Page 32 - ARUBA TODAY

A32 FEATURE
Monday 15 January 2018
Trust and truth under Trump: Americans are in a quandary

By LAURIE KELLMAN and Democrat Kathy Tibbits and not.During the cam- friends to get the most in- Shorenstein Center on Me-
JONATHAN DREW of Tahlequah, Oklahoma, paign, he made a practice formation they can. dia, Politics and Public Poli-
Associated Press reads lots of news sources of singling out for ridicule “You’re probably not go- cy at Harvard, views Trump
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — When as she tries to assess the ac- reporters covering his rau- ing to get enough informa- as a symptom of long-term
truck driver Chris Gromek curacy of what Trump is re- cous rallies. As president, he tion out of sound bites, and trends. “Now, can he ac-
wants to know what’s really ported to have said. regularly complains about you’re certainly not going celerate them and make
going on in Washington, he “I kind of think the whole his news coverage and has to get it in a tweet,” said them worse? Almost cer-
scans the internet and sat- frontier has changed,” said attacked news outlets and Steel, who says she voted tainly.”
ellite radio. He no longer for Democrat Hillary Clinton When Trump labels some-
flips TV channels because in 2016. thing “fake news,” ‘’I just
networks such as Fox News Two-thirds of Americans have started assuming
and MSNBC deliver con- get at least some of their ... whatever he’s talking
flicting accounts tainted by news from social media, about must be true,” said
politics, he says. Pew found. 46-year-old Joseph Murray
“Where is the truth?” asks “I think part of the prob- of Mustang, Oklahoma, a
the 47-year-old North Caro- lem is that now people are registered independent. “I
lina resident. getting too much informa- feel like that attitude didn’t
Answering that question tion and it confuses them start until he took office.”
accurately is a cornerstone and they don’t know how Trump tends to inflate the
of any functioning democ- to decipher the true and significance of what he’s
racy, according to none the fake,” said Trent Lott, done. He claims his tax cuts
other than Thomas Jeffer- a former Senate Republi- are the biggest in history,
son. But a year into Don- can leader from Mississippi his accomplishments sur-
ald Trump’s fact-bending, who’s worked in Washing- pass those of all previous
media-bashing presidency, ton for nearly half a centu- presidents, and his election
ABOVE: In this Jan. 10, 2018,
photo, Victoria Steel, 50 of
Cheyenne, Wyo. talks about
President Trump and the
media. RIGHT: In this Jan. 11,
2017, photo, Gary Abernathy,
publisher and editor of The
Times-Gazette, poses for a
photograph in Hillsboro. LEFT:
In this Aug. 5, 2015, file
photo, Lori Viars, a longtime
conservative activist in Warren
County, sits for a portrait at
Village Ice Cream Parlor in
Lebanon, Ohio.
Associated Press

Americans are increasingly the 60-year-old lawyer and journalists as “failing” and ry. He isn’t fond of Trump’s victory was a “landslide.”
confused about who can artist. “My degree is in politi- “fake news.” He’s repeat- Twitter habit, but also says None is true.
be trusted to tell them re- cal science, and they nev- edly called reporters “the he sees bias in the cover- He still insists there were mil-
liably what their govern- er gave us a class on such enemy of the people” and age of Washington by the lions of illegal votes cast
ment and their command- fiasco politics.” recently renewed calls to mainstream media. in the 2016 election, even
er in chief are doing. Though Trump’s habit of make it easier to sue for There’s been no love for though there’s no such evi-
Interviews across the polar- warping facts has had an defamation. the media for decades. The dence.
ized country as well as poll- impact, it’s not just him. About 2 in 3 American percentage expressing a Even on matters existential,
ing from Trump’s first year Widely shared falsehoods adults say fabricated news great deal of confidence in Trump makes things up.
suggest people seek out have snagged the atten- stories cause a great deal of the press has eroded from Taunted on Twitter by North
various outlets of informa- tion of world leaders such confusion about the basic a high of 28 percent in 1976 Korean leader Kim Jong
tion, including Trump’s Twit- as Pope Francis and former facts of current affairs, ac- to just 8 percent in 2016, Un, Trump responded Jan.
ter account, and trust none President Barack Obama. cording to a Pew Research according the General So- 3 that his own nuclear but-
in particular. Last year, false conspiracy Center report last month. cial Survey conducted by ton “is a much bigger and
Many say that practice theories led a North Caro- The survey found that Re- NORC at the University of powerful one than his, and
is a new, Trump-era phe- lina man to bring a gun into publicans and Democrats Chicago. my Button works!” There is
nomenon in their lives as a pizza parlor in the nation’s are about equally likely to “Trump didn’t invent this. no such physical button.
the president and the me- capital, convinced that the say that “fake news” leaves He didn’t cause people to Trump often bypasses the
dia he denigrates as “fake restaurant was concealing Americans deeply con- start feeling this way. He’s vast information-gathering
news” fight to be seen as a child prostitution ring. Just fused about current events. tapping into a vein that al- apparatus that reports to
the more credible source. last week, after the pub- Despite the concern, more ready existed,” said Gary him in favor of getting his re-
“It has made me take ev- lication of an unflattering than 8 in 10 feel very or Abernathy, publisher and ality from TV, or sometimes
ery story with a large grain, book about Trump’s presi- somewhat confident that editor of the Times-Gazette just his gut. That has led him
a block of salt,” said Lori dency, a tweet claiming they can recognize news of Hillsboro, Ohio, one of to conclude wrongly that
Viars, a Christian conser- that he is addicted to a TV that is fabricated, the sur- the few daily papers that a rare riot in Sweden over
vative activist in Lebanon, show about gorillas went vey found. endorsed Trump. People, a drug crime was instead
Ohio, who gets her news viral and prompted its ap- Victoria Steel, 50, of Chey- he added, “are nodding linked to refugee extrem-
from Fox and CNN. “Not parent author to clarify that enne, Wyoming, said it’s their heads right away be- ism. He also falsely claimed
just from liberal sources. it was a joke. important for people to in- cause that’s how they’ve that Obama tapped his
I’ve seen conservative Trump has done his part to vest time in finding reputa- felt.” phones at Trump Tower in
‘fake news.’” blur the lines between real ble media sources or even Nicco Mele, director of the the campaign.q