Which is the fake news?
“Too many repeaters,” Corus radio host Roy Green once wearily explained, “not enough reporters.”
Fake news, anyone? Repeated into print by the Roast & Toast troll Nov. 19, a defence for the ailing reputation of CNN correspondent Jim Acosta. He was banned from White House briefings after refusing to relinquish the mic at a press conference. CNN avenged itself by claiming the CSPAN video of his physical contact with an aide had been “doctored.” Pundits claimed he “didn’t touch her.”
In point of fact, he did. YouTube vlogger Paul Joseph Watson prepared the video that the White House released. You’d notice similar analysis in a sports replay: the video enlarges the point of contact to emphasize that it occurred. There’s a modest loss of resolution from the resize and from the video compression used to output the shot. No slouch in his own defence, Watson states his method and purpose in “Trump Defended Me!”
Acosta did touch the aide, brushing her aside as she reached for the mic he held, then claimed on air with Anderson Cooper he didn’t. Acosta’s support chorus appears to realize they’re on thin ice with that line, because, as seen in the Roast, they now claim the accusation is that he was “striking” her. This is blatantly untruthful.
Doctored footage? An example of that is the video meme where Donald Trump topples a WWE wrestler with CNN’s logo imposed on his head. CNN avenged itself by doxxing its creator. Of course, CNN wouldn’t actually “doctor” footage; their preferred MO is to selectively edit and create a false impression. Japanese PM Shinzo Abe poured koi food into a pond and Trump followed his lead; CNN showed Trump’s action, not Abe’s, then its talking heads claimed he was “overfeeding the fish.” Fake news, driven by corporate malice, became a talking point because CNN’s rivals didn’t fact-check.
“Give me control of the media,” Joseph Goebbels once bragged, “and I will turn any nation into a herd of pigs.” Other media outlets should be more wary of this form of content. So should you.
Tom Yeoman
Lethbridge