Summations Only

There's been a lot of disagreement about the videos, but though I'm not moderating this thread it's worth noting that there's little clarity about what the evidence in the videos is. Videos are like links and excerpts and shouldn't appear by themselves. They should be accompanied by arguments and evidence in one's own words. For videos longer than maybe a half minute or so, times for the relevant information should be provided.--Percy

Since no supporters of Trump's claims of "fake news" are offering any actual evidential support I thought I'd help them out by conducting a brief review of this article from today's New York Times: Trump Offers Up a More Hopeful Vision. I'll be looking to see if the article contains any biased or fake portions.

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President Trump, in his first address to a joint session of Congress, defended his tumultuous presidency on Tuesday and said he was eager to reach across party lines and put aside trivial fights to help ordinary Americans.

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Given the chaotic immigration ban and the fear he's sowed in the immigrant community, the concerns he's sparked in NATO, the insults to foreign cities, countries and heads of state, and the confusion he's caused about health care, tumultuous seems a more than fair characterization of the Trump presidency thus far. It must at least be agreed that his presidency has been very non-traditional.

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But he raised new questions about his policy priorities and how he plans to achieve them, especially on immigration.

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Only hours before his address, Mr. Trump had broken from his tough immigration stance in remarks at the White House, suggesting that legal status be granted to millions of undocumented immigrants who have not committed serious crimes. Many of Mr. Trump’s core supporters had denounced that approach as amnesty during the campaign.

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But in his speech, Mr. Trump never mentioned legalizing undocumented people and over all held to the tough-on-immigration theme of his campaign.

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Mentioning immigration compromise in his briefing with news anchors and then leaving it out of his SOTU address certainly does raise questions.

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But in contrast with the dark themes of his inaugural address, Mr. Trump’s speech to Congress was a more optimistic vision of America and what he called the promises ahead.

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The SOTU address was much clearly more optimistic than the inaugural with its many dark references to stealing and carnage and the red blood of patriots and ravages and destruction and terrorism and so forth.

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Although Mr. Trump’s presidency has been defined by executive orders and pronouncements, his speech appeared to be an attempt to open a new phase and reflected his need for cooperation from Congress.

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This seems an accurate assessment.

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The president has yet to propose major legislation to achieve his goals, with members of his cabinet and senior staff members divided over key elements of tax and health plans, and congressional Republicans split on how to structure them. By this point in his presidency, Mr. Obama had established an active if not always friendly working relationship with a Democratic Congress, having signed into law a $787 billion package of spending and tax cuts intended to stabilize the economy.

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This is a clearly biased paragraph that goes well beyond factual reporting to make comparisons with the previous president who faced far more urgent economic problems than those faced today and so had to move rapidly.

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Mr. Trump laid out the broad outlines of a health care overhaul that papered over divisions among Republicans about how to structure it, calling for a plan that uses tax credits and tax-advantaged savings accounts to help Americans buy insurance, and promising a stable transition from the existing system.

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This is just referring to the differences of opinion among Republicans on health care, ranging from complete repeal of Obamacare without replacement all the way to keeping much of it.

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Nor did Mr. Trump criticize one of his favorite foils, the fake news media.

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This seems an unnecessary jab at a time when the president has just taken a very positive step toward a more traditional and presidential style.

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The speech reflected the war Mr. Trump is fighting with himself and his inner circle.

