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SHARYL ATTKISSON
UNTOUCHABLE SUBJECTS. FEARLESS, NONPARTISAN REPORTING.

Monday, June 17, 2024

Media Mistakes in the Trump Era: The Definitive List
By Sharyl Attkisson | January 2, 2024

Click here to support independent journalism at SharylAttkisson.com

158. Oct. 5, 2023
Citing anonymous sources, ABC, The New York Times, CBS, and other media
report Trump allegedly discussed US nuclear subs with a foreigner from Australia after Trump was president. Trump called the story “false and ridiculous and “almost all of Australia’s living former prime ministers have denied receiving top-secret information.” CBS later reported,
“Sources tell CBS News there is no indication former President Trump
shared sensitive records with an Australian billionaire + no charges
have been filed by the Special Counsel through their alleged discussion
about US Nuclear subs was investigated.”

157. March 17, 2022
The New York Times, CNN, MSNBC and many others falsely reported that the
Hunter Biden laptop scandal story was “unsubstantiated” and/or “Russian disinformation.” In September, 2021, the New York Times quietly deleted
its false “unsubstantiated” claim. In March 2022, the newspaper acknowledged that the FBI did have a laptop belonging to Hunter Biden,
which contained scandalous material and possible alleged evidence of
criminal activity.

Along with the false reporting by the Times and others, social media
giants censored the story, incorrectly calling it “false” and “disinformation.” Polling later revealed that a large number of Biden voters would not have voted for Biden in 2020 if they had known about
the censored Hunter Biden laptop story.

156. June 9, 2021
The Inspector General found that, contrary to false media reports by NPR
and others, and implications by NBC and others, the Secret Service did
not clear Lafayette Park in May of 2020 for the purposes of allowing
Trump to have a photo op posing with a Bible. The crowd was cleared for
a contractor to install a fence and because protesters were breaking the
law.

155. June 2, 2021
The Washington Post joins a cacophony of other media in finally
correcting their reporting that falsely claimed, early and often, that
the Covid-19 “lab theory” was a “debunked” “conspiracy theory.”

154. April 27, 2021
A New York Times report one year ago this week was wildly incorrect in projecting the first Covid-19 vaccine would not be ready until November
of 2033.

They were only off a little bit: instead of taking more than 13 years,
it took about seven months. The Times also said if a SARS vaccine were
able to be “repurposed” that could be ready as early as “late 2021.” Also, nearly every expert quoted in the Times article was also far off
the mark, including vaccine industry propagandist Peter Hotez, who
discussed a fast-tracked 18-month time frame.

The original story post and list follow. Additional items are now added
at the top of this post.

We the media have “fact-checked” President Trump like we have
fact-checked no other human being on the planet, and he’s certainly
given us plenty to write about. That’s probably why it’s so easy to find lists enumerating and examining his mistakes, missteps and “lies.”

But as self-appointed arbiters of truth, we’ve largely excused our own unprecedented string of fact-challenged reporting. The truth is,
formerly well-respected, top news organizations are making repeat,
unforced errors in numbers that were unheard of just a couple of years ago.

Our repeat mistakes involve declaring that Trump’s claims are “lies”
when they are matters of opinion, or when the truth between conflicting
sources is unknowable; taking Trump’s statements and events out of
context; reporting secondhand accounts against Trump without attribution
as if they’re established fact; relying on untruthful, conflicted
sources; and presenting reporter opinions in news stories,without
labeling them as opinions.

What’s worse, we defend ourselves by trying to convince the public that
our mistakes are actually a virtue because we (sometimes) correct them.
Or we blame Trump for why we’re getting so much wrong. Is a little bit
like a police officer taking someone to jail for DUI, then driving home
drunk himself: he may be correct to arrest the suspect, but he should
certainly know better than to commit the same violation.

So since nobody else has compiled an updated, extensive list of this
kind, here are:

Notable Mistakes and Missteps in Major Media Reporting on Donald Trump

1. Aug. 2016-Nov. 2016:
The New York Post published modeling photos of Trump’s wife Melania and reported they were taken in 1995. Various news outlets relied on that
date to imply that Melania, an immigrant, had violated her visa status.
But the media got the date wrong. Politico was among the news agencies
that later issued a photo date correction.

2. Oct. 1, 2016:
The New York Times and other media widely suggested or implied that
Trump had not paid income taxes for 18 years. Later, tax return pages
leaked to MSNBC ultimately showed that Trump actually paid a higher rate
than Democrats Bernie Sanders and President Obama.

