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Follow Swan, Wallace; Fact Check Everything Trump Says
Media must hold Trump accountable for misinformation
I interviewed my first real-life Republican fabulist about four years ago. She was a Black woman who accused Latinos of ruining African-American neighborhoods and claimed it was illegal to fly another country’s flag in the United States. I’ve always known that Republicans were fond of questionable facts, but interviewing one was a surreal experience. It was like being hit with a water hose of lies. I wrote the story and included her outlandish ideas. Then at the bottom of the story, I added a fact check on all the lies she had mentioned.
This was a forewarning of what was to come in the Trump era. Unfortunately, too many journalists didn’t follow the same principles. Maybe it was because they never took his run seriously, or maybe it was because they were directed by news executives to give him full coverage because he was “good for ratings,” but back in 2016, the press let Donald Trump spew lies, untruths and false narratives unabated. According to The New York Times, he received $2 billion of free media. Much of that media was uncritical of him.
