Trump and Fake News Strike Again

Published in El País
(Spain) on 7 May 2017
by Jan Martínez Ahrens (link to originallink to original)
Translated from by Jamie Agnew. Edited by Elizabeth Cosgriff.
The president’s war against the press makes massive use of provocation and even a potential gag law.

It was vital for his very survival. Every day from 6 a.m. to 7 a.m., Donald Trump would dedicate time to digesting the news. He would scour the papers in search of both his own name and those of his companies. He sought out the names of his enemies. He pursued business opportunities. Apparently, a mention in The New York Times was seen as glory. For good or bad, as he would write years later, appearing in the press became vital. Sometimes, so desperate did he become that he himself would call the papers and, in the guise of one of his own nonexistent spokespeople, give juicy details about his supposed relationships with artists like Madonna, Kim Bassinger or Carla Bruni. “Carla has dropped Mick Jagger for Donald,” he told a journalist from People magazine.

It was all lies. Fake news. Bruni and Trump had seen each other for barely a few minutes, but that didn’t matter. He was the Trump of the 80s. Effervescent and golden. A millionaire who sought, above all else, social success. Thirty years later, some things have changed and some have not.

With time, his ambition drifted from TV to politics. The fight transformed him. His biographers all agree that he never lost his addiction to the press, but it mutated and he became an avid consumer of extreme and sensationalist press. “As president he still gets his information from such untrustworthy websites like Infowars and Breitbart,” explains Pulitzer Prize winner and presidential investigator Daniel Cay Johnston.*

Conversely, his attitude toward journalists was also in flux. As he gained fame, he no longer asked the press for favors; rather, his aim was to tame them, to crush them. Upon arrival at the White House he took this to new levels, beginning the greatest battle ever waged by a president of the United States against the media. “There is no comparison. He fears being discredited so much that, in order to prevent his followers from believing those who criticize him, he has started this attack,” explains Peter Beinart, analyst and professor at The City University of New York.*

This assault will go down in history. The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, the BBC – the top brass of the world of journalism – all find themselves in the line of fire. Trump pours scorn on them. He describes their exclusives as “fake news” and has declared them “enemies of the people.” “They don’t tell the truth, they don’t speak for the people but for outside interests,” Trump says.*

The attack isn’t a result of Trump’s mercurial character, as some believe, but rather it forms part of a long-term strategy. His adviser, Steve Bannon, has explained the strategy, describing the media as the main “opposition party.” The aim is to isolate them, to destroy their credibility, to castrate them.

In order to do this, the president is attempting to wear the media down. He turned his back on the White House correspondents’ dinner, something that has not happened since 1981, after Ronald Reagan had been shot. He frantically tweets about critical media outlets, be it for their “fake” coverage of his health care reform or their investigations into the Russia story. At every rally, he goes after them. His most recent attack came in the form of changes to libel laws. In a country that adopted the First Amendment in 1791, Trump has set rumors running wild that he wants to create a law to speed up lawsuits against the press. “If the press writes something bad, it must retract it, and if not, they must be judged,”* he has said.

It’s nearly impossible, experts say, that such a measure could actually come into being in the United States, and even less likely that it would get past the Supreme Court. But the threat is not intended to end in legal reform; its aim is different – one that is much more useful politically.

Trump is the president of a divided America. He received nearly 3 million fewer votes than Hillary Clinton and his victory came down to a large turnout of the white working class in key areas: a group which has extreme faith in him and who distrusts the aforementioned publications. It is to this group that the president speaks, and he does it extremely successfully. “Trump knows that the people who voted for him are wary and prefer to get their information from Fox and other right-wing sources. By attacking the mainstream media, he is able to reconnect with his base. This polarization gives life to misinformation,” states Shanto Iyengar, professor of political science at Stanford.*

For his voters, what journalists have to say matters little. In their eyes Trump is completely trustworthy and honest. A recent survey by The Washington Post and ABC found that 76 percent of those who voted for him believe that the president doesn’t lie. Conversely, 78 percent are convinced that the media regularly publish false stories, and 80 percent of them believe that this represents a grave problem; many more than those who would say the same of Trump – 3 percent.