3. Oct. 18, 2016:
In a Washington Post piece not labelled opinion or analysis, Stuart
Rothenberg reported that Trump’s path to an electoral college victory
was “nonexistent.”

4. Nov. 4, 2016:
USA Today misstated Melania Trump’s “arrival date from Slovenia” amid a flurry of reporting that questioned her immigration status from the
mid-1990s.

5. Nov. 9, 2016:
Early on election night, the Detroit Free Press called the state of
Michigan for Hillary Clinton. Trump actually won Michigan.

Nancy Sinatra via Twitter
6. Jan. 20, 2017:
CNN claimed Nancy Sinatra was “not happy” at her father’s song being
used at Trump’s inauguration. Sinatra responded, “That’s not true. I never said that. Why do you lie, CNN? Actually I’m wishing him the best.”

7. Jan. 20, 2017:
Zeke Miller of TIME reported that President Trump had removed the bust
statue of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. from the Oval
Office. The news went viral. It was false.

8. Jan. 26, 2017:
Josh Rogin of the Washington Post reported that the State Department’s “entire senior administrative team” had resigned in protest of Trump. A number of media outlets ranging from politically left to right,
including liberal-leaning Vox, stated that claim was misleading or wrong.

9. Jan. 28, 2017
CNBC’s John Harwood reported the Justice Department “had no input” on Trump’s immigration executive order. After a colleague contradicted Harwood’s report, he amended it to reflect that Justice Department
lawyers reportedly had reviewed Trump’s order.

10. Jan. 31, 2017:
CNN’s Jeff Zeleny reported the White House set up Twitter accounts for
two judges to try to keep Trump’s selection for Supreme Court secret.
Zeleny later corrected his report to state that the Twitter accounts had
not been set up by the White House.

11. Feb. 2, 2017:
TMZ reported Trump changed the name of “Black History Month” to “African American History Month,” implying the change was untoward or racist. In
fact, Presidents Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton had all
previously called Black History Month “African American History” month.

12. Feb. 2, 2017:
AP reported that Trump had threatened the president of Mexico with
invasion to get rid of “bad hombres.” Numerous publications followed
suit. The White House said it wasn’t true and the Washington Post
removed the AP info that ‘could not be independently confirmed.”

13. Feb. 4, 2017:
Josh Rogin of the Washington Post reported on “Inside the White
House-Cabinet Battle Over Trump’s Immigration Order,” only to have the article updated repeatedly to note that one of the reported meetings had
not actually occurred, that a conference call had not happened as
described, and that actions attributed to Trump were actually taken by
his chief of staff.

14. Feb. 14, 2017:
The New York Times’ Michael S. Schmidt, Mark Mazzetti and Matt Apuzzo reported about supposed contacts between Trump campaign staff and
“senior Russian intelligence officials.: Comey later testified “In the main, [the article] was not true.”

15. Feb. 22, 2017:
ProPublica’s Raymond Bonner reported CIA official Gina Haspel, Trump’s later pick for CIA Director, was in charge of a secret CIA prison where
Islamic extremist terrorist Abu Zubaydah was waterboarded 83 times in
one month, and that she mocked the prisoner’s suffering. More than a
year later, ProPublica retracted the claim, stating that “Neither of
these assertions is correct “Haspel did not take charge of the base
until after the interrogation of Zubaydah ended.”

16. April 5, 2017:
An article bylined by the New York Times’ graphic editors Karen Yourish
and Troy Griggs referred to Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, as Trump’s wife.

17. May 10, 2017:
Multiple outlets including Politico, the New York Times, the Washington
Post, CNN, AP, Reuters and the Wall Street Journal reported the same
leaked information: that Trump fired FBI Director James Comey shortly
after Comey requested additional resources to investigate Russian
interference in the election.

The New York Times’ Matthew Rosenberg and Matt Apuzzo, and CNN’s Sara Murray reported the information in sentences and paragraphs that omitted attribution, as if it were an established fact. The Washington Post’s
Philip Rucker, Ashley Parker, Sari Horwitz and Robert Costa wrote news
articles in the style of opinion pieces and from an omniscient viewpoint
as if they were somehow in the mind of Trump. For example, they
reported, “Every time FBI Director James B. Comey appeared in public, an ever-watchful President Trump grew increasingly agitated that the topic
was the one that he was most desperate to avoid: Russia.” (Other
reporters, Reuters, Dustin Volz and Susan Cornwell, did properly
attribute the claim.)

