Trump Unfairly Attacks New York Times for “Fake News”
Donald Trump tweeted this morning:
The failing @nytimes does major FAKE NEWS China story saying "Mr.Xi has not spoken to Mr. Trump since Nov.14." We spoke at length yesterday!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 10, 2017
He is referencing this article in the New York Times, the lede of which stated, at the time Trump made his tweet:
President Trump told President Xi Jinping of China on Thursday evening that the United States would honor the “One China” policy, reversing his earlier expressions of doubt about the longtime diplomatic understanding and removing a major source of tension between the United States and China since shortly after he was elected.
Two paragraphs later, the article later states:
The concession was clearly designed to put an end to an extended chill in the relationship between China and the United States. Mr. Xi, stung by Mr. Trump’s unorthodox telephone call with the president of Taiwan in December and his subsequent assertion that the United States might no longer abide by the One China policy, had not spoken to Mr. Trump since Nov. 14, the week after he was elected.
So what happened here? Did Trump really miss the first line of the article? Did he really misread “had” as has? No; what he did is cite a version of the article that was true when it was published. Mediaite explains:
But Trump is citing a version of the article that was written before he spoke with Xi Thursday night. At the time the article was written, Trump actually hadn’t spoken to Xi since November and The Times story was completely factual.
The article was updated late Thursday night once the White House released its readout of their newest call. The article now reads that Xi “had not spoken to Mr. Trump since Nov. 14, the week after he was elected,” and the headline was updated from “China’s President, Stung by Taiwan Call, Is Said to Shun Trump,” to “After Silence From Xi, Trump Endorses the ‘One China’ Policy.”
As best as I can tell, Mediaite’s account is accurate. According to a useful site that does comparisons of revisions in news articles (a site linked by Mediaite), the language Trump quoted was contained in a version of the article published at 9:38 p.m. Eastern last night. I can’t find a definite time that the news of Trump’s phone call was released, but Fox News had a tweet calling it “breaking” news as of 11:21 p.m. Eastern.
BREAKING: Trump tells China President Xi Jinping that U.S. will honor “one-China” policy
— Fox News (@FoxNews) February 10, 2017
By this morning, when Trump tweeted out his “fake news” complaint, the story had been updated to reflect the new phone call.
It looks like what happened was: the New York Times published its story, Trump released the news of the phone call, and the New York Times updated its story. “Fake news”? Not so much.
More important than the quibbles over Trump’s unfair attack on the Times is the change in policy. The thrust of the original version of the Times article was that Xi was snubbing Trump over his refusal to sign on to the “One China” policy. Then Trump made a great deal and acknowledged it. Now they’re the best of friends! Yay!
Now, I’m not saying that Trump’s team got wind that the New York Times was going to do a news article about Xi snubbing Trump, and made a change in policy so they could call the New York Times fake news. That would be crazy. What I am saying is that the timing of all this is interesting. There’s a story there somewhere.
But it doesn’t mean that Trump’s “fake news” complaint is fair.
This time.
[Cross-posted at RedState and The Jury Talks Back.]
Yeah, he’ll acknowledge “one China” and they won’t shut down Ivanka’s sweatshops. Great deal!
Dave (711345) — 2/10/2017 @ 9:35 amPatterico,
You were wrong on Twitter because you rushed to judgment. Quoting the NY Times to bash Trump is never a good idea. You should know that after your interactions with the LA Times.
The media lies when it suits their agenda.
NJRob (2b6538) — 2/10/2017 @ 9:46 amOn HotAir, commenters are calling the joint communique, posted on the White House website, “fake news”…
Crying “fake news” is now a Pavlovian conditioned response to anything that upsets Trump or his cultists.
Dave (711345) — 2/10/2017 @ 9:55 amthe fake newsers at Mexico’s New York Times newspaper stealth-edit stuff all the time
happyfeet (28a91b) — 2/10/2017 @ 9:58 amThe number one purveyor of fake news is Trump’s good buddy Roger Stone who, among other things, planted the story in the National Enquirer that Cruz was fooling around, as well as the pedophile pizza parlor story a/k/a Pizzagate. Projection is a prominent trait of Trump and his spear carriers.
