{"id":295,"date":"2017-03-02T20:29:13","date_gmt":"2017-03-03T01:29:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rationalnationusa.com\/blog\/?p=295"},"modified":"2017-03-02T20:29:13","modified_gmt":"2017-03-03T01:29:13","slug":"two-issues-inextricably-intertwined","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rationalnationusa.com\/blog\/archives\/295","title":{"rendered":"Two Issues Inextricably Intertwined…"},"content":{"rendered":"

President Trump certainly has a record of making statements that are false. Or put another way,\u00a0statements for which there is no credible evidence\u00a0in support of\u00a0his support his statements in question.\u00a0Does this mean he lied? It might, but only if he knew the actual facts relative to his statements and intentionally <\/em>misrepresented the truth. Something we all <\/em>know politicians of both <\/em>parties do more than just occasionally.<\/p>\n

Does Donald Trump lie? If you read the fact checks conducted by a\u00a0growing number<\/span><\/u><\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0major media outlets<\/span><\/u><\/a>, you bet. Like, all the time. And not just little stretches of the truth.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a0Just over half the Trump statements checked by\u00a0Politifact\u2019s Truth-o-Meter<\/span><\/u><\/a>\u00a0were classified as false or pants-on-fire false, for example, while The Washington Post<\/em>\u2019s fact checker\u00a0gave a four Pinocchio rating<\/span><\/u><\/a>\u00a0(its highest falsehood) to nearly 65 percent of the Trump claims\u00a0it checked.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

But what if we can\u2019t agree on the facts? How do you determine \u201ctruth?\u201d And if there is no agreement, is it still OK for the mainstream media to call them lies? Chuck Todd asked\u00a0Wall Street Journal<\/span><\/u><\/em> editor-in-chief Gerard Baker as much on \u201cMeet the Press\u201d<\/span><\/u><\/a>, and Baker’s response sort of broke the Internet.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cI’d be careful about using the word \u2018lie.\u2019 \u2018Lie\u2019 implies much more than just saying something that’s false. It implies a deliberate intent to mislead. I think it’s perfectly — when Donald Trump says thousands of people were on the rooftops of New Jersey on 9\/11 celebrating, thousands of Muslims were there celebrating, I think it’s right to investigate that claim, to report what we found, which is that nobody found any evidence of that whatsoever, and to say that.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it’s then up to the reader to make up their own mind to say, \u2018This is what Donald Trump says. This is what a reliable, trustworthy news organization reports. And you know what? I don’t think that’s true.\u2019 I think if you start ascribing a moral intent, as it were, to someone by saying that they’ve lied, I think you run the risk that you look like you are, like you’re not being objective.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Washington Post<\/em> blogger Greg Sargent shot back that of course the\u00a0media has an obligation to call out Trump\u2019s lies<\/span><\/u><\/a>\u00a0\u2013 and use the word lies \u2013 because Trump continues to repeat falsehoods even after they have been debunked. He\u2019s a new kind of political animal, Sargent argued, and the media is utterly unprepared to cover his presidency.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The takeaway? It\u2019s going to be a long four years for the press, and this debate has only just begun. (MORE BELOW THE FOLD)<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Our nation is now divided\u00a0by\u00a0starkly different\u00a0political\u00a0ideologies, With the exception of\u00a0The War Between The States<\/em><\/strong> we have never been so divided. <\/b>Right now our major political parties are, on most important issues affecting all Americans,\u00a0180 degrees apart.\u00a0And it seems as though there exists\u00a0no desire to find common ground.<\/p>\n

