Donald Trump has been getting away with every conceivable thing during this election. He says blatantly racist and offensive things, even obscene things, and he not only remains a viable candidate, but he wins the Republican nomination and then closes in on Hillary Clinton to make it a surprisingly close race.
Here is a guy who has insulted Mexicans, Muslims, blacks, women, the disabled, and quite a few other people along the way. Although he receives some measure of criticism for these actions, they do not seem to cost him anything overly significant.
Also throughout this race, he has consistently lied and contradicted himself. He makes allegedly bold statements that feel like he is proclaiming himself to be the cure all for everything that ails America, promising to restore it to some version of greatness that he and his supporters see, even though a part of that, evidently, is some restoring of racism. He claims that he is the only one who can save the country, and that he will be the best job-creating president in history. He also proclaims that he is the fittest person to ever run for president, which just on the face of it sounds absolutely absurd.
One thing after another, his exaggerations or outright lies have just kept on coming. And somehow, he always has managed to avoid paying the price for these.
Well, at least one major and majorly reputable publication has had enough, and decided to call Trump out on his lies. No longer will these be called by any other name but what they are: lies.
That sounds a lot more direct than "falsehoods" now, doesn't it?
Of course, many people feel that the media in general seems to be doing their job less and less impressively over time. It was over a decade ago now that the media seemed to give President George. W. Bush and his administration several passes, beginning with the stolen election and all of the conflicts of interests involved with everything that came later, including numerous corporate scandals and, of course, the invasion of Iraq, which destabilized the whole region that is now plagued by ISIS. It has been slowly eroding for several decades now, although one cannot help but wonder if this is by design, as this degradation of quality reporting coincided with the privatization of the media by huge corporations with a clear vested interest in controlling "the news."
Still, this move by the New York Times is probably a good one. After all, we need more directness and less politeness when dealing with someone like Donald Trump. He certainly does not make any real effort towards observing niceties, so why should anyone else make the effort for him? He has lied time and time and time again, and so it is time for someone to finally just call him out on it.
This is especially true since his run of successes has come with all of the lies that he spoke and promised going virtually unchallenged. It may be clear that a lot of people do not like Trump, find him either frightening or disgusting (or both), and that some people will do anything to prevent Trump from ever becoming president, but the fact of the matter is that specific points need to be challenged. When he lies, he should be called out on it, point by point. Even if he gives a new speech every single day, and each of these are filled with lies, there should be a team of reporters working to unmask those lies, and reveal them to the public.
Yet, the fear has to be that facts like these might no longer matter. People believe what they want to believe these days, and Trump has taken advantage of that little fact more than anyone before in American electoral history. Politicians are known for lying, of course, and even though Trump is hardly a typical politician, he certainly takes the cake when it comes to unwarranted bragging and boasting and, yes, outright lying, all to promote himself and his agenda.
Of course, many people feel that the media in general seems to be doing their job less and less impressively over time. It was over a decade ago now that the media seemed to give President George. W. Bush and his administration several passes, beginning with the stolen election and all of the conflicts of interests involved with everything that came later, including numerous corporate scandals and, of course, the invasion of Iraq, which destabilized the whole region that is now plagued by ISIS. It has been slowly eroding for several decades now, although one cannot help but wonder if this is by design, as this degradation of quality reporting coincided with the privatization of the media by huge corporations with a clear vested interest in controlling "the news."
Still, this move by the New York Times is probably a good one. After all, we need more directness and less politeness when dealing with someone like Donald Trump. He certainly does not make any real effort towards observing niceties, so why should anyone else make the effort for him? He has lied time and time and time again, and so it is time for someone to finally just call him out on it.
This is especially true since his run of successes has come with all of the lies that he spoke and promised going virtually unchallenged. It may be clear that a lot of people do not like Trump, find him either frightening or disgusting (or both), and that some people will do anything to prevent Trump from ever becoming president, but the fact of the matter is that specific points need to be challenged. When he lies, he should be called out on it, point by point. Even if he gives a new speech every single day, and each of these are filled with lies, there should be a team of reporters working to unmask those lies, and reveal them to the public.
Yet, the fear has to be that facts like these might no longer matter. People believe what they want to believe these days, and Trump has taken advantage of that little fact more than anyone before in American electoral history. Politicians are known for lying, of course, and even though Trump is hardly a typical politician, he certainly takes the cake when it comes to unwarranted bragging and boasting and, yes, outright lying, all to promote himself and his agenda.
New York Times decides to call a lie a lie, and its Trump coverage may never be the same By Laura Clawson, Sep 20, 2016:
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