(Cross-posted at the Jury.)
nk (dbc370) — 2/10/2017 @ 10:03 amwhat’s funny is there’s actually TWO China’s
there’s the commie one and then there’s Taiwan
totally separate countries
happyfeet (28a91b) — 2/10/2017 @ 10:09 ambtw the link to the NYT fake news site is broken
happyfeet (28a91b) — 2/10/2017 @ 10:16 amThe NYTimes still had the story up that Trayvon Martin was shot twice, in the back, as late as two years after the shooting.
Meanwhile……
Feds admit withholding evidence of wrongdoing by BLM lead agent at Bundy Ranch.
Union thugs block new Education Secretary from entering DC school.
French establishment collapsing, LePen rising as citizens see Muslim intolerance to western values.
Alveda King: “Why didn’t Sen. Warren read the letter when my aunt Coretta said immigration would be bad for the African-American job market?”
But……must……bash…..Trump…..tweets.
harkin (afc7a6) — 2/10/2017 @ 10:19 amI do not want to need a Rosetta stone or a code breaker to read and understand the news or what the NYT is trying to make into news.
Was the original article actually news or what one could consider news? Or was it a planted rumor disguised by the NYT as news?
elissa (35b739) — 2/10/2017 @ 10:37 amOh for Fook’s sake. Defending the NYT? What’s next… playing a wind instrument?
Colonel Haiku (d8affe) — 2/10/2017 @ 10:38 amTribalism is cool, and so is playing the clarinet.
Sean (41ed1e) — 2/10/2017 @ 11:13 amelissa (35b739) — 2/10/2017 @ 10:37 am
Sammy Finkelman (ebf45c) — 2/10/2017 @ 11:13 amWas just re-reading the NYTimes article from last year that’s making its way around science journals this past month:
“CALIFORNIA BRACES FOR UNENDING DROUGHT-5/10/2016”
As of this morning, the nearest weather station to my house in the Sierra foothills is showing 205% of an average year’s precipitation to date and state DNR officials are contemplating evacuating Oroville due to a spillway failure from heavy runoff.
harkin (afc7a6) — 2/10/2017 @ 11:14 amI was not wrong on Twitter. I had this post written moments after my tweet. Trump’s “fake news” tweet was fake news in the sense that every conservative uses that term nowadays: it was inaccurate. Because it accused the NYT of getting the story wrong when they didn’t. The NYT was right when it published, and right when it updated. (They should have indicated that they changed the article, when, and why. I will fault them for that.) Thanks to The Right Scoop, I have been lumped in with a lot of people who did rush to judgment. I did not. Trump is playing you guys and many are falling for it because tribalism.
Note that when I say it would be crazy in the post for Trump to have had the call just to embarrass the NYT, that’s irony. I suspect that’s precisely what happened. Any way you slice it, the timing is weird.
Patterico (98df0d) — 2/10/2017 @ 12:16 pmWhat I wonder about is why in the great scheme of things you decided this specific article and Trump’s tweet deserved an immediate reply tweet from you plus an entire blog post. I’d be interested in better understanding your thought process about this if you have time and if you’d care to share it.
elissa (35b739) — 2/10/2017 @ 12:37 pmI’ve argued before and continue to believe that unfair attacks on the media are not only, well, unfair — but also undermine legitimate media criticism.
Frankly, I have two points to make that favor Trump, one of which I ran out of time for this morning and one of which I learned since this morning.
What I learned this morning is that the print version of the article contained the now-inaccurate version of the article. This is a mitigating factor for Trump — assuming he did not release the news of the call so late because he knew the NYT was running a print story and he wanted to undermine it. (For all I know, the call was even held after the article first published.)
The other point is that the NYT should be faulted for not saying they had updated the story, how, and when. It’s a minor point but a genuine one.
Patterico (98df0d) — 2/10/2017 @ 12:51 pmwhat’s also interesting is how the fake newsers at the New York Times had multiple orgasms when food stamp kowtowed shamelessly to the murderous third whirl castro thugs
but when President Trump bravely defies the communist chineser pigs to have a chat with the honorable and democratically-elected Taiwanese president, the first elected female president in the entire history of Taiwan, they cast it as something Mr. Trump needs to be defensive about:
happyfeet (28a91b) — 2/10/2017 @ 1:06 pmSham wow. Actually playing the clarinet is not cool at all. Not even in the slightest.
Video on how to make your first sound through the clarinet (making a band face). [YouTube]
papertiger (c8116c) — 2/10/2017 @ 1:11 pmthe oh so punctilious fake newsers at the NYT do indeed post a correction to their fanciful reportings btw:
happyfeet (28a91b) — 2/10/2017 @ 1:12 pmI’m envious of anyone who can play any instrument I can’t play.
