TV news organizations have scrambled to deal with the barrage of falsehoods to come out of Trump world since the launch of his candidacy in June 2015. Insta-fact-checking sprang up on cable networks in parentheses; anchors fought with the candidate and his supporters over the sum of two plus two; and on Saturday, the first full day of the Trump administration, CNN didn’t even show the falsehood-jammed statement of White House press secretary Sean Spicer.
In that appearance, Spicer spewed a good four or five false statements. Yesterday he made a bogus claim about voter-fraud “studies.”
Thus, the imperative: A news outlet wants to carry Spicer’s briefings live, but only after properly prepping viewers on what could well happen again. MSNBC thread this needle on Wednesday afternoon. Just before rolling the live fireworks, MSNBC host Katy Tur said, “Sean Spicer is at the podium. We’ll be back with you on the other side of this press conference with any fact-checks we may need.”
“On the other side,” there was much analysis of Spicer’s refusal to address the substance of a document preparing the groundwork for lifting the ban on overseas CIA “black site” prisons. “It is not a White House document,” said Spicer, adding that he has “no idea where it came from.” After repeating the document’s alleged non-White-House-document status, Spicer said, “I don’t know how much clearer I can say that.”
For the record, the New York Times calls it a “draft executive order.”