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Characterizing policy differences within the administration as "war" seems unnecessarily harsh.There's much more in the article, of course, but those were the parts that I thought could be challenged as biased. They was not, as far as I could tell, any fake or incorrect information in the article.--Percy

It's important to note that the original order applied to everyone from those seven countries, including those with green cards.--Percy

The entire media, including the outlets you like, reported on these things. The tumult in the Trump administration is caused by Trump himself. Reporting events is a result of the events, not a cause of them. You've got it backwards. Gee, too bad, you missed the portions I thought biased.--Percy

I think you've mistaken the purpose of my post. It was to neither complement nor criticize Trump, but to take the lead article from a mainstream media outlet and review it for bias and fake news. I found two instances of mild bias and no instances of fake or false news.But I agree that there was a great deal about the speech to be positive about. Trump delivered a traditional, presidential and largely successful and positive SOTU address. The term "undocumented" is used when it is more accurate. For someone discovered without documentation, "undocumented" is a fact while "illegal" is a possibly incorrect conclusion. It's like the term "alleged perpetrator" that police use because they're talking prior to establishment of any guilt or innocence. The idea appeared to spring off the top of his head during a meeting with news anchors, so it's very likely true that he hasn't had time to think it through, nor vet it with his staff or the relevant agencies, which he should have done before even mentioning it. Poor impulse control.--Percy

While we continue to wait for actual examples of "fake news" from the mainstream media, here as potential candidates are the top few headlines from today's New York Times:

• Key G.O.P. Lawmakers Say Sessions Should Recuse Himself
  
• Obama Aides Left a Trail of Intelligence on Russian Efforts
  
• Trump Pushes Unity, but G.O.P. Is Split Over Health Care

If anyone finds anything "fake" in any of these articles please bring it the thread's attention.--Percy

The error in logic is all yours, but could you perhaps divert time from issuing spurious insults to providing some support for your contention that the mainstream media is "fake news"? So far what we mostly have is that if Trump and Faith don't like it, it's fake.--Percy

Nope. You're trying to make a single characterization fit everything Trump does.--Percy

Of course the insult was spurious, and unnecessary and against the Forum Guidelines. If you're not going to defend the main premise of your thread that the mainstream media is "fake news", then what is the point? I haven't said anything offensive. You just find the truth offensive. It's obvious to everyone else here that you spoke out of ignorance. Reality isn't what you make up in your own mind. When you make a mistake, own up to it.By the way, I'm curious, how is it that you're able to read the black on white lettering of news outlets when it's something you post yourself (like the opinion piece you just linked to in Message 518, Trump ignored first rule of crisis management come clean and he’s paying the price), but not anything anybody else posts? Since virtually all news outlets post black on white lettering, how do you read any news at all? Perhaps this explains why you seem unaware of so much.--Percy

This morning Trump tweeted that "122 vicious prisoners, released by the Obama Administration from Gitmo, have returned to the battlefield." Just one problem: most of those former Gitmo prisoners were released by George W. Bush. Read all about it: Trump hits Obama again, this time with false claims about Gitmo detaineesProbably Trump read something misleading at Breitbart again and then put fingers in gear without thinking or checking. One has to wonder how many of his opinions are based upon false beliefs.--Percy

The most recent jobs report was very positive, and Trump tweeted enthusiastically about it: "Great news. We are only just beginning. Together, we are going to #MAGA [Make America Great Again]!"But up until his inauguration Trump dismissed the job reports as "totally fiction." See a list of the many times he has deprecated the jobs report as meaningless: 19 times Trump called jobs numbers ‘fake’ before they made him look goodOnce again Trump makes clear that his definition of fake news is any report not favorable to him. Whether its true or not (and so far the evidence is that it *is* true when it's from a major news outlet like the New York Times, Washington Post, ABC, NBC, CBS, etc.) doesn't matter to him. He's a propagandist of the first rank.--Percy

No evidence of fake or false news by the mainstream media was identified in this thread. Obviously Trump's accusations of "fake news" only apply to news not favorable to him.Concerning polls, a recent Gallup poll had Trump at his lowest approval rating yet of 37%, and the Rasmussen poll that tracks a different demographic group has tracked the Gallup poll, dropping to 45% at roughly the same time. Trump's approval rating is slowly recovering from his disastrous last week - yesterday Gallup was at 39% and Rasmussen was at 50%. There seems nothing fake nor fraudulent about either poll.--Percy