Patterico (98df0d) — 2/10/2017 @ 1:12 pmThe lead was trump reaffirms the one China policy, which is disappointing, but the successor to kristof wasn’t content with that, tell us the news.
narciso (becc05) — 2/10/2017 @ 1:21 pmAlso, Elissa, I am interested in the curious coincidence that this call took place last night, apparently right around the time the NYT story dropped. And I am therefore interested in what looks like a very realistic possibility (as I ironically suggested in the post) that Trump timed the call knowing the story was about to drop (or perhaps had just dropped!), with the intent of embarrassing the NYT.
If so, then his “fake news!” accusation was wholly cynical and dishonest.
Does this timing not appear odd to anyone but me and Sammy? Really?!
Patterico (98df0d) — 2/10/2017 @ 1:25 pmYou are rationalizing.
The reason you don’t play the clarinet (there’s no such thing as can’t) is because of the band face.
papertiger (c8116c) — 2/10/2017 @ 1:25 pmThe meaning of the One China policy is in the mind of the beholder. The argument has been ongoing for decades with the PRC, USA, and ROC satisfied that the words mean different things but aren’t important enough to fight about as long as the PRC and ROC don’t threaten each other and the US doesn’t over-arm the ROC. IOW – SNAFU.
crazy (d3b449) — 2/10/2017 @ 1:38 pmMy Chinese television has been watching me.
I wonder if President Trump mentioned Chinese spying during his conversation?
papertiger (c8116c) — 2/10/2017 @ 1:38 pmMight be the reason why there are about 12 kung fu movies (with subtitles)* for every western on Netflix.
* rough estimate.
papertiger (c8116c) — 2/10/2017 @ 1:44 pm* where the ruthless emperor is paradoxically portrayed as the hero.
papertiger (c8116c) — 2/10/2017 @ 1:45 pmyour time stamp on the fox news tweet doesn’t match the time on the fox news twitter feed
this is very confuzzling
how do we confirm the time when fox news did the twitter on this news
happyfeet (28a91b) — 2/10/2017 @ 1:46 pmSean’s a big Mr. Acker Bilk fan.
Colonel Haiku (d8affe) — 2/10/2017 @ 1:48 pmIf it were based on demographics there should be 12 : 1 ratio of Zorro type movies to Westerns.
Mexico is missing a trick.
(I know they have telemundo and univision – but who watches that for a mind adjustment?)
papertiger (c8116c) — 2/10/2017 @ 1:54 pmoh i see you get the utc when you hover
happyfeet (28a91b) — 2/10/2017 @ 2:00 pm“I question the timing” has been a common and cynical political meme for a while to call attention to what may or may not be coincidences. I think I first heard it used when President Clinton bombed Sudan and Afghanistan during the Lewinsky scandal. The phrase was also used a lot, as I recall, around Comey’s comments concerning Hillary’s emails right before the election –as well as hundreds of other times on hundreds of other examples of coincidences in between. The timing of the President’s call with Mr. Xi with respect to the allegations in the original NYT article seems somewhat less important to me than the fact that the call itself gives lie to the allegation that China is “shunning” Trump.
elissa (35b739) — 2/10/2017 @ 2:02 pmChina is in fact embracing the first US president to enjoy a chat with the democratically elected president of Taiwan!
This is Nobel Peace Prize stuff we’re witnessing – food stamp is gone away and the march of freedom, once again it resumes under the leadership of President Donald Trump.
A new age has dawned.
happyfeet (28a91b) — 2/10/2017 @ 2:06 pmRight at the beginning of the video, papertiger. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyg1mQ87ILg
nk (dbc370) — 2/10/2017 @ 2:28 pmAnd again at 1:39 et seq for the same video shot and riff.
nk (dbc370) — 2/10/2017 @ 2:31 pmTrump could adopt it as the theme of his administration, “The Good, The Bald, And The Elderly”, although “For A Fistful of Dollars” and “A Few Dollars More” is really what he and his family seem to be interested in the most.
nk (dbc370) — 2/10/2017 @ 2:46 pmhe has the best themes
happyfeet (28a91b) — 2/10/2017 @ 2:51 pmStirring, nk.
Who knew a clarinet player could still be a star (that was a clarinet, right?)