The Justice Department, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and
Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe said the media reports were untrue and
McCabe added that the FBI?s Russia investigation was “adequately resourced.”

18. May 27, 2017:
The BBC’s James Landale, The Guardian and others reported that Trump
wasn’t bothering to listen to the translation during a speech in Italian
by Italy’s Prime Minister. They drew that conclusion without asking the
White House and based on a video that showed other political leaders
wearing large headphones. The Guardian even claimed Trump was fake
listening (smiling and nodding). After the reports circulated, the White
House stated that, as always, Trump was indeed wearing an earpiece in
his right ear.

19. June 4, 2017:
NBC News reported in a Tweet that Russian President Vladimir Putin told
TV host Megyn Kelly that he had compromising information about Trump.
Actually, Putin said the opposite: that he did not have compromising information on Trump.

20. June 6, 2017:
CNN’s Gloria Borger, Eric Lichtblau, Jake Tapper and Brian Rokus; and
ABC’s Justin Fishel and Jonathan Karl reported that Comey was going to
refute Donald Trump’s claim that Comey told Trump three times he was not under investigation. Instead, Comey did the opposite and confirmed
Trump’s claim.

21. June 7, 2017:
In a fact-check story, AP reported erroneously that Trump misread the
potential cost to a family with insurance under the Affordable Care Act
who wanted care from their existing doctor.

22. June 8, 2017:
The New York Times’ Jonathan Weisman reported that Comey testified Trump Attorney General Jeff Sessions told Comey not to call the Russia probe
“an investigation” but “a matter.” Weisman was mistaken about the attorney general and the probe. Actually, it was Obama Attorney General
Loretta Lynch (not Sessions) who told Comey to refer to the Hillary
Clinton classified email probe (not the Russia probe) as “a matter”
instead of “an investigation.”

23. June 22, 2017:
CNN’s Thomas Frank reported that Congress was investigating a
“Russian investment fund with ties to Trump officials.” The report was later retracted. Frank and two other CNN employees resigned in the fallout.

24. December 2, 2017:
ABC News’ Brian Ross reported that former Trump official Lt. Gen.
Michael Flynn was going to testify that candidate Trump had directed him
to contact “the Russians.” Even though such contact would not be in of itself a violation of law, the news was treated as an explosive
indictment of Trump in the Russia collusion narrative, and the stock
market fell on the news. ABC later corrected the report to reflect that
Trump had already been elected when he reportedly asked Flynn to contact
the Russians about working together to fight ISIS and other issues. Ross
was suspended.

25. July 6, 2017:
Newsweek’s Chris Riotta and others reported that Poland’s First Lady had refused to shake Trump’s hand. Newsweek’s later “update” reflected that the First Lady had shaken Trump’s hand after all, as clearly seen on the
full video.

26. July 6, 2017:
The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman, CNN and numerous outlets had long reported, as if fact, the Hillary Clinton claim that a total of 17
American intelligence agencies concluded that Russia orchestrated
election year attacks to help get Trump elected. Only three or four
agencies, not 17, had officially done so.

27. Aug. 31, 2017:
NBC News’ Ken Dilanian and Carol Lee reported that a Trump official’s
notes about a meeting with a Russian lawyer included the word
“donation,” as if there were discussions about suspicious campaign contributions. NBC later corrected the report to reflect that the word “donation” didn’t appear, but still claimed the word “donor” did. Later,
Politico reported that the word “donor” wasn’t in the notes, either.

28. Sept. 5, 2017:
CNN’s Chris Cillizza and other news outlets declared Trump “lied” when
he stated that Trump Tower had been wiretapped, although there’s no way
any reporter independently knew the truth of the matter, only that what
intel officials claimed. It later turned out there were numerous
wiretaps involving Trump Tower, including a meeting of Trump officials
with a foreign dignitary. At least two Trump associates who had offices
in or frequented Trump Tower were also reportedly wiretapped.

29. Sept. 7, 2017:
The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman reported Democrat leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi called President Trump about an immigration issue. Trump actually
made the call to Pelosi.

30. Nov. 6, 2017:
CNN’s Daniel Shane edited excerpts from a Trump event to make it seem as though Trump didn’t realize Japan builds cars in the U.S. However,
Trump’s entire statement made clear that he does.

31. Nov. 6, 2017:
CNN edited a video that made it appear as though Trump impatiently
dumped a box of fish food into the water while feeding fish at Japan’s palace. The New York Daily News, the Guardian and others wrote stories
implying Trump was gauche and impetuous. The full video showed that
Trump had simply followed the lead of Japan’s Prime Minister.

