BOPP Episode 4: Alt-News and Alt-Facts

Ben on Politics Podcast

Trump's Relationship With The Truth

MEDIA

1 Welcome to the Ben on Politics Podcast. We’re taking a couple of weeks off from the Ben on Politics YouTube series while we build our new set, but the podcast lives on. 2 If you’re just joining us for your first episode, welcome! a. Ben Garves b. Former congressional candidate and current social rights activist. 3 A couple of observations based on the last couple of weeks. a. Women’s march was a phenomenal experience. a.i. MLKs sentiment that peace and inclusion does make a difference. b. Upcoming marches. b.i. Tax March – April 15th b.ii. March for Science – April 22nd Earth Day b.iii. Immigrants’ March – May 6th b.iv. Pride March – June 8th through 11th 4 Trump Lies a. Alt-president’s alt-right alt-news of alt-facts. b. Many in the media argue Trump isn’t lying. b.i. Because a lie needs to be an intentionally false statement. b.ii. Quote Samuel L Jackson – are you out of your damn minds? b.iii. In this day and age, when you’re surrounded with the level of media of the President, you can’t physically be so willfully ignorant as to believe you get to pick and choose your news sources to disregard facts in favor of alternative facts. b.iv. Case in point – Trump’s preference of Breitbart’s fake or skewed coverage over actual news. b.v. Breitbart’s agenda is to serve Steve Bannon and therefor Donald Trump. b.vi. Last year Kurt Berdella of Breitbart News resigned. Quoted saying of Breitbart and their relationship to a Trump candidacy, “when you have that kind of skin in the game, you don’t want to see that derailed.” b.vi.1. Quotes b.vi.1.a. Birth control makes women unattractive and crazy b.vi.1.b. There is no hiring bias against women in tech, they just suck at interviews. b.vi.1.c. The solution to online ‘harassment’ is simple: women should log off. c. They’re happy to propagate an alternative reality. But the true reality is you can’t have an alternative reality. Using the term “alternative” doesn’t negate the fact that these aren’t reality. They’re fake. And they’re disregarding the truth to get there. It’s a lie. c.i. d. Politifact found only 4% of Trump statements to be outright truth. d.i. 69% of statements were mostly false, flatly false, or blatant lies. d.ii. Cabinet and advisors aren’t far behind. d.ii.1. Sean Spicer 17%, Reince Priebus only 3% true, Kellyanne Conway 0%, Rex Tillerson 0% d.ii.2. That means they could not find a single statement that wasn’t at least partially fabricated in every single of the evaluated statements. d.ii.2.a. Examples d.ii.2.a.i. Tillerson lied about lobbying against sanctions d.ii.2.a.ii. Kellyanne Conway – too easy. Made up the Bowling Green Massacre, lied about length of time the US has gone without a secretary of the treasury, lied about the number 1 source of income in Mexico being funds sent back from the US, lied about fake news, lied about the size of the inauguration crowd, lied about Clinton’s donors, lied about the Trump Foundation’s spending of money for Trump’s personal use… d.ii.2.a.iii. Reince Priebus lied about the Podesta hack, lied about the victory margin, lied about the evidence of Russia’s election meddling, lied about the Clinton election business dealings… d.ii.2.a.iv. Sean Spicer lied about trump’s national security council memo, lied about voter fraud, lied about the growth of the federal workforce, lied about the inauguration audience also, lied about the Supreme Court striking down executive orders from President Obama. d.ii.2.b. That’s just his staff. What has trump lied about? I’m only going to read the 63 considered pants on fire. Not the additional 122 false and 71 mostly false. d.ii.2.b.i. In 2011, made up facts about Obama’s school friends. d.ii.2.b.ii. Said