President Donald Trump used an appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference Friday to accuse the media of making up unnamed sources.
“A few days ago I called the fake news the enemy of the people and they are. They are the enemy of the people,” he said, referencing a post on his Twitter account last week.
“Because they have no sources, they just make them up when there are none. I saw one story recently where they said nine people have confirmed,” he continued. “There are no nine people. I don’t believe there was one or two people. Nine people. And I said, ‘give me a break,’ because I know the people. I know who they talked to.”
Trump: the media isn’t the enemy, only the ‘fake’ news media that produces negative stories
(“Fake news” ≠ stories you don’t like) pic.twitter.com/2kEJ5YrEwa
— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) February 24, 2017
Trump failed to mention that his own White House has used unnamed sources to refute the media, including in their denial of a CNN story Thursday that said the White House asked the FBI to tamp down on stories about contact between the Trump campaign and Russian nationals. Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, on Sunday, referenced unnamed intelligence officials when he said the original New York Times story about the campaign’s contacts with Russians was “grossly overstated.”
“In fact, in covering my comments, the dishonest media did not explain that I called the fake news the enemy of the people, the fake news. They dropped off the word fake,” Trump said. “And all of a sudden the story became the media is the enemy. They take the word fake out. And now I’m saying, oh, no, this is no good. But that’s the way they are. So I’m not against the media, I’m not against the press. I don’t mind bad stories if I deserve them, and I tell you, I love good stories but we won’t talk – I don’t get too many of them.”
Trump’s tweet about “fake news” included references to the New York Times, NBC News, ABC News, CBS News and CNN.
“But I am only against the fake news media or press. Fake. Fake. They have to leave that word,” he said. “I’m against the people that make up stories and make up sources. They shouldn’t be allowed to use sources unless they use somebody’s name. Let their name be put out there. Let their name be put out. A source says that Donald Trump is a horrible, horrible human being. Let them say it to my face. Let there be no more sources.”
“So just in finishing, I say it doesn’t represent the people, it never will represent the people and we’re going to do something about it because we have to go out and we have to speak our minds and we have to be honest,” Trump said before moving on.
