Fake U.S. Political News Was Abundant in 2017 – We List Our Top 10 Un-MAGA-Like Picks Below
If people thought fake U.S. political news would subside after a historically nasty 2016 presidential campaign, they were mistaken. Not only did it continue, but it seemed to get more neurotic as 2017 rolled along.
What were once tactics employed to chip away at President Donald Trump’s credibility morphed into hardcore hatchet pieces designed to impeach. In their angst to deliver a knockout blow, the media doubled and tripled down, becoming more hyperbolic along the way. The net outcome is a liberal media that not only failed to meet its objective, but destroyed its own credibility also.
But we suspect the liberal media will keep trying. After all, fake news sells, and there’s an ideological narrative that must be satisfied. Given that, we expect the mainstream media will quadruple down even more.
So without further ado, here are Lombardi Letter‘s top 10 fake U.S. political news stories of 2017.
10. Attendance at Trump’s Presidential Inauguration
Right from the outset, the liberal media threw down the gauntlet. In an effort to scuttle early momentum generated by Trump’s presidential inauguration, the liberal media signaled their intention to resist by posting a highly dishonest photo of both Obama’s 2009 and Trump’s 2017 inaugurations. Both were purported to be taken at the same time relative to the beginning of each ceremony.
Comparing the crowds at Donald Trump’s and Barack Obama’s inaugurations https://t.co/U4dIVzCKbH pic.twitter.com/zf8hxVDMpO
— The New York Times (@nytimes) January 20, 2017
The problem is, The New York Times photo was almost certainly taken before the Barack Obama inauguration photo (45 minutes before the ceremony beginning). There are several reasons for this assertion, but simple common sense is the biggest key. If Trump’s inauguration venue was really one-quarter full 45 minutes before the start of the ceremony, how was it possible to fill the venue by the start of the address? Doubly so, considering the much-stringent security protocols in place, making getting to the venue more difficult.
As we can see below, the crowds stretch all the way back to the Washington monument. There doesn’t appear to be any excess space by the time the ceremony begins. Clearly, this was fake news designed to portray a lack of enthusiasm for President Trump.
This photo shows Trump speaking at Inauguration with crowd going down to Washington Monument. @seanspicer pic.twitter.com/Bl4pvUclpe
— T-Covfefe (@MyPlace4U) January 22, 2017
9. Terror Attacks in Sweden
During a campaign rally in Orlando in February, Trump called out Sweden as, “having problems like they never thought possible.” This was in reference to reasons why his “Muslim” travel ban should be in place.
Predictably, the media went into attack mode. They claimed his assertions were ridiculous, that nothing unusual was happening over there. The Swedish government itself piled on, with Sweden’s U.S. embassy responding, “We look forward to informing the U.S. administration about Swedish immigration and integration policies.” Former Foreign Minister Carl Bildt wrote on Twitter, “Sweden? Terror attack? What has he been smoking? Questions abound”. (Source: “Trump baffles Sweden with crime comment, says it was based on TV report,” Reuters, February 19, 2017.)
The only problem is, everything Trump said was true. Literally the day after his speech, riots broke out in the densely populated immigrant stronghold of Rinkeby. Watch:
This wasn’t an isolated event. In the subsequent months ahead, Swedish police have admitted they cannot handle the spiraling amounts of violent crime. They’ve also admitted that several no-go zones indeed do exist, where cars being set on fire is the norm and where emergency vehicles can only enter certain neighborhoods under police escort. In April 2017, a terrorist deliberately drove a lorry into a crowd of people in downtown Stockholm, filling five people.
In other words, Trump was right.
8. Washington Post Claims Russia Hacked Vermont Power Grid
On January 1, 2017, The Washington Post retracted its story about Russian hackers penetrating the nation’s electricity grid with a virus found on a Burlington Electric company laptop. It was later admitted by a utility spokesperson that a utility laptop was not hooked into the grid, making a Russian hack impossible. (Source: “Russian operation hacked a Vermont utility, showing risk to U.S. electrical grid security, officials say,” The Washington Post, December 31, 2016.)
7. MLK Statue Removed from White House After Trump Moves In
President Donald Trump called out a reporter for TIME who claimed the president’s staff had removed a bust of African American icon Martin Luther King Jr. from the Oval Office. Zeke Miller had tweeted this falsehood as part of a reporter entourage documenting Trump’s first day in office. The row caused measurable outrage in the black community and lent “evidence” to the left’s assertion that Trump really was a white nationalist.
Of course, none of it was true.
Correction: The MLK bust is still in the Oval Office. It was obscured by an agent and door.
— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) January 21, 2017
6. CNN Host Chris Cuomo Claims It’s Illegal to “Possess” Wikileaks Documents
In one of many CNN fake news stories of 2017, Chris Cuomo claimed it was “illegal to possess the stolen documents; it’s different for the media.” But is it true? We think not. Legal precedent has consistently supported the fact that the First Amendment offers the same protection to the press as to the public—even in terms of possessing or distributing illegally obtained material.
Besides, the public did not “possess” the WikiLeaks documents in a physical sense. The documents were distributed freely to press outlets, who picked them up and themselves distributed them for public consumption. Cuomo seems to be conflating the issue of possession with distribution.