Unless Americans start demanding from their congressional representatives and\u00a0senators\u00a0\u00a0a degree of\u00a0bipartisanship, mutual cooperation, concern for America rather than party ideology, and putting the welfare of all Americans as their foremost responsibility we are doomed as a democratic republic<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Trump certainly has a record of making statements that are false. Or put another way,\u00a0statements for which there is no credible evidence\u00a0in support of\u00a0his support his statements in question.\u00a0Does this mean he lied? It might, but only if he knew the actual facts relative to his statements and intentionally misrepresented the truth. Something we … Continue reading Two Issues Inextricably Intertwined…<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,23,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government","category-hate-crimes","category-politics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8ovtF-4L","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":285,"url":"https:\/\/rationalnationusa.com\/blog\/archives\/285","url_meta":{"origin":295,"position":0},"title":"A Different Trump Became President…","author":"Les","date":"March 1, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Last night on CNN Van Jones said\u00a0that Trump\u00a0became the President, the result of his address to the join session of Congress. The President's tone was decidedly different. Trump did not use I, didn't make the evening all about him. He talked about republicans and democrats working to move the country\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Government"","block_context":{"text":"Government","link":"https:\/\/rationalnationusa.com\/blog\/archives\/category\/government"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":456,"url":"https:\/\/rationalnationusa.com\/blog\/archives\/456","url_meta":{"origin":295,"position":1},"title":"Trump Exonerated?…","author":"Les","date":"March 22, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Trump's allegations that his phones were wiretapped on orders by Obama have been widely considered\u00a0 bogus by knowledgeable intelligence\u00a0officials as well as congressional Republicans.\u00a0This afternoon\u00a0Representative Devin Nunes, the chair of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence,\u00a0made public\u00a0new information\u00a0from an unnamed source that,\u00a0on numerous occasions the Intelligence Community incidentally collected\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Government"","block_context":{"text":"Government","link":"https:\/\/rationalnationusa.com\/blog\/archives\/category\/government"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":495,"url":"https:\/\/rationalnationusa.com\/blog\/archives\/495","url_meta":{"origin":295,"position":2},"title":"On Our Liar In Chief…","author":"Les","date":"March 23, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"You may have heard, Donald Trump had an interview with Time very recently. An interview that earned him four Pinocchios from\u00a0The Washington Post. Most of us know full well that Trump has a serious problem with the truth. In fact no one that has been paying any real attention fails\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Ethics"","block_context":{"text":"Ethics","link":"https:\/\/rationalnationusa.com\/blog\/archives\/category\/ethics"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":554,"url":"https:\/\/rationalnationusa.com\/blog\/archives\/554","url_meta":{"origin":295,"position":3},"title":"Right-Wing Conservative Boilerplate, Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.)","author":"Les","date":"March 30, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"We know we shouldn't have, but, we just couldn't help responding to Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) opinion piece in THE HILL. A Trump surrogate and highly partisan right-wing conservative his boilerplate made our\u00a0blood boil. Truth became stranger to republican party years ago and Trump and his surrogates have simply heightened\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Government"","block_context":{"text":"Government","link":"https:\/\/rationalnationusa.com\/blog\/archives\/category\/government"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":534,"url":"https:\/\/rationalnationusa.com\/blog\/archives\/534","url_meta":{"origin":295,"position":4},"title":"Trey Gowdy All In For Nunes (and Trump)…","author":"Les","date":"March 29, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Rep. Trey Gowdy, another Trump surrogate, has jumped up and on board in support of Chairman Devin Nunes' refusal to name his sources. \u00a0Sources he claims informed him the Obama administration spied on Trump's campaign. Allegations for which no credible evidence has yet surfaced. New Jersey's Republican Governor Christie has\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Ethics"","block_context":{"text":"Ethics","link":"https:\/\/rationalnationusa.com\/blog\/archives\/category\/ethics"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":101,"url":"https:\/\/rationalnationusa.com\/blog\/archives\/101","url_meta":{"origin":295,"position":5},"title":"Stephen Banning Advising Trump…","author":"Les","date":"February 14, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"We hear Donald J. Trump is quite upset about this. Donald surely has\u00a0thin skin eh? https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=pZOF9q5fzfs Here at Rational Nation USA we find much\u00a0truth in this humorous skit. \u00a0","rel":"","context":"In "Humor"","block_context":{"text":"Humor","link":"https:\/\/rationalnationusa.com\/blog\/archives\/category\/humor"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/pZOF9q5fzfs\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rationalnationusa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rationalnationusa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rationalnationusa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rationalnationusa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rationalnationusa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/rationalnationusa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":297,"href":"https:\/\/rationalnationusa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295\/revisions\/297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rationalnationusa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rationalnationusa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rationalnationusa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}