Media Analysis By Brian Stelter - Must Read
Whenever President T-RUMP ventures off Fox and gives an interview on another major network, something is instantly apparent: His information diet. I would argue it is an unhealthy, poisoned info diet -- and CNN reporter Daniel Dale's fact-checks would back me up.
Whether healthy or not, almost everything about the Trump era can be understood through his sources of info. It was obvious during his Thursday night town hall on NBC, when Savannah Guthrie repeatedly pointed out that he was misinformed. And he responded with vague assertions like "I read it someplace" and "I've heard many different stories" and "people are saying."
Fake Friends and BADVisors
Here’s the thing: When T-RUMP calls his friends on Fox and other right-wing channels, his evasions and excuses slip right through. Facilitators like Maria Bartiromo and Mark Levin don't second-guess his stats and smears because they subsist on the same info-diet he does. When Trump gives a rare interview outside his pro-Trump media universe, his falsehoods and flimsy sources are instantly exposed.
Thursday night was Trump's first time taking tough questions from a TV interviewer since his coronavirus infection — and from a former litigator no less. It was one of the finest moments of Guthrie's career. During and after the town hall, she was widely praised in journalism circles for prodding Trump with followups and pushing back at his distortions. And she was attacked in a statement issued by Trump's campaign, which tells you everything you need to know. More on Guthrie’s questions below, but I want to zoom in on Trump's answers first...
From Tucker’s lips to Trump’s lies…
Trump's mixed messages about masks are a direct result of his poisoned media diet. On Tuesday night “ Tucker Carlson Tonight" sowed doubt about masks and Carlson said, in typical Tucker-speak, "someone has been lying to us, many people, actually."
The show ran a banner that shouted “ PEOPLE THAT WORE MASKS STILL GOT CORONAVIRUS" and distorted the meaning of a small study so that Carlson could ridicule government experts. "Almost everyone" in the study, "85%, who got the coronavirus in July, was wearing a mask, and they were infected anyway," Carlson said. "So clearly this doesn't work the way they tell us it works."
Carlson "misrepresented" the study, as PolitiFact explained here. But the host doubled down on Wednesday night, and Trump brought it up several times on Thursday, including at the town hall. "Just the other day," he said, "they came out with a statement that 85% of the people that wear masks catch it." That's a gross distortion of Carlson's original distortion!
Guthrie interjected: "They didn't say that. I know that study. That's not--""Well, that's what I heard," Trump said, "and that's what I saw. And regardless…” That's how it always goes with Trump: "What I heard" and "what I saw." He brought up the 85% figure again a little bit later, and Guthrie was ready: “ I Looked at that report, it’s not about mask wearing, it was neutral on the question of masks.” He obviously has problems with hearing and seeing…
It was a repeat of a similar claim he had made two times earlier in the day, citing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as the source for that number. Facts First: Trump’s claim is false. A CDC study released in September, did not say that 85% of people who wear masks get infected with COVID-19 In fact, it did not even attempt to figure out what percentage of people who wear a mask get infected with the COVID-19.
Trump then tried to reach an agreement with her, in what looked to me like an attempt to reach out to the "suburban moms" he's been pleading for support from: "Savannah, Savannah, we're on the same side. I say wear the masks, I'm fine with it, I have no problem. We're on the same side."
Holding T-RUMP Accountable For His Retweets
Trump consumes information from television, from articles printed out by his aides, from phone calls with allies, and from Twitter. He has a long history of retweeting sketchy Twitter accounts. His social media behavior reveals a lot about his info-diet.
At the town hall, Guthrie called him out for retweeting “ to your 87 million followers a conspiracy theory that Joe Biden orchestrated to have SEAL Team Six... killed to cover up the fake death of bin Laden. Now, why would you send a lie like that to your followers?”
Trump's answer was a dodge: "I know nothing about that." Guthrie responded, "You retweeted it!" Then he tried to excuse his behavior, saying "that was an opinion of somebody. And that was a retweet. I'll put it out there. People can decide for themselves. I don’t take a position.”
His shrug of an answer reminded me of the famous Fox News slogan “we report, you decide,” except T-RUMP doesn’t do any reporting, he just shares crazed conspiracy theories with his followers and then says they "can decide for themselves."
Oliver Darcy writes: "A good barometer for judging a Trump interview is whether the anchor asks the president the questions and follow ups on the minds of voters sitting at home and watching. This sounds simple, but often fails to happen in interviews with Trump, as he does his best to roll over the person asking him questions. Guthrie, however, excelled and did not let T-RUMP off the hook.
When Trump, for instance, declined to take responsibility for promoting a deranged Bin Laden conspiracy theory by arguing that he only retweeted 'an opinion of someone,' Guthrie responded by channeling what most people watching were probably thinking. 'You're the President!' she exclaimed. 'You're not someone's crazy uncle who can retweet whatever.' Those moments, which occurred over and over, made Guthrie’s interview worth watching."
Oliver Darcy writes: "Trump not only refused to condemn the QAnon conspiracy theory, but he claimed (again) to be ignorant of the movement, much to the disbelief of Guthrie. Then, after claiming not to know much about QAnon, the president actually praised the virtual cult for being 'very strongly against pedophilia.' NBC’s resident QAnon reporter Ben Collins noted, ‘ Outside of a straight up endorsement, this is about as about as close to a dream scenario for QAnon followers as is humanly possible.’”
