The White House has declared war on “fake news” by creating a website to identify instances where it claims media outlets are misrepresenting the facts — with a “Hall of Shame” for repeat or egregious offenders. Good idea.
The new site, launched with the headline “Misleading. Biased. Exposed,” singles out the Boston Globe, CBS News and The Independent as its inaugural “media offenders of the week.” The outlets “misrepresented” President Trump’s response to a video published by six Democratic lawmakers — dubbed “the Seditious Six” by the administration — imploring members of the military not to obey unlawful commands, the site said.
“President Trump has never issued an illegal order. The Fake News knew that, but ran with the story anyway,” the website proclaimed under a “Key Points” header, followed by numerous links to news stories where the outlets had “subversively implied” otherwise. Trump’s battle with the officials in the video — Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, Reps. Chris Deluzio and Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania, Rep. Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire and Rep. Jason Crow of Colorado — intensified after the president decried them in a series of Truth Social posts demanding their arrests.
Further down on the website is its “Offender Hall of Shame,” which identifies the Washington Post, CBS News, CNN and MSNBC — recently rebranded as MS NOW — as well as a leaderboard, which the site labels “a race to the bottom” above a video showing the outlets’ logos zooming from left to right in order. The site also includes a list of recent articles that the White House says exhibit bias, searchable by publication, reporter or category. Currently more than 30 articles are cited in the index.
Trump has been at odds with the media since his first term in office, frequently making his distaste with coverage of his words or actions known, even at times upbraiding individual reporters in press gaggles. Earlier this month, Trump blasted a Bloomberg News reporter for interrupting him, turning to face the scribe with an irritated look on his face and saying, “Will you let me finish my statement? You are the worst. You’re with Bloomberg, right?”