Trump's 'highly-anticipated' fake news 'awards' are out
What's the story
President Donald Trump keeps his word. He promised a US-Mexico border wall, he's apparently building it. He promised "immigration reform", he's doing it.
He promised awards for the "most dishonest" media, he's announced them.
Apart from the 'tiny' fact that the GOP website immediately crashed, it was a unique event, though the 'winners' were expected.
But how 'fake' were the 'fake news', actually?
'Winners'
Here are the 'honorable awardees'
"2017 was a year of unrelenting bias, unfair coverage, and even downright fake news," begins GOP's page on 'The Highly-Anticipated 2017 Fake News Awards.'
It then mentions specific items: an NYT piece on the economy, Washington Post's story on an "empty" arena during Trump's Pensacola rally, and more.
ABC and Newsweek were included, but with four of 10 spots, CNN was clearly the "winner".
Crash
But Trump and Co. couldn't achieve a primary goal
Unfortunately for Trump, it didn't go as smoothly as planned. The GOP website couldn't handle the surge in traffic and promptly crashed.
An hour later, it still wasn't back to normal.
Though this implied massive interest in the "awards," the GOP lost out on one major aspect: fundraising.
The "awards" page includes buttons for contributions and signing up for the party's updates.
Twitter Post
And, this happened!
You have to admit. This is pretty perfect. #FakeNewsAwards pic.twitter.com/5Zy2pzdD5k
— Matt Whitlock 🇺🇸 (@mattdizwhitlock) January 18, 2018
Analysis
Here's a look at what Trump called 'fake news'
Though some were blatant mistakes by journalists, most were simple errors for which the editors concerned apologized and corrected immediately, and in one case, resigned.
A CNN piece on Trump's access to WikiLeaks documents, an "awardee," had the date wrong. An NYT publication was an opinion piece, not a news report.
In one case, it was a reporter's personal tweet, not even a story.
Critics
Trump's own party senators unhappy with his stance
Coincidentally, Trump's "awards" came hours after Senator Jeff Flake, from his own Republican party, accused him of using "Stalinist" language to describe the free press.
"It's a testament to the condition of our democracy that our own president uses words infamously spoken by Joseph Stalin to describe his enemies," he said.
His colleague Senator John McCain, also Republican, joined in too.
Twitter Post
Well, hope's not lost for the media yet
Despite some very corrupt and dishonest media coverage, there are many great reporters I respect and lots of GOOD NEWS for the American people to be proud of!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 18, 2018