Long before Donald Trump made the “Fake News” meme synonymous with the “progressive” establishment media, multiple surveys had already shown that Americans had lost virtually all respect for, and trust in, the media. Gallup, Pew, and other pollsters have found that almost 70 percent of Americans distrust the “mainstream media” (MSM). Not surprisingly, more and more Americans have turned to social media and the multitude of newer, alternative news sources on the Internet. Examples of fake news — which encompass outright fabrications as well as gross distortions and censorship of real news — have become so egregious and commonplace that it is impossible to list them all. Below is but a fraction of the fake news proliferation.
• “Hands up, don’t shoot”: In appearances on Fox News programs on December 8, 2016, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Sheriff David Clarke charged that “fake news” was “born” with the widespread media propagation of the “hands up, don’t shoot!” lie, that claimed Michael Brown, a young black man, was shot dead in cold blood by white police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri. This lie greatly fueled the deadly riots that followed throughout the country. “The ‘hands up, don’t shoot’ lie was propagated by every mainstream liberal media across this country,” Clarke said. “The New York Times, the Washington Post, the LA Times, the Chicago Tribune, CNN, MSNBC, all propagated that ‘hands up, don’t shoot’ lie. It was from that time forward that this concept of fake news was talked about.”
Very few members of the MSM have fessed up to their part in this horrendous lie. One who has is Jonathan Capehart, who wrote a mea culpa column in the Washington Post on March 16, 2015 entitled “‘Hands up, don’t shoot’ was built on a lie.” Like Clarke, Capehart is a black man, but similarities seem to end there; Capehart is a liberal-left Democrat, commentator for MSNBC, columnist for the Post, and a homosexual activist “married” to Obama State Department official Nick Schmit. Nevertheless, after Capehart had read the official reports on the shooting, he confessed they had “forced me to deal with two uncomfortable truths: Brown never surrendered with his hands up, and Wilson was justified in shooting Brown.”
• Hate-crime hoax epidemic: Vilifying conservatives with various “hate” labels — racist, anti-semite, misogynist, xenophobe, homophobe — has been the standard operating procedure of the MSM for decades. However, this practice intensified to an alarming degree during the recent election cycle — and after. Dozens of stories of alleged hate crimes by Trump supporters have been given huge media coverage, only to be later proven to be fabricated (often with the “victim” confessing and being prosecuted for making the false charges). Rarely, however, do the media publicize the subsequent facts that discredit the earlier false claims.
• Global warming, hoax of the century — For more than 20 years, the MSM propagandists have been hyperventilating over the supposed dire danger of anthropogenic (man-made) global warming, or AGW, to justify vast new government programs that would cost trillions of dollars and exterminate freedom. Among the hundreds of AGW lies that have been perpetrated is the claim that 97-99 percent of scientists agree that AGW is an existential threat to all life on the planet.
• Riot-Makers-R-Us: Whether it’s the Black Lives Matter rioters, the Occupy Wall Street rioters, the Dream Act rioters, or the Not My President rioters, the professionals running these affairs invariably are paid by George Soros, the Ford Foundation, and other wealthy donors; but don’t expect to see that mentioned in MSM “news” accounts.
• Clinton, Trump, and Putin: For months, the anti-Trump media mavens have been trying to sell the story — without any evidence — that Trump is tainted with ties to Russia. However, the same MSM mouthpieces have refused to pursue and publicize the verifiable Bill and Hillary Clinton deals with Russia, such as the Uranium One scandal and John Podesta’s Joule Energy profits with Putin’s oligarchs.
• Clinton, Podesta, occult, pedophiles: A month before election day, the MSM exploded with nonstop coverage of a decade-old audio recording of lewd talk between Donald Trump and Hollywood reporter Billy Bush. However, coverage was virtually nil of Bill and Hillary Clinton’s hobnobbing with convicted notorious pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, as well as the “Spirit Cooking” and other weird occult and sex affiliations of campaign chairman John Podesta.
• “Fake News” vs. fake news: Following Hillary Clinton’s defeat, major members of the MSM choir began claiming that victory was stolen from Hillary thanks to voter confusion and misdirection created by “fake news” provided by pro-Trump websites. Of course they could cite nothing that would qualify as evidence to support this lame claim, although without the help of their own fake news, Clinton undoubtedly would have done even worse.
Versions of this article and the related stories below appear in the May 8, 2017 print edition of The New American. Published twice each month, the print edition provides exclusive in-depth analysis covering the political gamut: education, candidate profiles, immigration, healthcare, foreign policy, guns, etc. Digital as well as print subscription options are available!
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