32. Nov. 29, 2017:
Newsweek’s Chris Riotta claimed Ivanka Trump “plagiarized” one of her
own speeches. In fact, plagiarizing one’s own work is impossible since plagiarism is when a writer steals someone else’s work and passes it off
as his own.

33. Dec. 4, 2017:
The New York Times’ Michael S. Schmidt and Sharon LaFraniere and other outlets reported that Trump Deputy National Security Adviser K.T.
McFarland supposedly contradicted herself or lied about another
official’s contacts with Russians. The story was heavily, repeatedly
amended. CNN, MSNBC, CBS News, New York Daily News and Daily Beast
picked up the story about McFarland’s “lies.”

34. Dec. 4, 2017:
ABC News’ Trish Turner and Jack Date reported that former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort had recently worked with a Russia
intelligence-connected “official.” But the Russian wasn’t an “official.”

35. Dec. 5, 2017:
Bloomberg’s Steven Arons and the Wall Street Journal’s Jenny Strasburg reported the blockbuster that Special Counsel Robert Mueller had
subpoenaed Trump’s bank records. It wasn’t true.

36. Dec. 8, 2017:
CNN’s Manu Raju and Jeremy Herb reported that Donald Trump Jr. conspired
with WikiLeaks in advance of the publication of damaging Democrat party
and Clinton campaign emails. Many other publications followed suit. They
had the date wrong: WikiLeaks and Trump Junior were in contact after the
emails were published.

37. Jan. 3, 2018:
Talking Point Memo’s Sam Thielman reported that a Russian social media company provided documents to the Senate about communications with a
Trump official. The story was later corrected to say the reporter
actually had no idea how the Senate received the documents and had no
evidence to suggest the Russian company was cooperating with the probe.

38. Jan. 12, 2018:
Mediaite’s Lawrence Bonk, CNN’s Sophie Tatum, the Guardian, BBC, US News and World Report, Reuters and Buzzfeed’s Adolfo Flores reported a “bombshell,” that President Trump had backed down from his famous demand for a wall along the entire Southern border. However, Trump said the
very same thing in February 2016 on MSNBC, on Dec. 2, 2015, in the
National Journal, in October 2015 during the CNBC Republican Primary
debate, and on Aug. 20, 2015, on FOX Business’ Mornings with Maria.

39. Jan. 15, 2018:
AP’s Laurie Kellman and Jonathan Drew reported that a new report showed
trust in the media had fallen during the Trump presidency. But the
report that AP cited was actually over a year old and was conducted
while Obama was president.

40. Feb. 2, 2018:
AP’s Eric Tucker, Mary Clare Jalonick and Chad Day reported that
ex-British spy Christopher Steele’s opposition research against Trump
was initially funded by a conservative publication: the Washington Free
Beacon. AP corrected its story because Steele only came on the project
after Democrats began funding it.

41. March 8, 2018:
The New York Times’ Jan Rosen reported on a hypothetical family whose
tax bill would rise nearly $4,000 under Trump’s tax plan. It turns out
the calculations were off: the couple’s taxes would go actually go down
$43; not up $4,000.

42. March 13, 2018:
The New York Times’ Adam Goldman, NBC’s Noreen O’Donnell and AP’s Deb Riechmann reported that Trump’s pick for CIA Director, Gina Haspel, had waterboarded a particular Islamic extremist terrorist dozens of time at
a secret prison; and that she had mocked his suffering. In fact, Haspel wasn’t assigned to the prison until after the detainee left. ProPublica originally reported the incorrect details in Feb. 2017.

43. March 15, 2018:
AP’s Michael Biesecker, Jake Pearson and Jeff Horwitz reported that a
Trump advisory board official had been a Miss America contestant and had
killed a black rhino. She actually was a Mrs. America contestant and had
shot a nonlethal tranquilizer dart at a white rhino.

Watch Sharyl Attkisson’s TEDx Talk: Is Fake News Real?

44. April 1, 2018:
AP’s Nicholas Riccardi reported that the Trump administration had ended
a program to admit foreign entrepreneurs. It wasn’t true.

45. April 30, 2018:
AP reported that the NRA had banned guns during Trump and Pence speeches
at the NRA’s annual meeting. AP later corrected the information because
the ban had been put in place by Secret Service.

46. May 3, 2018:
NBC’s Tom Winter reported that the government had wiretapped Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen. NBC later corrected the story after
three senior U.S. officials said there was no wiretap.

