2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumDonald Trump’s brazen dishonesty starts to catch up with him
Posted with permission.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/donald-trumps-brazen-dishonesty-starts-catch-him
Donald Trumps brazen dishonesty starts to catch up with him
09/26/16 12:27 PMUpdated 09/26/16 12:53 PM
By Steve Benen
By some measures, the most important aspect of the 2016 presidential election is also one of the least recognized: Donald Trump lies at an almost uncontrollable pace, but hes earned a reputation for racism and buffoonery, not dishonesty. Polls show Americans generally consider him more truthful than Hillary Clinton, which is a bizarre conclusion for any objective observer whos watched these candidates closely.
But as the race enters its home stretch, some are starting to take Trumps penchant for dishonesty more seriously. The New York Times published this striking piece on the Republican candidates week of whoppers over the weekend:
However, a closer examination, over the course of a week, revealed an unmistakable pattern: Virtually all of Mr. Trumps falsehoods directly bolstered a powerful and self-aggrandizing narrative depicting him as a heroic savior for a nation menaced from every direction. Mike Murphy, a Republican strategist, described the practice as creating an unreality bubble that he surrounds himself with.
In this study, the paper chose a week seemingly at random Sept. 15 through 21 and singled out Trumps biggest whoppers, many of which were uttered repeatedly, leaving dozens more on the editing room floor for a variety of reasons.
And if it seems as if news outlets all stumbled upon this dynamic simultaneously, its not your imagination. The Washington Post published a related piece the same day that reviewed one weeks worth of Trumps speeches, tweets, and interviews. The analysis found a presidential hopeful who at times seems uniquely undeterred by facts and demonstrates a disregard for the truth in numerous cases.
The L.A. Times ran a similar story of its own, explaining that the scope of Trumps falsehoods is unprecedented for a modern presidential candidate, and adding, Never in modern presidential politics has a major candidate made false statements as routinely as Trump has.
Politico published a related piece, too, fact-checking the major-party candidates over the course a week. It found, Trumps mishandling of facts and propensity for exaggeration so greatly exceed Clintons as to make the comparison almost ludicrous . Trump averaged about one falsehood every three minutes and 15 seconds over nearly five hours of remarks. In raw numbers, thats 87 erroneous statements in five days.
Keep in mind, were talking about analyses that covered just seven days at a point in the campaign at which Trump tends to stick to teleprompters and scripted remarks. Its hardly outlandish to think he told even more lies months earlier, when he was even more likely to say whatever popped into his mind.
Slate, meanwhile, published a piece ostensibly intended for debate moderators, noting, Donald Trump lies. A lot. The piece broke up Trumps most frequently told lies into categories for easier reference.
To an important extent, all of this is woefully overdue. For much of the last year and a half, the political media has cultivated a certain profile on Donald Trump for voters: hes the narcissistic racist who doesnt know or care about public policy. His former Republican rivals tried to focus on Trumps near-constant lying, but it never really became part of the medias narrative about his candidacy in part because of misplaced assumptions about Hillary Clintons veracity.
But at this late date, the reporting is starting to change, and news consumers are starting to hear more about Trumps appetite for deception. Is it too late to make a difference? Well find out six weeks from tomorrow.
anamandujano
(7,004 posts)to set voters right after the MSM does their usual routine following the debates.