Wanting To Frame Journalists: Sad Excess of Trump’s Media War

The attempt to frame The Washington Post is an excessive result of Trump’s war against the media.

The operation involved a woman who approached the newspaper as a victim of Roy Moore, the ultraconservative Republican Senate candidate who has been compromised because of his past contacts with teenage girls. The woman claimed to have had a sexual relationship with Moore, and even to have had an abortion as a 15-year-old.

Project Veritas (“Project Truth”) is a conservative organization that is likely responsible for an attempt to frame the The Washington Post. The group hoped to plant a fake story to undermine the reputation of the paper.

An investigation by the newspaper demonstrated that the story was utterly false and that the woman is a Trump supporter most probably working for Project Veritas. The goal was to call into question the credibility of the newspaper and thus the allegations against Moore.

People had earlier passed themselves off as reporters from The Washington Post, offering a reward for incriminating evidence against the Republican Senate candidate from Alabama.

The attempt to frame The Washington Post is a new low in the war against what President Trump calls “fake news.” Day in and day out, Trump wages war with every medium that dares to question his accomplishments. Shortly after his inauguration as president, he even called The New York Times, CBS, ABC and CNN “the enemy of the American people,” a statement that seemed an echo from a dark past.

On Monday, Trump attacked CNN on Twitter as a “major source of (Fake) news” that “represent[s] our Nation to the WORLD very poorly.”* Apparently, he still needs reminding that the American media do not exist to represent the United States or – in his case even more importantly – the president.

However, after months of accusations against the press, he has managed to erect a sinister hall of mirrors in which the truth can hardly be distinguished from fabrications and lies. To use Trump’s words: SAD!

*Translator’s note: Trump made this comment on Saturday, Nov. 25.