47. May 7, 2018:
CNBC’s Kevin Breuninger reported that Trump’s personal lawyer, Cohen,
paid $1 million in fines related to unauthorized cars in his taxi
business, had been barred from managing taxi medallions, had transferred
$60 million offshore to avoid paying debts, and is awaiting trial on
charges of failing to pay millions in taxes. A later correction stated
that none of that was true.

48. May 16, 2018:
The New York Times’ Julie Hirschfeld Davis, AP, CNN’s Oliver Darcy and others excerpted a Trump comment as if he had referred to immigrants or
illegal immigrants generally as “animals.” Most outlets corrected their reports later to note that Trump had specifically referred to members of
the murderous criminal gang MS-13.

49. May 28, 2018
The New York Times’ Magazine editor-in-chief Jake Silverstein and CNN’s Hadas Gold shared a story with photos of immigrant children in cages as
if they were new photos taken under the Trump administration. The
article and photos were actually from 2014 under the Obama administration.

50. May 29, 2018
The New York Times’ Julie Davis reported the estimated size of a Trump
rally to be 1,000 people. There were actually 5,500 people or more in attendance.

51. June 1, 2018
In a story about Trump tariffs, AP reported the dollar value of
Virginia’s farm and forestry exports to Canada and Mexico was $800. It’s $800 million.

52. June 21, 2018
Time magazine and others used a photo of a crying Honduran child to
illustrate a supposed Trump administration policy separating illegal
immigrant parents and children. The child’s father later reported that
agents had never separated her from her mother; the mother had taken her
to the US without his knowledge and separated herself from her other
children, whom she left behind.

53. June 22, 2018
MSNBC personality Joe Scarborough mistakenly stated that Trump had
“banned” the Red Cross from visiting children separated from illegal immigrant parents.

54. June 28, 2018
After a newsroom shooting, a newspaper reporter falsely tweeted that the shooter “dropped his [Trump Make America Great Again] hat on newsroom
floor before opening fire.”

55. July 10, 2018
NBC reporter Leigh Ann Caldwell reported that outgoing Supreme Court
Justice Kennedy only retired after months of negotiations with Trump
that concluded with Trump agreeing to replace Kennedy with Judge Kavanaugh.

Support Sharyl Attkisson’s fight against government overreach in
Attkisson v. DOJ and FBI for the government computer intrusions. For
more info visit: https://www.gofundme.com/sharyl-attkisson-4th-am-litigation

56. July 16, 2018
Washington Post reporter implied Trump doesn’t understand NATO
countries. In fact, Trump met with the Finnish President at the NATO
summit. Further, Finland is a NATO partner, just not a member.

57. Sept. 14, 2018
The New York Times issues a major correction (below) to an original “unfair” article about U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley.

58. Tues. Sept. 18, 2018
The New York Times falsely reported that a man, Mark Judge, testified he remembered an incident more than 30 year ago in which Supreme Court
nominee Brett Kavanaugh is accused of assault. Judge actually said the opposite: he does not remember such an incident, and that the
allegations are “absolutely nuts.” The Times corrected its article in an editors’ note.

59. Sept. 23, 2018
Multiple news outlets report that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosentein
has resigned or been fired. Neither turns out to be true. Axios and
others eventually “update” and “clarify” their erroneous reports.

60. Oct. 14, 2018
NBC News falsely reports that President Trump praised Confederate
General Robert E. Lee. Actually, Trump had praised the Union General
Ulysses S. Grant.

61. Nov. 14, 2018
CNN’s Jeff Zeleny reports that President Trump has decided to fire a
deputy national security adviser upon the First Lady’s demand. The Wall Street Journal reports the adviser has been “escorted out” of the White House. Later, it’s reported that neither case was true. “This did not happen. She is still here at the WH,” a senior official told the press.
The adviser was reassigned to another job.

62. Dec. 24, 2018
It’s discovered that nearly everything written by a Der Spiegel
reporter, who had been honored by CNN, about a supposedly racist Trump stronghold town was fabricated–like much of his other work.

Consider supporting the landmark Attkisson v. DOJ/FBI computer intrusion lawsuit: Attkisson 4th Amendment Litigation Fund

63. Dec. 26, 2018
NBC reports that Trump was the first President since 2002 not to visit
the troops at Christmastime. But he (and First Lady Melania) did. NBC
added a note to its story but left the false headline in place.

