A misleading video clip of Donald Trump supposedly being passed over for a handshake by the First Lady of Poland is sweeping the internet. In fact, there was a handshake a couple of seconds later, but the clip is cut so tightly that it appears that this was a sign of disrespect.
If it were just another misleading internet meme, it would be bad enough. But it is being pushed by the Washington Post on Twitter and on its website, as well as by other major media.
Here is WaPo’s tweet:
Here’s the video from the Tweet:
WaPo continues this story line on its website, twice. WaPo’s article contains that same two-second clip as part of a longer clip of prior Trump handshakes:
and
The text added by WaPo admits that the video clip and story is misleading — so why did WaPo use a misleading headline and video in the first place?
WaPo does post the full video, but again with a misleading headline.
Here is the video story posted by WaPo, Polish First Lady Passes Over Trump’s Handshake:
It’s completely misleading, but you have to watch far into the clip to realize it. Here’s the video, watch until the 23 second mark to see that just after the “passed over” handshake, the Polish First Lady shakes hands with Trump:
This might seem like a small issue.
But it goes to the credibility of the leading media opponents of Trump.
WaPo was not alone. USA Today has a misleading headline:
Newsweek ran a misleading headline, then added a correction:
Chris Cillizza of CNN shared the misleading video, and laughed about it:
Cillizza admitted he knew it wasn’t true – just funny – so what does that make him?
If WaPo and other leading media are willing to try to embarrass Trump with a misleading video story over something like a handshake, about what else are they willing to mislead?
Next time WaPo has a breaking story about Trump based on anonymous sources, and tells us to “trust” them on the sourcing, don’t.
UPDATE: This appears to be the account of the President of Poland (no blue check mark, but over 700k followers). If it’s not real, it should be:
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