Opinion: The media cannot waver

["Dave Farber" <farber () gmail com>]

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> From: "NYTimes.com" <nytdirect () nytimes com>
> Date: January 23, 2017 at 8:28:13 AM EST
> To: dave () farber net
> Subject: Opinion: The media cannot waver
>
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> Opinion
> Monday, January 23, 2017
> Sean Spicer said so many false things during his first appearance in the White House press room that some of them 
> didn’t even get much attention.
> He falsely claimed, of course, that President Trump’s inauguration was the best attended in history. (The 2009 Obama 
> inauguration was.)
> He also falsely claimed that ridership on Washington’s public-transit system was higher this year than in 2013. (It 
> wasn’t.)
> He said that “floor coverings” had never been used before on the Mall. (They were used in 2013.)
> He said that “fencing and magnetometers” kept people from reaching the Mall to celebrate the inaugural. (The Secret 
> Service said otherwise.)
> “This is an appalling performance by the new press secretary,” wrote the usually restrained Glenn Kessler of The 
> Washington Post. Added PolitiFact’s Linda Qiu, “Pants on fire.”
> The Trump administration — and the president himself — have shown a shocking disregard for the truth in their first 
> days on the job. This disregard puts the media in a tricky spot, because calling out the president of the United 
> States and his staff for untruths will inevitably upset his supporters.
> But the media cannot waver. We cannot use euphemisms for “false” and “untrue” when those are the accurate terms.
> Much of the media did indeed rise to the occasion over the weekend. If you haven’t yet seen Chuck Todd’s performance 
> yesterday as host of “Meet the Press,” for instance, it’s worth a few minutes of your time.
> Not every news source was willing to be bluntly honest, however. The Wall Street Journal’s headline was notably weak: 
> “White House Disputes Inauguration Attendance Estimates, Despite Evidence to Contrary.”
> I hope the new administration begins to take facts more seriously. But if it doesn’t, the rest of us can’t confuse 
> power with truth.
> The full Opinion report from The Times follows, including Ben Smith on why BuzzFeed published the Trump dossier, and 
> Karen Stohr on the new age of political contempt.
> David Leonhardt
> Op-Ed Columnist
>  
> OP-ED COLUMNIST
>    We Are Dissidents; We Are Legion
> By CHARLES M. BLOW
> The Women’s March was an uprising.
> OP-ED COLUMNIST
>    Things Can Only Get Worse
> By PAUL KRUGMAN
> What comes after “American carnage”?
>  
> EDITORIAL
>    Donald Trump and a Sea of Empty Desks
> By THE EDITORIAL BOARD
> So much for the claim that people from the business world are always more efficient managers.
> EDITORIAL
>    A Bold Plan to Prevent Homelessness
> By THE EDITORIAL BOARD
> A proposed statewide rental subsidy would go a long way toward finding long-term solutions to making housing 
> affordable.
> EDITORIAL NOTEBOOK
>    A D.J. Who Brought Two Decades to Life
> By LAWRENCE DOWNES
> Rich Conaty loved the music of the 1920s and ’30s to death, and had a vast personal library of 78s that he shared 
> with his listeners.
>  
> ADVERTISEMENT
>
>       
>       
>  
> OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR
>    Why BuzzFeed News Published the Dossier
> By BEN SMITH
> Trust, in this new media ecology, means trusting the readers’ judgment.
> THE STONE
>    Our New Age of Contempt
> By KAREN STOHR
> Insult and mockery is dehumanizing when wielded by the powerful. To resist, the disempowered should reject it, not 
> return it.
> OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR
>    Russia Is a Terrible Ally Against Terrorism
> By DANIEL BENJAMIN
> President Trump’s plan to work with Moscow to fight ISIS will alienate our allies and yield few results.
> ON CAMPUS
>    Discovering Feminist Students in the Middle East
> By DEBORAH WILLIAMS
> My American students thought feminism was for angry man-haters. Women in Abu Dhabi were inspired by it to take risks 
> and take charge of their lives.
>  
> ADVERTISEMENT
>
>       
>       
>                                                                                                                       
>                                 
>  
> SUNDAY REVIEW
>    Why I Cannot Fall in Line Behind Trump
> By PETER WEHNER
> Conservatism is a philosophy, not just a policy checklist.
>  
> LETTERS
>    Women for Trump, and Against
> Readers respond to the glimpse they got of women who supported the winning presidential candidate.
>  
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