‘Fake news’ vs. negative journalism based on facts

Bill Knight column for Mon., Tues., or Wed., May 21, 22 or 23, 2018

Remarks from former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, President Trump’s threat to withhold press credentials, a study of negative coverage of the White House, the deletion of the need for [a] free press from the guide for federal prosecutors, and tariffs targeting newspapers’ source of paper all stress the assault on journalism in general and the ongoing debate about “fake news” in particular.

On Wednesday, Tillerson said that the nation is experiencing a “growing crisis of integrity and ethics.

“When we as people, a free people, go wobbly on the truth even on what may seem the most trivial of matters, we go wobbly on America,” he said at the Virginia Military Institute. “If our leaders seek to conceal the truth and we as people become accepting of alternative realities that are no longer grounded in facts, then as an American people we are on a pathway to relinquishing our freedom.”

It’s almost not worth covering Trump’s thousands of false statements nor his repeated complaints of “fake news” or journalism as “enemy of the American people.” It’s routine. Still, it’s both shocking and not too surprising that Trump threatened to deny reporters’ permits to cover the administration (despite his promise during the campaign that he wouldn’t do so even if news stories were critical). After all, he blacklisted reporters from the Des Moines Register and other newspapers during the 2016 campaign.

Coverage of the White House on ABC, CBS and NBC has been 91 percent negative, according to study by the conservative Media Research Center.

However, negative news is not fake (nor new. Vice President Spiro Agnew, before resigning in disgrace, in 1970 blasted journalists, saying, “we have more than our share of nattering nabobs of negativism,” a phrase penned by speechwriter William Safire).

Meanwhile, Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ Justice Department removed language about freedom of the press from its guidebook for federal prosecutors. The U.S. Attorneys’ Manual was edited late last year for the first time in two decades. Missing from its “Media Relations” section are reminders of the need for a free press and the public’s right to know.

Trump and his followers disparage the press by mixing fake news with articles that are negative.

“ ‘Fake news’ used to have a specific meaning,” said Pete Vernon of Columbia Journalism Review. “It referred to completely fabricated stories, often produced for partisan reasons and blasted around social media to audiences hungry for information to confirm their preexisting biases. Trump, along with his supporters and political imitators, has through repetition transformed it into a catch-all for stories he simply doesn’t like.”

Again, genuine “fake news” – if that’s not a contradiction in terms – are false stories, whether created by political operatives, Russian hackers or mischief-makers who troll social media. Think of the ridiculous, discredited allegations of Hillary Clinton’s involvement in human trafficking and a child-sex ring at the Comet Ping Pong pizzeria in Washington, D.C.

In Illinois, there were 14 mailings designed to resemble local newspapers distributed that were actually political circulars funded by conservative radio host Dan Proft and Gov. Bruce Rauner through the Liberty Principles Political Action Committee.

And Trump instituted two tariffs targeting Canadian paper mills that continue to hurt the newspaper business. His Commerce Department imposed duties on producers and exporters of paper from Canada, a 4.42 percent tariff in January and in March a whopping 22.16 percent duty for some Canadian paper exporters.

“It’s really going to have a devastating effect on the newspaper industry, and it will ripple through the rest of the printing industry,” said Rochester Institute of Technology professor emeritus Frank Romano, a printing expert. “You’re almost taxing some newspapers out of business.”

Instead of repeatedly lashing out at the news media, Trump could change the dynamic. However, he must 1) stop lying and 2) understand that his press relations are usually tied to his inconsiderate, mean-spirited and childish tweets and spontaneous comments, like last week’s statement that some undocumented immigrants are “animals.”

Liberal commentator Dana Milbank wrote, “Journalists are, with good reason, resistant to the role of advocate. But at a time when Trump is leading a successful movement to discredit the free press, advocating the First Amendment isn’t a conflict of interest.”

Concerns aren’t limited to progressive voices.

Even conservative firebrand Matt Drudge said, “I fear the future result of Trump’s crusade on ‘fake news’ will be licensing of all reporters. The mop-up on this issue is going to be excruciating.”