John Diaz: Finding the truth behind the “Fake News Awards.”

In the days leading up to the rollout of his “Fake News Awards,” President Trump tweeted, “So much fake news is being reported. They don’t even try to get it right, or correct it when they are wrong.” Then the awards were announced, and the upshot undermined his own words: His examples showed that mainstream news organizations do try to get it right, and they do correct errors when they get it wrong.

Professional journalists are imperfect, but they are not dishonest. Just look at Trump’s list. His lowlight list included stories and tweets in which mistakes were acknowledged and corrected and a clearly labeled opinion column whose prediction proved way off the mark.

I do not care to rationalize or minimize any of these errors. Any journalist worthy of the title embraces the mantra “accuracy, accuracy, accuracy,” and believes there is no such thing as a minor error. They all hurt. But another guiding tenet, which this president with a trail of false statements obviously does not accept, is a commitment to correct the record.

Let’s look at Trump’s “Fake News Awards.”

1 “The New York Times’ Paul Krugman claimed on the day of President Trump’s historic, landslide victory that the economy would never recover.” Krugman is an opinion columnist, and this was simply his prediction. Sometimes predictions are wrong. Right, Mr. President, or has Mexico sent you that check for the border wall?

2 “ABC News’ Brian Ross CHOKES and sends markets in a downward spiral with false report.” Ross wrongly reported that former national security adviser Michael Flynn was about to testify that Trump as a candidate instructed Flynn to contact Russian officials before the 2016 election. ABC later clarified that the directive came after election day, and Ross was suspended for the mistake.

3 “CNN FALSELY reported that candidate Donald Trump and his son Donald J. Trump, Jr. had access to hacked documents from WikiLeaks.” Actually, the email in question to Trump Jr. was flagging him to documents that already were in the public domain. Significantly, other news organizations quickly refuted CNN’s account. So much for Trump’s they’re-all-out-to-get-me paranoia.

4 “TIME FALSELY reported that President Trump removed a bust of Martin Luther King, Jr. from the Oval Office.” The “report’’ — which never made it into a story — was a reporter’s tweet that was corrected within the hour.

5 “Washington Post FALSELY reported the President’s massive sold-out rally in Pensacola, Florida was empty. Dishonest reporter showed picture of empty arena HOURS before crowd started pouring in.” This Post reporter’s tweet was corrected within minutes and, again, never made it into an online or print story. Also, I have to ask: Does the president who tweets false and misleading statements on a regular basis — and rarely if ever corrects them — really want to go here?

6 “CNN FALSELY edited a video to make it appear President Trump defiantly overfed fish during a visit with the Japanese prime minister. Japanese prime minister actually led the way with the feeding.” True, the clip in question does not show Shinzo Abe also dumping out his box of fish food before Trump did. But, seriously folks, is this one of the president’s 11 best examples of an unfair media?

7 “CNN FALSELY reported about Anthony Scaramucci’s meeting with a Russian, but retracted it due to a ‘significant breakdown in process.’ ” CNN retracted the story, and three employees were forced out. Remind me: Didn’t Trump claim the news media never accounts for its mistakes?

8 “Newsweek FALSELY reported that Polish First Lady Agata Kornhauser-Duda did not shake President Trump’s hand.” The story was based on a partial clip that showed her walking past Trump. Newsweek corrected the error.

9 “CNN FALSELY reported that former FBI Director James Comey would dispute President Trump’s claim that he was told he is not under investigation.” CNN corrected the error. In fact, Comey did confirm that he had told the president he was not under investigation — but the former FBI director’s testimony had plenty of other potentially damning details about Trump’s request for a loyalty oath and pleas to “lift the cloud” of the Russia investigation and to go easy on Flynn, who has since pleaded guilty to lying about the FBI about his contact with Russia.

10 “The New York Times FALSELY claimed on the front page that the Trump administration had hidden a climate report.” In fact, the report in question had been available on the Internet for months. Confronted with the error, the Times updated its story to acknowledge the fact, but added that the report “received little attention until it was published by The New York Times.” I think Trump and I agree that the Times sometimes has an insufferable level of self-regard. But it’s not alone, Mr. President.

11 “And last, but not least: “RUSSIA COLLUSION!” Russian collusion is perhaps the greatest hoax perpetrated on the American people. THERE IS NO COLLUSION!” Predictions can be precarious, Mr. President, as you noted with your award to Paul Krugman. It’s a bit premature to claim victory, especially when special counsel Robert Mueller and House and Senate committees are not finished with their work — and two of your campaign operatives have pleaded guilty to felonies for lying about their Russian contacts.