he was statistically tied with Obama. d.ii.2.b.iii. Said Kuwait never reimbursed US for first gulf war. They paid 16 billion. d.ii.2.b.iv. Lied about Obama’s NY fundraising in 2014. d.ii.2.b.v. Lied about our GDP being below zero. d.ii.2.b.vi. Lied about Mexico forcing criminals to cross our border. d.ii.2.b.vii. Lied about illegal immigrants in the US. Said it’s 34 million and It’s only about 10 or 12. Most on expired visas that got here legally. d.ii.2.b.viii. Again that Mexico sends criminals. d.ii.2.b.ix. Unemployment rate is 42 percent d.ii.2.b.x. Said Bernie Sanders wants to set income tax at 90% d.ii.2.b.xi. Lied about calling Marco Rubio Mark Zuckerberg’s personal senator. d.ii.2.b.xii. Said the TPP was designed for china to take advantage of everyone. d.ii.2.b.xiii. Said the federal government was only sending refugees to republican states d.ii.2.b.xiv. Lied and said thousands of people in Jersey City cheered when the world trade center collapsed d.ii.2.b.xv. Said 81% of white homicide victims are killed by blacks. d.ii.2.b.xvi. Said Obama wanted to take in 250k Syrian refugees d.ii.2.b.xvii. Played an ad showing footage of immigrants crossing our border. Turned out it was actually the Moroccan border. d.ii.2.b.xviii. Again said unemployment is at 42 percent d.ii.2.b.xix. In full. This is really bad. Said more than a century ago in the Philippines, General John Pershing took 50 bullets, dipped them in pig’s blood (Muslims and pork) and shot 49 Muslim rebels. To the 50th person, he said to go back and tell your people what happened. And that 25 years of peace followed. d.ii.2.b.xx. Blogged about supporting Libya, then denied it. d.ii.2.b.xxi. Disavowed David Duke in 2014, then lied and said he didn’t know Duke in 2016. d.ii.2.b.xxii. Said nobody had ever won 66 counties in Florida before in a primary. Both Bush and Gore did. Same with Dole, and HW Bush. d.ii.2.b.xxiii. Lied about Michelle Fields changing her story. d.ii.2.b.xxiii.1. Remember to breathe d.ii.2.b.xxiv. Lied about the federal omnibus spending ill funding illegal immigrants coming across the border. d.ii.2.b.xxv. Lied about Hillary’s popularity with women. d.ii.2.b.xxvi. Lied about Ted Cruz’s father being an accomplice to the assassination of JFK d.ii.2.b.xxvii. Lied about tens of thousands of terrorists crossing our border in 2016. d.ii.2.b.xxviii. Lied about Clinton planning to release all violent criminals from jail. d.ii.2.b.xxix. Lied about vet programs d.ii.2.b.xxx. Lied about a rising crime rate d.ii.2.b.xxxi. Lied about Obama funding Al Qaeda d.ii.2.b.xxxii. Lied about refugee proposal being enough to rebuild every inner city in America d.ii.2.b.xxxiii. Lied about Clinton modifying per book post-publishing d.ii.2.b.xxxiv. Lied about Clinton’s religion d.ii.2.b.xxxv. Lied about Cruz’s father again d.ii.2.b.xxxvi. Lied about Bob McDonnell’s emoluments d.ii.2.b.xxxvii. Lied about fire marshals allowing more people at an event d.ii.2.b.xxxviii. Lied about NH polls d.ii.2.b.xxxix. Lied about Clinton’s tax plan d.ii.2.b.xl. Lied about Obama founding ISIS d.ii.2.b.xli. Said the election was rigged against him d.ii.2.b.xlii. Lied about inner-city crime being at record levels d.ii.2.b.xliii. Lied about 30 million illegal immigrants again d.ii.2.b.xliv. Lied about Clinton’s immigration plan again d.ii.2.b.xlv. Lied about a child care plan d.ii.2.b.xlvi. Lied about finishing the birther controversy. Tweeted about it until just months before. d.ii.2.b.xlvii. Lied about the African American communities being in the worst shape in history. Clearly missed the chapters on slavery, Jim Crowe, segregation, civil rights eras. d.ii.2.b.xlviii. Lied about tweeting for the public to watch a sex tape d.ii.2.b.xlix. Lied about winning a debate d.ii.2.b.l. Lied about chess grandmasters. For