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Fox News reporter Jennifer Griffin snatched the story and ran with it claiming to have "confirmed" parts of the story---though not the main part---with her own "anonymous" sources.
If Trump would have done that, it would be unthinkable and profoundly disappointing, but a closer look affirms he didn't---but the look reveals the Left's propensity for rewriting history as needed for its own interests---whether it's about patriotism or light bulbs.
Be informed, not misled.
How fake news works.
The entire story failed to meet basic journalistic standards. But it's a sign of things to come---particularly if Democrats take power in November.
The Atlantic claims, based on "anonymous sources who had knowledge," that President Trump two years ago, said disparaging words about dead WW I dead veterans, calling them "losers."
The Atlantic also claims Trump avoided a trip to a military cemetery because he did not want his hair to get wet. All based on "anonymous sources who had knowledge."
"Anonymous sources" can be used to claim absolutely anything, and the "four people who have knowledge of the discussion that day" per the Atlantic, are second-hand or worse---they just made it up.
Actually, there are, in this case, 11 eyewitnesses who have gone on the record to deny that the President said what the Atlantic alleges he said.
Even former aid John Bolton, who wrote a very negative, critical book about President Trump, denies that Trump said what the Atlantic is claiming.
And the official documents of that day's presidential travel refutes it.
In 2018, NBC falsely reported that President Trump had become the first president since 2002 not to visit the troops at Christmas. The fact is, he was in Iraq with the troops that Christmas.
In that spirit, NBC's White House correspondent, Peter Alexander, asked the President this past Friday---in the Oval Office--to "apologize" to soldiers and veterans. When the President didn't apologize, it was reported that he refused to apologize---for something he didn't do.
Shortly after that, Alexander went on MSNBC and reported that whether that story is true or not, it "resonates."
There's more, but my point is not to defend Trump, although I do support and would defend him, it's to make an even greater point that the press is re-writing and making up history as it goes---as needed.
The Wall Street Journal noted in their coverage of the misleading Atlantic article, how impossible it is to even write about the incident without repeating the lie. The lie is designed to accomplish exactly that.
Eventually, the Atlantic may be forced to write some kind of correction or clarification---whatever.
But the point is that the original message is out there.
WSJ says repeating the lie further ingrains it into the public's mind. The headline read, "Trump Denies Report He Disparaged The Military," forcing any coverage of the Atlantic's lie to repeat the lie.
The fact-checkers who are always lurking around Trump and Pence, were absent when a real lie appeared.
The greater concern.
In 1942 George Orwell wrote this:
Early in life I have noticed that no event is ever correctly reported in a newspaper, but in Spain, for the first time, I saw newspaper reports which did not bear any relation to the facts, not even the relationship which is implied in an ordinary lie. I saw great battles reported where there had been no fighting, and complete silence where hundreds of men had been killed. I saw troops who had fought bravely denounced as cowards and traitors, and others who had never seen a shot fired hailed as the heroes of imaginary victories; and I saw newspapers in London retailing these lies and eager intellectuals building emotional superstructures over events that had never happened. I saw, in fact, history being written not in terms of what happened but of what ought to have happened according to various ‘party lines’.
Later Orwell developed this insight into his novel "1984."
Orwell's novel is particularly relevant as we face a wave of fake news---particularly over the next little less than 60 days.
Once the lie is out there, it lingers in the mind of those who hear it.
While in Kenosha, Wis. last week, Joe Biden, in an attempt to identify with the African Americans in his rather small crowd, pandered to the audience by telling them that Thomas Edison did not create the light bulb, that Louise Latimer, a black man did.
Actually, Latimer was brilliant and he was black, but he didn't invent the light bulb. Working with Edison, he perfected it after Edison had invented it.
By lying, the left actually steals some of the recognition from the people they claim to be "supporting."
But they don't care, because at the end of the day, it's not about Edison, Latimer, or anyone else: It's about them.
Recently, The New York Times won the Pulitzer Prize for journalism for their essay, "Project 1619."
The essay, which is now set to become curriculum in public schools, claims America was founded, not on a quest for freedom---particularly religious freedom, but on the economic lust to build a culture that would thrive on the backs of slaves---claiming that America was not founded in 1776, but rather in 1619 when the first slave ship arrived at Jamestown.
You've probably heard about the 1619 project.
Have you heard that the New York Times has been forced to revise their central claim that America was founded on slavery in 1619, because historians said it was absolutely not true?
I didn't think you had heard that part.
Most people haven't. By design.
But the people who will, for the most part, be teaching this course, are already telling their students that the riots burning our cities are "mostly peaceful."
If this kind of misleading manipulation of the public should actually win a presidential election, we are truly in the Democrat's Orwellian bubble.
Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Prayerful.