Sometimes it feels like the press has just completely surrendered to Donald Trump's relentless lies

[dajoki]

Letting Trump Constantly Lie about 9/11 Means the Press Will Let Him Lie about Anything
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/node/86531

Sometimes it feels like the press has just completely surrendered to Donald Trump's relentless lies, and that reporters have essentially thrown up their hands, signaling that Trump has complete permission to fabricate whatever wild fantasies he wants and journalists won't really do much. Perhaps it's one part laziness, one part exhaustion? But watching what unfolded on Sept. 11, last week really highlighted just how detached from reality Trump is, and how little the press seems to care.

Speaking to dignitaries and survivors of the 9/11 blast at the Pentagon, Trump, in a brazen piece of self-aggrandizement, once again lied about how helped clear the rubble at Ground Zero. "Soon after, I went down to Ground Zero with men who worked for me to try to help in any little way that we could," Trump claimed.

This is what the Walter Mitty of American politics said back in 2016:

Everyone who helped clear the rubble -- and I was there, and I watched, and I helped a little bit -- but I want to tell you: Those people were amazing. Clearing the rubble. Trying to find additional lives. You didn't know what was going to come down on all of us -- and they handled it.

It's a complete fabrication. The only times Trump was documented as being down at Ground Zero in the immediate wake of the terror attack was to give media interviews, dressed in a suit and tie. Also, the idea that he sent a brigade of his "men" to help with the search and rescue is a joke because the Trump Organization at the time only had a dozen or so employees.

Trump has lied steadily about 9/11 over the years, and not just about his phony bravery. There are numerous other 9/11 untruths that fight for his attention, like his claim that "hundreds" of his friends died during the attack. (He can't name a single one.) Like his lie that the (nonexistent) wives of the 9/11 terrorists were tipped off ahead of time. And of course his infamous 2016 campaign lie that "thousands" of Muslims were celebrating the 9/11 attack in the streets of Jersey City, New Jersey.

You know that if a President Hillary Clinton ever lied about assisting first responders on 9/11, The New York Times, for instance, would've likely published articles of impeachment written by its own reporters and published them on the front page. There would have been weeks worth of analytical pieces about what personality shortcoming would cause a person to act in such a desperate and manic way. But with Trump, it barely qualified as news.

"He repeated an exaggerated account of how he had assisted the recovery effort after the World Trade Center was brought down by two of the planes," the Times politely reported last week. USA Today noted, "there is a lack of evidence that Trump helped or hired people to help on the days following the terrorist attack," but wouldn't call Trump out on his lie. And the Wall Street Journal made no mention at all of Trump's fabrication in its 9/11 ceremony coverage.

Hours after Trump lied at the 9/11 ceremony, he took questions from reporters at the White House. Not one asked this painfully obvious question: "Mr. President, can you provide any photographic evidence that he ever went down to Ground Zero to help with the rescue effort?"

<<snip>>

[dalton99a]

1. No one bothered to ask that simple question

[dajoki]

2. I would also add this one:

You know that if a President Hillary Clinton ever lied about assisting first responders on 9/11, The New York Times, for instance, would've likely published articles of impeachment written by its own reporters and published them on the front page. There would have been weeks worth of analytical pieces about what personality shortcoming would cause a person to act in such a desperate and manic way. But with Trump, it barely qualified as news.

[Grammy23]

3. Or even one witness to his "heroic efforts" in the aftermath of 9/11.

That’s Because there are no witnesses and no photographs that offer a shred of evidence that he was there — even if he was just a gawking bystander. He made it up on the spot because he got caught up in the moment? Well, no. It’s much simpler than that. He is a miserable liar and he has an insatiable need to pack on the accolades to himself. He just could not resist embellishing the story because (from past experience) he knew there would be no probing questions, no request for proof, no pushback that maybe he went too far this time.

And on the off chance that someone does ask followup questions or more details, he just doubles down and digs that hole a little deeper. He knows that all he has to do is stick to his story, refuse to discuss it in much detail, just act indignant and pretty soon, it will all go away like every other time he has lied his way through an interview or press conference. He has it all down to an art.

[Cracklin Charlie]

4. They don't just let him lie.

They excavate bullshit mountain, and spread the stuff everywhere, hundreds/thousands of times every day. Meanwhile, we receive no information of value to make informed decisions.

Someone seems to be spoiling for major war operations in the Middle East. Is this a wise move on the part of a president who has spent two years robbing his own defense budget? Is this a set up for Israel’s elections? Is he really planning to run that operation through his Twitter account? We have no idea who really wrote that.

Why is the media acting like this is a normal thing? Why are they not questioning ANY of this?

[leftstreet]

5. They don't care. It's just infotainment to them n/t

[world wide wally]

6. In all honesty though, Trump has always been camera shy and too modest to seek publicity.

Just doing his civic duty, y'know.

[IcyPeas]

7. Lies