who knows what reason. d.ii.2.b.li. Lied about voter fraud before the election. d.ii.2.b.lii. Lied about Obama winning because of voter fraud in NC in 2008 d.ii.2.b.liii. Lied about Clinton embezzling 6 billion in the state department d.ii.2.b.liv. Lied about John Podesta rigging polls to suppress voters. d.ii.2.b.lv. Lied about Clinton having 650 million people cross the border d.ii.2.b.lvi. Lied about Obama screaming at a protester d.ii.2.b.lvii. Then he won the election. d.ii.2.b.lviii. Lied about winning the popular vote d.ii.2.b.lix. Lied about voter fraud d.ii.2.b.lx. Lied about voter fraud again d.ii.2.b.lxi. Lied about voter fraud again d.ii.2.b.lxii. And again d.ii.2.b.lxiii. Lied about Russian intervention again d.ii.2.b.lxiv. Lied about the media not covering terrorist attacks d.ii.2.b.lxv. Lied about Bernie sanders calling CNN fake news d.ii.2.b.lxvi. Lied about bussing people across state lines to vote d.ii.2.b.lxvii. Lied about Blumenthal’s Vietnam service d.ii.2.b.lxviii. Lied about cabinet confirmation delays being unprecedented d.ii.2.b.lxix. Lied about the murder rate d.ii.2.b.lxx. Lied about a Kuwaiti visa ban d.ii.2.b.lxxi. Lied about delta causing airport delays and not his Muslim ban d.ii.2.b.lxxii. Lied about Chuck Schumer’s tears about his family history d.ii.2.b.lxxiii. Lied about Scotland and Brexit d.ii.2.b.lxxiv. Lied about the murder rate again d.ii.2.b.lxxv. Lied about cancellation of Mexico meeting being mutual d.ii.2.b.lxxvi. Lied about people being shot and killed in Obama’s farewell speech d.ii.2.b.lxxvii. Lied about Inauguration crowd size. Twice. e. Examples e.i. Inauguration crowd size. Stated media were engaged in “deliberately false reporting”, arguing with all crowd counts, and actual photographic evidence. e.i.1. “This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration – period-both in person and around the globe” Sean Spicer. f. How is this okay? f.i. Politico, summarizing the work of Harvard University Psychologist Daniel Gilbert, said, “When we are overwhelmed with false, or potentially false, statements, our brains pretty quickly become so overworked that we stop trying to sift through everything.” 5 Fake News a. Calling two of the most reputable news sources in the modern century (NY Times and CNN) fake news outlets. CNN in a press conference and Times over a tweet. b. A study found by the end of 2016, fake news clicks had surpassed real news clicks. 6 Timing of Items a. Three arguably most controversial on Fridays, like Immigration. a.i. Preparation for affordable Care Act repeal a.ii. Muslim ban a.iii. Cutting regulations b. Three memoranda on Fridays also. b.i. Regulatory freeze b.ii. Rebuilding the US Armed Forces b.iii. Negating fiduciary duty 7 Rapidity a. 24 in 3 weeks. a.i. Obama – 14. Friday actions involved rebuilding after Bush’s economic crisis. Nothing controversial. a.ii. Bush – None in the first week. 3 in first 3 weeks. a.iii. Clinton – None on a Friday. Ethics and economic council. 8 Alt-News and Alternative Facts a. Kellyanne Conway on Meet the Press to Chuck Todd, “You’re saying it’s a falsehood, and Sean Spicer, our press secretary, gave alternative facts.” b. “Chuck, if we’re going to keep referring to our press secretary in those types of terms, I think we’re going to have to rethink our relationship here. 9 That’s not how the media works. The media’s job isn’t to be cozy with you, Kellyanne. It’s to report on you, unbiased, and factually. It’s something Breitbart doesn’t do. It’s something Fox News doesn’t do. It’s something you at the White House don’t do. But it’s something WE will do. 10 My name is Ben Garves, and this has been the Ben on Politics Podcast. Tune in next week as I delve into the environment and unveil the new Ben on Politics web series set.