The Washington Post, along with most other mainstream news outlets, continue to enable, coddle and normalize Trump by their refusal to simply say that Trump LIES. They just can’t bring themselves to say the “L word.” I’ve read their weak explanations for why this is they case, and it’s all bullshit. Saying that Trump “lies” when he, um, lies is stating a fact, not making a judgment.
This problem is on pathetic and infuriating display in a new WaPo article about how much Trump lied in his disturbing “60 Minutes” interview with Lesley Stahl. Here’s all the creative ways that the article’s author, Glenn Kessler, finds for saying anything other than “Trump LIED”:
- “Trump sidesteps truth” — this is in the headline on the homepage in the online version. This one is a real humdinger.
- Trump “avoids truth” — This is in the headline on the page for the article itself.
- Trump makes “false claims”
- Trump makes “misleading assertions”
- Trump makes “exaggerated facts” — what exactly is an exaggerated fact?? It’s a fact, so that makes it true I guess, but it’s exaggerated, which makes it exactly what?
- Trump is “deceptive”
- Trump “falsely said” — Kessler used this phrase twice.
- Trump “falsely claimed”
- Trump “continues to misstate the trade deficit with China”
- Trump “continued his habit of mischaracterizing what his predecessor did”
If you’re counting, that’s 11 times in a single article that the author found “creative” ways to avoid using the word “lie.” The article is a master class in how to make Trump’s relentless, disturbing, dangerous, bald-faced LIES seem not so bad — just some harmless sidestepping, avoiding, exaggerating. Shame on the Washington Post.