In a new move, US President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced his “false news awards” with much debate and criticism from two senators from his camp denouncing the president’s repeated “attacks” on the press.
“The winners of the ‘False News’ award are …” said a tweet written by Trump in his usual provocative style that included a link to an unreachable location for several minutes.
Trump, who carries out almost daily attacks on “dishonest” journalists, criticizes the investigation by independent prosecutor Robert Mueller about possible collusion between his electoral team and the Kremlin in the 2016 election.
“2017 was a year of excessive bias, dishonest media coverage and even shameful false information, ” Trump wrote in an introduction to the list of the most corrupt and biased media.
– Trump List –
The list included CNN, the New York Times and the Washington Post, all of which were constantly targeted by the president. “Studies have shown that more than 90 percent of President Trump’s coverage is negative,” Trump said, without any explanation or sources.
Paul Krugman, the 2008 Nobel laureate who writes articles for The New York Times, was ranked first.
Trump’s website says Krugman “confirmed President Trump’s overwhelming victory that the economy will never recover,” before he mentioned Wall Street was breaking records.
The list also referred to an error committed by a veteran British journalist, Brian Ross, who was expelled for four days. He had mistakenly reported that Trump ordered his former national security adviser Michael Flynn to contact representatives of the Kremlin before his election in November 2016.
“With the exception of some very corrupt and dishonest media coverage, there are many excellent journalists I respect and many good news that Americans can boast,” Trump said.
– “The truth has been distorted and violated” –
A few hours before, two Republicans in the Senate directly condemned Trump’s near-daily attacks on journalists.
Arizona Senator Jeff Flick told Congress: “2017 was the year of truth, the objectivity of truth, the evidence-based truth that has been distorted and violated more than ever in the history of our country by the greatest figure in our government.”
“It is no longer possible to ignore the ‘attacks’ on the media of an ‘unquestioned’ president,” said Flick, who declared his candidacy at the end of his term in late 2018.
“The enemy of the people is the description given by the president to the free press in 2017,” he said, recalling that the words were “used by (Soviet leader) Joseph Stalin” to describe his enemies.
A few hours before Flick’s speech, Republican Senator John McCain called on Trump to stop attacking the press. “Whether or not Trump realizes this, foreign leaders are watching his work closely and using his words as pretexts” to limit press freedom, McCain stressed.
“The term ‘false news’ given by Trump is legitimate and used by tyrants to silence journalists.”
Fleck did not hide before Congress his concern about the announcement of the “awards”. “Such a review by the president is beyond belief,” he said.