MD in Philly (f9371b) — 2/10/2017 @ 3:15 pmJust what we needed. Another western the Chinese won’t show on Netflix.
papertiger (c8116c) — 2/10/2017 @ 3:24 pmYes, MD, and there was no band face on the young lady playing it.
nk (dbc370) — 2/10/2017 @ 3:25 pmThe NYT and conservative lawyers teaming up to screw America. What a bunch of groupies.
mg (31009b) — 2/10/2017 @ 3:29 pmTo be fair to Mr. Trump, any time you happen to accuse the NTY of printing slipshod reporting, unsupported accusations, or any other sort of ‘fake news’, the odds are good that you will be right.
C. S. P. Schofield (99bd37) — 2/10/2017 @ 3:30 pmWhich is more goober, clarinet or accordion?
At 6:54 of nk video – a textbook example of ‘band face’.
papertiger (c8116c) — 2/10/2017 @ 3:32 pmThat’s an oboe. Very hard to play. No coincidence that the player in the video is Asian.
nk (dbc370) — 2/10/2017 @ 3:41 pmSo we have established that oboe is more goober than clarinet.
Now we’re just arguing degree.
heh
papertiger (c8116c) — 2/10/2017 @ 3:44 pmchinesers are very similar to asians except they’re very corrupt, 100% all commied up, inured to hellish levels of pollution, brutally violent by nature, and plus they kill babies
happyfeet (28a91b) — 2/10/2017 @ 3:44 pmAs for goober, up your tastes, untutored one.
nk (dbc370) — 2/10/2017 @ 3:45 pmfortunately however there are actually TWO china’s, one of which is quite lovely
happyfeet (28a91b) — 2/10/2017 @ 3:47 pmnk – cover to cover band face with Chinese subtitles.
I compliments sir.
I work here is done.
papertiger (c8116c) — 2/10/2017 @ 3:54 pmI’ll grant you that Greek mythology is on your side. The goddess Athena invented the double-reed (oboe) but threw it away because it gave her a “band face”. Don’t click the link if you don’t really want to know what Apollo did to the guy who picked it up and started playing it.
nk (dbc370) — 2/10/2017 @ 4:37 pmMy friend Bobbie played the oboe. The little reed left nasty marks and indentations on her lips for a while after she played. Beautiful sound, though.
elissa (35b739) — 2/10/2017 @ 4:43 pmBut you were Patterico because you jumped to defend the Times without knowing the extent of the situation. Why would the Times post this article except to pretend that China is snubbing our President? Trump easily disproved it because as the President, everyone will take his call. We don’t operate at the beck and call of other nations. For the Times to pretend otherwise to score political points is nonsense.
NJRob (7a7e3e) — 2/10/2017 @ 5:28 pmthat was succinct cogent and on point Mr. Rob, what you said
happyfeet (28a91b) — 2/10/2017 @ 5:31 pmI checked this morning to verify that the time stamp I see on tweets from Fox News is Pacific. It went out at 8:21 pm Pacific last night. That’s 11:21 Eastern. That’s a while before the first NYT story and a few minutes (about 20, IIRC) before the NYT re-write.
Patterico (115b1f) — 2/10/2017 @ 5:58 pmThere was no pretending. China was snubbing our President, until he caved to their One China policy. And at the time they published their article, we had not yet caved — or at the very least, our cave had not been made public.
So your word “pretend” is totally inaccurate.
Patterico (115b1f) — 2/10/2017 @ 6:01 pmyes yes i worked the problem a couple ways i concur with your conclusion
honestly though why twitter makes this so arcane is a lil bemusing
happyfeet (28a91b) — 2/10/2017 @ 6:06 pmmy sniffer says this smells like narrative
and I don’t think the chinesers are as high on Mr. T’s agenda as this on supposes
happyfeet (28a91b) — 2/10/2017 @ 6:09 pmthis *one* i mean
happyfeet (28a91b) — 2/10/2017 @ 6:09 pmHe got one right, and then dropped it
http:ww.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/russia-eyes-sending-snowden-u-s-gift-trump-official-n718921?cid=eml_nbn_20170210
narciso (d1f714) — 2/10/2017 @ 6:11 pmWhen my guy is punching my enemies in the face I don’t examine his exact words or motives too closely.
Fred Z (05d938) — 2/10/2017 @ 7:41 pmFacts not in evidence.
NJRob (948461) — 2/10/2017 @ 9:03 pm