Either way, his assertions were fake news.
5. CNN Claims WikiLeaks Helped the Trump Campaign
Earlier this month, CNN claimed the Trump campaign had early, secret access to hacked DNC e-mails from WikiLeaks. The liberal news network disclosed that Donald Trump Jr. received an e-mail from WikiLeaks on September 4, 2016, that contained a private link and decryption details that would give him access to documents from the Trump campaign’s political opponents.
The problem is, the story was verifiable fake news because WikiLeaks did not make the documents public until September 13, 2016. Even fake news co-conspirator The Washington Post poured cold water on the story, reviewing a copy of the e-mail sent to Trump Jr. CNN was forced to make several revisions to the story a few days later.
For his part, Donald Trump Jr. had the final word:
I know you can’t help but spread #fakenews @cnn, but now that you know the truth you should have the decency to retract the false story, make the correction, take down the bs tweet, and apologize to the 2 or 3 people that still believe you to be credible #yourewelcome https://t.co/bjL6mSdaii
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) December 8, 2017
4. The Washington Post Claims Trump Florida Rally Half Empty
On December 8, President Trump held a rally in Pensacola, Florida. However, if you were relying on The Washington Post editor Dave Weigel for an accurate depiction of events, you were instead given a heavy dose of fake news.
In a shockingly sloppy piece of editorializing, Weigel tried to sell the idea that nobody showed up for Trump’s latest rally (pictured in the top-left on Trump’s rebuttal tweet below). In reality, about 12,000 people attended and the venue was completely sold out. It appears that Weigel has never heard of something called the “Internet,” which makes half-baked claims such as this almost impossible to pull off.
.@DaveWeigel @WashingtonPost put out a phony photo of an empty arena hours before I arrived @ the venue, w/ thousands of people outside, on their way in. Real photos now shown as I spoke. Packed house, many people unable to get in. Demand apology & retraction from FAKE NEWS WaPo! pic.twitter.com/XAblFGh1ob
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 9, 2017
Never mind that nearly all of Trump’s previous rallies were filled to capacity and overflow crowds were commonplace. Did Weigel really think crowds would simply fall off a cliff just several months into his presidency? Apparently so.
3. CNN’s Fake News Fish Story
During President Trump’s visit to Japan in November, CNN spread dual false narratives about the president.
The first was that Trump was “undiplomatic” while feeding Japanese koi fish by impatiently pouring out his entire box of fish food. They accomplished this by zooming in close on Trump while he and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe were feeding the fish, appearing to show the president making the embarrassing mistake. The video went viral and Trump was mocked on social media.
Trump joined his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe in feeding fish, emptying the whole box of food into a koi pond https://t.co/ervKCSChIN pic.twitter.com/4b3XoyLNOJ
— CNN (@CNN) November 6, 2017
In reality, the full video showed that Trump followed Abe’s lead and only dumped out his box of fish food after his host had done the same. It was an obvious attempt to make Trump look unpresidential on the world stage. Mission unaccomplished.
2. ABC’s Brian Ross Claims Michael Flynn Was Turning on Trump
In a bombshell that caused the Dow Jones Industrial Average to fall 350 points, ABC News correspondent Brian Ross reported that Michael Flynn was going to testify against the president for directing him to contact Russia in regards to foreign policy before the 2016 presidential election. The problem is, it wasn’t remotely true. Trump only directed Flynn after he became president, making his contact completely legal within the framework of the law. In fact, building relations with foreign governments is a prime diplomatic governmental responsibility.
To be fair, ABC took swift action to correct its misgivings. It suspended Ross for four weeks without pay and banned him from covering President Trump in future stories. “We deeply regret and apologize for the serious error we made yesterday. The reporting conveyed by Brian Ross during the special report had not been fully vetted through our editorial standards process,” the network said in a statement. (Source: “Trump blasts ABC News reporter Brian Ross over ‘horrendously inaccurate and dishonest report’ on Michael Flynn,” Business Insider, December 2, 2017.)
1. Fusion GPS Dossier Outed as Paid-for Dirt
In our estimation, the Fusion GPS scandal wins the “2017 Fake News Award.” Not only was it completely dishonest paid-for dirt, but it also almost swayed the 2016 presidential election. Its impact rivals (if not exceeds) the level of impact last seen in the 1970’s Watergate scandal, which is still talked about today. It’s political corruption of the highest magnitude.
In a nutshell, The Democratic National Committee was in cahoots with Republican allies to manufacture dirt on President Trump. While opposition research is a legitimate and accepted practice in political campaigns, this went far beyond accepted norms.
The intermediary was Fusion GPS, a well-known opposition research firm doing business in Washington. Through Democratic operatives such as attorney Mark Elias, Fusion GPS was paid several million dollars in hit-piece money. The problem is, the intelligence it returned rested upon dubious foundations and could not be corroborated by the FBI or other major intelligence organizations. In other words, it was a fraud.
While this never stopped liberal news organizations like BuzzFeed from reporting the uncorroborated intelligence as fact, Trump still won the election.
Consider it crisis averted for Republicans and “MAGA” supporters, although it was a close shave.