Recently, members of the American press were quickly trying to tie the horrendous shooting by Jarrod Ramos at Capital Gazette in Annapolis, MD, to President Trump’s declaration that the press is the “enemy of the people”.
President Trump has been on record that #FakeNews is the enemy of the people, which is true. However, one intrepid Massachusetts journalist decided to create some alternative facts to blame trump for Ramos’ attack on the newspaper.
He has now resigned.
A Massachusetts newspaper reporter has resigned after falsely suggesting the perpetrator of the deadly shooting at a Maryland newspaper was wearing a President Donald Trump-inspired “Make America Great Again” hat.The Republican newspaper in Springfield reports Conor Berry has apologized for tarnishing the “good work of fair-minded journalists everywhere” in his Friday resignation letter….The Republican’s executive editor Wayne Phaneuf says journalists must be “more vigilant than ever” in their efforts to be fair and accurate. Trump frequently criticizes reporters as peddlers of “fake news.”
Surprisingly, Berry has taken responsibility for his actions.
“I am ashamed of my tweet, which taints the good work of fair-minded journalists everywhere,” Berry said….In a follow-up interview with the Boston Globe, Berry said his tweet was a “snarky, sarcastic, cynical remark,” and lamented that his tweet gave more fuel to critics of the news media that believe reporters try to push a partisan agenda.
Interestingly, I was treated to a celebration of #FakeNews this morning, from Yahoo News, as I was heading to open my email.
I am so old I remember when “Fake but Accurate” cost a veteran, celebrity news anchor and his producer their careers.
It was September 8, 2004, less than two months before the 2004 Presidential election. CBS News aired a 60 Minutes™ broadcast hosted by News Anchor Dan Rather, centered on four documents critical of President George W. Bush’s National Guard service in 1972-‘73. The documents were supposed to have been written by Bush’s commander, Lieutenant Colonel Jerry B. Killian, who’d passed away in 1984….Within hours of the broadcast, the documents were criticized as forgeries. Internet forums and blogs challenged the terminology and typography of the memos. Within days it came out that the font used in the memos didn’t exist at the time the documents were supposed to have been written.That didn’t stop the Boston Globe from running a story entitled “Authenticity Backed on Bush Documents”, a story they later had to retract….CBS News would ultimately retract the story, as it came out that Producer Mary Mapes collaborated on it with the Kerry campaign. Several network news people lost their jobs, including Rather and Mapes.
If Yahoo News is trying to celebrate a “Fake but Accurate” story, then the polling for the Democrats that the media usually supports must be truly dire. It appears the attempt to undermine Trump with ginned-up political hysteria has also failed on this issue.
In a new Harvard/Harris poll released this week exclusively to The Hill, President Trump’s overall approval rating rose to 47 percent, just two points shy of the highest level of his presidency, per that survey. The main driver of his growing popularity now: a stunning 10 percent rise in Trump approval among Hispanics.
Perhaps instead of making themselves the story, American journalists can go back and simply report on who, what, where, when and why. They will then avoid succumbing to the fruit of the poisonous #FakeNews tree.
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