Pundits fall for fake news about Trump’s love of ‘gorilla channel’
NEW DELHI: Donald Trump loves TV, but is one of his favourite channels a 24-hour marathon on gorillas? It seems too good to be true, yet several media pundits fell hook, line and sinker for the “news” released by a parody Twitter account.
User @pixelatedboat, who is known for posting satire, on Thursday posted what seemed to be an excerpt from a tell-all book on the Trump administration.
The “section” of Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House said that on his first night at the White House, Trump was upset because the TV in his bedroom did not have a gorilla channel.
“To appease Trump, White House staff complied a number of gorilla documentaries into a makeshift gorilla channel, broadcast into Trump’s bedroom from a hastily-constructed transmission tower on the South Lawn. However, Trump was unhappy with the channel they had created, moaning that it was ‘boring’ because ‘the gorillas aren’t fighting,’” the “extract” further claimed.
The tweet soon went viral, and with news cycles hot with anticipation over the release of the book, even seasoned political analysts gobbled up the passage. And arguments over its legitimacy began to sweep Twitter.
To his or her credit, @pixelatedboat soon changed their name to “the gorilla channel thing is a joke”, and many of the experts who fell for the prank apologised.
But by then, the damage was done — Trump uses the phrase “fake news” for respected news organisations like a mantra, and the prank will merely serve to vindicate his version of the truth for his supporters.