So going back to Trump's disinfectant gaff on 23 April. There's two disturbing things about it - well three really, the first of course being Trump himself and the fact the he lied about what he said the following day - instead of just hammering home the point that he didn't say to inject or to ingest disinfectant. Quite unsurprisingly this one single event has caused him great political harm.
However the media's response is quite shocking. People days later were admitted to hospital after ingesting disinfectant. Such as this man with a history of mental illness. Well the media told those people that Trump said it was a treatment. Would those people have done that if the media has, correctly, stated clearly that Trump didn't actually say to do it? Well I guess it's impossible to say, but I'd say the blame squarely lies with the media for misreporting what Trump said. Even Snopes Fact Check claims he said to do it.
Why not compare this to a similar event that happened in Australia so that we can illustrate how dishonest the media coverage was? Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk decided to get a flu shot on television. And here it is, as originally broadcast:
Notice the cap on the needle? It didn't take long for people to point out that she had faked getting a flu shot while urging other people to get it, and of course for the anti-vaxxers to pick it up and run with it. Did she fake getting the flu shot? No. She and the nurse did a bit of acting to re-enact the jab for another camera angle. In this instance Seven simply put out the video of her actually getting the jab, unedited. The US media's claims about what Trump said about ingesting disinfectant would be no different to them refusing to show the footage of the premier actually getting the jab and fuelling the controversy by saying "yep there's a cap on her needle - some flu shot".
So it's disturbing that the media has been allowed to effectively create a false narrative about his garbled press conference, and that they're all singing the same tune and not reporting the fact. That's very troubling.
The straightforward narrative itself should have been politically damaging enough without having to claim he said something he didn't. The fact is that Trump's political instinct when challenged on a garbled mess of a thought he uttered at a press conference is to condescendingly lie about it. Even though stating the truth would have been much better for him - all he had to do was point out he was only asking about injecting something "like a cleaning agent" to get the lungs working, and that if anyone gets sick or dies from ingesting disinfectant the media has blood on their hands for misreporting.
However the media's response is quite shocking. People days later were admitted to hospital after ingesting disinfectant. Such as this man with a history of mental illness. Well the media told those people that Trump said it was a treatment. Would those people have done that if the media has, correctly, stated clearly that Trump didn't actually say to do it? Well I guess it's impossible to say, but I'd say the blame squarely lies with the media for misreporting what Trump said. Even Snopes Fact Check claims he said to do it.
Why not compare this to a similar event that happened in Australia so that we can illustrate how dishonest the media coverage was? Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk decided to get a flu shot on television. And here it is, as originally broadcast:
Notice the cap on the needle? It didn't take long for people to point out that she had faked getting a flu shot while urging other people to get it, and of course for the anti-vaxxers to pick it up and run with it. Did she fake getting the flu shot? No. She and the nurse did a bit of acting to re-enact the jab for another camera angle. In this instance Seven simply put out the video of her actually getting the jab, unedited. The US media's claims about what Trump said about ingesting disinfectant would be no different to them refusing to show the footage of the premier actually getting the jab and fuelling the controversy by saying "yep there's a cap on her needle - some flu shot".
So it's disturbing that the media has been allowed to effectively create a false narrative about his garbled press conference, and that they're all singing the same tune and not reporting the fact. That's very troubling.
The straightforward narrative itself should have been politically damaging enough without having to claim he said something he didn't. The fact is that Trump's political instinct when challenged on a garbled mess of a thought he uttered at a press conference is to condescendingly lie about it. Even though stating the truth would have been much better for him - all he had to do was point out he was only asking about injecting something "like a cleaning agent" to get the lungs working, and that if anyone gets sick or dies from ingesting disinfectant the media has blood on their hands for misreporting.
