Why can't you say the word lie?
Last night I was reading a piece by Maggie Haberman of the New York Times. It was about the Michael Cohen-Donald Trump tapes that surfaced on Tuesday. One thing that concerns bothers the hell out of me is the different words she uses to describe the same action done by different people. Take a look:
Finally, the tape has become public. And it revealed the statements by Ms. Hicks and Mr. Giuliani to be false. The recording, which was broadcast by CNN late Tuesday night, shows Mr. Trump was directly involved in talks about whether to pay The Enquirer for the rights to the woman’s story.
The recording, and the repeated statements it contradicts, is a stark example of how Mr. Trump and his aides have used falsehoods as a shield against tough questions and unflattering coverage. Building upon his repeated cry of “fake news,” he told supporters this week not to believe the news. “What you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening,” the president added.
The words Haberman uses to describe the statements and actions of Hicks, Giuliani and Trump are false and falsehood. Later in the piece she describes other politicians like this:
It was a lie about an affair, after all, that led to President Bill Clinton’s impeachment — though his most fateful move was testifying falsely under oath — just as it was a lie about infidelity that ended the political career of John Edwards, once a rising Democratic star (a story that broke in The Enquirer, coincidentally).
Notice the change in language? What is a falsehood for Hicks, Giuliani and Trump is a lie for Clinton and Edwards.
But it only takes until the next graph for Maggie to change her words once again:
But Mr. Trump, both as a candidate and as president, has turned that thinking on its head. When faced with the evidence of its misstatements, the administration sidesteps and moves on. “I’m not going to get into a back-and-forth,” the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said last month when confronted with her unequivocal, and false, denials that Mr. Trump had dictated his son’s misleading statement about meeting with Russians.
Untrue statements by Trump and Sarah Sanders are labeled as "misstatements, false and misleading."
Why so different? Why is it a lie for Clinton and Edwards but she and others in the media find a synonym for the word when describing the words/actions of anyone in the Trump administration?
Donald Trump has been in office for 1 1/2 years. He's lied to the public over 4,000 times. Not falsehoods, lies. Sarah Sanders has press briefings a few times each week. She lies to the press and the public when defending the administrations policies. Not misleading statements, lies. Kellyanne Conway tried to be cute and charming when using her now infamous phrase, "alternative facts." There's nothing cute and charming about what they really are...lies.
If we can use it for one, then use it for all. Call out the statements for what they are...lies. Call out the people for what they are...liars. And do it every time.
L...I..E...S!!!! See how simple it was to type that word?
Related Post: Donald Trump turned Kellyanne Conway and Sean Spicer into pimps
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