“His voters want to believe that he is decent and capable and when information that suggested otherwise is published they refuse to accept it and prefer to consider it fake news. This same reason explains why so many Republicans claimed that Obama was a Muslim and why an even greater number of Democrats believed that Mitt Romney didn’t pay taxes,” explains Iyengar.*

The conclusion is clear. The mainstream media are losing the war with those who voted for the president, but the consequences of defeat are only so damaging. “Among those who support the president, Trump may do well, but he has not been able to expand his base and his general popularity is low,” states professor Beinart. Concludes Iyengar, “Furthermore, his message isn’t landing with independents, 60 percent of whom disapprove of Trump. If he continues to attack the media, he will be digging his own grave.”*

The knives are out and the media are not giving up. At an electrifying pace, and more zealously than ever, they continue their investigations. Every day they reveal the lies and half-truths of the president; in the first 100 days of his presidency, The Washington Post has counted 492.

Trump, for his part, continues to fire off shots left, right and center. He insults, attacks and then insults again. His objective, for the moment, is to maintain his current voter base. No other noise matters to him. Quite the opposite. As he said in one of his first battles with the press, back in the golden days of the 80s: “Controversy sells.”

*Editor’s note: The original quotation, accurately translated, could not be verified.


Trump y las ‘fake news’ atacan de nuevo

La guerra del presidente de Estados Unidos contra los medios hace un uso masivo de la provocación e incluye ahora una posible ley mordaza

Lo necesitaba para vivir. Cada día, de seis a siete de la mañana, Donald Trump dedicaba su tiempo a devorar la prensa. Ahí buscaba con ahínco su nombre y el de sus empresas. Escudriñaba a sus enemigos. Perseguía oportunidades de negocio. Aparecer en The New York Times suponía la gloria. No hacerlo reflejaba un fracaso. Para bien o para mal, como escribiría años después, salir en los medios se había vuelto necesario. A veces, tan desesperado estaba que era él mismo quien llamaba a los diarios y, haciéndose pasar por un inexistente portavoz suyo daba jugosos detalles de sus pretendidas relaciones con artistas como Madonna, Kim Bassinger o Carla Bruni. “Carla ha dejado a Mick Jagger por Donald”, llegó a decirle a una reportera de la revista People.

Todo era mentira. Fake news (noticia falsa). Bruni y Trump apenas se habían visto unos minutos. Pero eso no importaba entonces. Era el Trump de los años ochenta. Efervescente y áureo. Un multimillonario que buscaba por encima de todo el éxito social. El precio no importaba. Treinta años después algunas cosas han cambiado. Otras no.

Con el tiempo, su ambición derivó en la televisión y luego en la política. La lucha le transformó. Hay acuerdo entre sus biógrafos en que no perdió su adicción a la prensa, pero la mutó y se volvió un consumidor compulsivo de medios sensacionalistas y ultras. “Como presidente aún obtiene información de sitios tan poco fiables como Infowars y Breitbart”, explica el Premio Pulitzer e investigador presidencial Daniel Cay Johnston.

Paralelamente, su actitud hacia los periodistas fue cambiando. A medida que ganaba fama, ya no les pedía favores, sino que quería domesticarlos, aplastarlos. Alcanzada la Casa Blanca, llevó esta pulsión hasta el paroxismo y emprendió la mayor batalla planteada por un presidente de Estados Unidos contra el cuarto poder. “No hay parangón. Teme tanto el descrédito que, para evitar que los suyos crean a quienes le critican, ha iniciado este ataque”, explica Peter Beinart, analista y profesor de la Universidad de la Ciudad de Nueva York.

