comment. Unlike my view, Martinez does not believe that Donald meant “their” instead of the media’s version “they’re.” He thinks that Trump did say “they’re rapists,” but Martinez believes the media knowingly took it out of context to suggest that he called all Mexicans rapists.
“You might well dislike Trump’s words. I did. But let’s not make it worse. He did not say that all Mexicans are rapists. Yet that’s what many commentators did. For example, Politico misquoted Trump by omitting his phrase about ‘good people.’ They said he was ‘demonizing Mexicans as rapists.’ They argued that Mexicans do not really commit more rapes in the U.S. than whites. But that’s not what Trump claimed.”
The Donald Trump media battle continued on, when on March 30, 2016, during a town hall on MSNBC, host Chris Matthews asked Trump that “if abortion was illegal, should a woman be punished for having one?” Donald, thinking that a person who breaks the law should serve the justified consequence, said that yes, women should be held responsible for having an illegal abortion.
The following day’s headlines?
MSNBC‘s read “Donald Trump Advocates Punishment For Abortion.” They omitted the “illegal” part and left out the fact that it was a hypothetical question intended to lead to this damning headline.
Trump made a huge mistake in answering such a question because the dishonest media took his unpopular response and ran with it, and now a large number of people believe he’s anti-abortion and that he has no sympathy for women’s reproductive rights.
The next Donald Trump media battle lie came when a mother brought her baby to a Trump rally and temporarily left the event when the baby wouldn’t stop crying.
Watch Donald Trump Throw Crying Baby Out of Rally https://t.co/wfLm0gzdD3 #USRC pic.twitter.com/sVgjrqOHWa
— Top U.S. & World News? (@USRealityCheck) August 11, 2016
Mother Jones wrote an article entitled “Donald Trump Lashes Out At Crying Baby,” The Guardian‘s headline read “‘Get the baby out of here’: Trump ejects crying infant from rally” and the Los Angeles Times claimed “Today’s Trump target: A crying baby at his rally.”
“Lashes out at crying baby?” Hardly.
“Ejects crying infant?” The baby was over a year old, thus not an infant, and he didn’t eject anyone.
Luckily for Trump, outlets such as Snopes, The Washington Post, The Daily Mail and Fox News all debunked the story as being false.
Best of all, the mother of the crying baby insisted that the news media was lying when they said Trump kicked her and her baby out.
The most recent incident to take place in the Donald Trump media battle came in the midst of a humanitarian effort to help victims of the Louisiana floods. In an effort to counter the positivity surrounding the Republican nominee for traveling to Baton Rouge to deliver aid, unlike opponent Hillary Clinton, who did not make an appearance, someone snapped a photo of Trump with a carton full of Play-Doh and the media spun it to make it sound like Play-Doh was all Trump brought for the victims.
Turns out Donald Trump's humanitarian delivery in Louisiana was a load of Play-doh. Food AND building material! pic.twitter.com/P5YIIWFYyd
— Eliot Higgins (@EliotHiggins) August 20, 2016
“Watch Donald Trump Spend Exactly 49 Seconds ‘Helping Out’ Louisiana Flood Victims,” Mediaite’s headline said.
“Trump Solves Louisiana’s Play-Doh Problem,” Daily Kos reported.
In reality, Donald brought a lot more than just Play-Doh to Baton Rouge, such as blankets, diapers, baby food, and cleaning products. Also, he did not ask to have his picture taken, as the mayor had told Trump before his visit that a photo-op wouldn’t be tolerated, and Donald had wanted to respect those wishes.
The fact-checking website Snopes again came to Trump’s rescue to deliver the facts of his Louisiana visit, but the misleading headlines remain.
The Donald Trump media battle is not likely to go away, especially if he’s elected president. If he loses the race for the White House, however, we can probably expect the press to cool it on the demonization of Trump, as he will no longer pose a threat to their precious, can do no wrong Hillary Clinton.
[Photo by Matthew Busch/Getty Images]