La ofensiva pasará a la historia. En la diana figuran The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, la BBC… La plana mayor del periodismo mundial. Trump los desprecia. Ha acuñado el término fake news para referirse a sus exclusivas y les ha declarado “enemigos del pueblo”. “ Ya no cuentan la verdad, no hablan para la gente sino a favor de intereses ajenos”, ha clamado.

El ataque no es fruto, como algunos creyeron, del carácter mercurial de Trump, sino que responde a una estrategia de largo alcance. Su consejero áulico Steve Bannon lo ha explicado: “Los medios son el principal partido de oposición”. Y el objetivo es aislarlos, restarles credibilidad, quitarles el aguijón.

Para ello, el presidente ha entrado en un juego de desgaste. No es sólo que dé la espalda a la cena de corresponsales, algo que no ocurría desde 1981, cuando Ronald Reagan recibió un tiro. Tuitea frenéticamente contra los medios críticos, ya sea por su “falsa” cobertura de la reforma sanitaria o sus investigaciones de la trama rusa, y en cada mitin les dispara a bocajarro. Su último proyectil ha sido una ley antilibelo. En el país que consagró en 1791 la Primera Enmienda, Trump ha hecho correr la especie de que quiere imponer una norma para agilizar las querellas contra los medios. “Si un medio escribe algo mal, debe retractarse, y si no, se le debe juzgar”, ha dicho.

Es casi imposible, según los expertos, que una medida así prospere en EEUU, y más difícil aún que supere el filtro del Tribunal Supremo. Pero la amenaza no persigue una reforma legal. Su fin es otro, mucho más rentable políticamente.

Trump es presidente de una América dividida. Obtuvo casi tres millones de votos menos que Hillary Clinton y su triunfo se debió a la movilización en zonas clave de un amplio segmento de la clase trabajadora blanca. Un grupo cuya fidelidad en las urnas es extrema y que recela de las publicaciones de referencia. A ellos dirige el presidente su mensaje. Y lo hace con enorme éxito. “Trump sabe que la gente que votó por él desconfía y prefiere obtener sus informaciones de la Fox y de otras fuentes de la derecha. Atacando a los grandes medios, reconecta con su base. La polarización nutre la desinformación”, indica Shanto Iyengar, profesor de Ciencia Política de Stanford.

Para sus votantes, poco importa lo que digan los periódicos: Trump es un hombre absolutamente creíble y honesto. Una encuesta de The Washington Post con la cadena ABC ha revelado que el 76% de sus electores piensa que el presidente no miente. Por el contrario, el 78% está convencido de que los medios publican habitualmente historias falsas y que esto, además, representa un problema grave (80%). Muchísimo más que si lo hace Trump (3%).

“Sus votantes quieren creer que es digno y capaz. Y cuando se publican informaciones que sugieren que no lo es, rechazan aceptarlo y prefieren considerarlo fake news. Esa misma razón explicaba por qué tantos republicanos decían que Obama era musulmán o porque aún más demócratas pensaban que Mitt Rommey no pagaba impuestos”, explica Iyengar

La conclusión es clara. Los grandes medios están perdiendo la partida ante quienes votan al presidente. Pero la derrota tiene un límite. “Entre aquellos que le siguen puede que Trump triunfe, pero no está logrando ampliar su base. Su popularidad general es baja”, indica el profesor Beinart. “Es más, su mensaje tampoco cala entre los independientes: un 60% desaprueba a Trump. Si continúa su ataque a los medios, estará cavando su propia tumba”, zanja Iyengar.

Las espadas están en alto. Los medios no ceden. En un pulso casi épico siguen investigando con más ardor que nunca y a diario descubren las mentiras y medias verdades del presidente. 492 ha llegado a contar The Washington Post en los primeros cien días de mandato.

Trump, por su parte, sigue apretando la ametralladora. Insulta, ataca y vuelva a insultar. Su objetivo, de momento, es conservar su electorado. El ruido no le importa. Al contrario. Como dijo en una de sus primeras batallas con los medios, allá en los dorados ochenta: ”La controversia vende”.
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