64. Jan. 1, 2019
CBS News claimed, in June of 2018, that Trump spokesman Sarah Huckabee
Sanders would retire by the end of the year. She didn’t. As of May 2019,
she was still on the job and there had been no correction or editor’s
note. The same CBS story also quoted sources as saying the departure of
White House assistant Raj Shah was also imminent. It wasn’t. Shah
continued to serve seven more months.

65. Jan. 9, 2019
The New York Times issues a correction to a report that falsely stated
former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort asked for campaign polling
to be given to a Russian oligarch, Oleg Deripaska, who has ties to
Russia President Putin. Instead, the Times now claims, Manafort actually
asked his associate Rick Gates to give polling data to Ukrainian
oligarchs –not Deripaska.

While working at Politico, one of the New York Times reporters, Ken
Vogel, got caught sending drafts of stories to democratic officials.
Another co-author, Maggie Haberman, was considered a “friendly” by
Clinton campaign officials who turned to her when she worked at Politico.

“We have had her tee up stories for us before and have never been disappointed. We can do the most shaping by going to Maggie,” wrote
Clinton officials in emails.

66. Jan. 11, 2019
Fox TV affiliate in Seattle, Washington airs fake, doctored video of
President Trump that altered his face and made it appear as though he
had stuck his tongue in and out while giving an Oval Office address.

67. Jan. 18, 2019
The Buzzfeed exclusive with anonymous sources implicating Trump in
potentially criminal behavior (that Democrats and pundits said would be
the nail in Trump’s impeachment coffin) is refuted in a rare rebuke from Special Counsel Mueller’s office. Buzzfeed stands by its reporting.

Visit The Sharyl Attkisson Store today
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68. Jan. 22, 2019
The New York Times and Washington Post are among the publications that
issue corrections after falsely reporting that an anti-Trump activist
had served in the Vietnam War.

Additionally, multiple news employees, including a CNN employee,
apologize for mischaracterizing, as the aggressors, Trump-supporting
teenagers at a pro-life rally.

69. Jan. 26, 2019
The UK Telegraph apologizes for all the facts it got wrong in a Jan. 19
article criticizing the First Lady.

70. Feb. 18, 2019
While some media outlets responsibly reported and properly attributed allegations in the racist attack alleged by actor Jussie Smollett,
others did not. Some unskeptically furthered the narrative that
Smollett, who is black, was attacked by Trump-supporting racists who put
a noose around Smollett’s neck, shouted racial slurs, told him it’s “MAGA” (Make America Great Again) country, and poured bleach on him.
While details are still emerging as of this date, Chicago police have
stated that Smollett is no longer considered a victim of the crimes he
alleged. The New York Times receives special mention here for adding a
biased non sequitur in its early reporting that treated skepticism of Smollett’s story as if it were unfounded, and fit in a dig at President Trump’s son.

But the lack of progress in the investigation has fueled speculation
about whether the report was exaggerated. The president?s son Donald
Trump Jr., who is known to disseminate conspiracy theories on his
Twitter feed, retweeted an article this week about Smollett declining to
turn over his cellphone to the police.
Sopan Deb, New York Times
Actor Jussie Smollett

71. Various dates: Other faked attacks reported by the news as if confirmed

A week before Trump was elected, Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church in Mississippi was torched and the words “Vote Trump” found painted on the outside. The mayor condemned the incident as a hate crime and stated it
was “an attack on the black church and the black community.” However, police later arrested a black church member for the arson. They say the
man staged the fire to look like an attack by Trump supporters. Even
today, some of the corrected news reports retain headlines seeming to
blame Trump.

The day after Trump was elected, an incident at Elon University in North Carolina made national news. Hispanic students found a “hateful note” written on a classroom whiteboard reading, “Bye Bye Latinos.” After the story made news, it was learned that the message was written by “a
Latino student who was upset about the results of the election.”

Also the day after Trump was elected, a gay man, reportedly a filmmaker
? claimed that homophobic Trump supporters smashed his face with a
bottle outside a bar in Santa Monica, Calif. A bloody photo was posted
on Twitter, and he was said to have been treated at a local hospital.
Police investigated the media reports. They said no complaint was ever
filed, there was no evidence of a crime, and a check of local hospitals
showed no victim in such an incident.

The week after Trump’s election, a Muslim student at the University of Louisiana, Lafayette, claimed Trump supporters pulled off her head
covering, and assaulted and robbed her. She later admitted
fabricatingthe story.

A month after Trump?s election, a Muslim-American woman claimed Trump supporters tried to steal her headwear and harassed her on the New York
City subway. She ultimately was arrested after confessing she made up
the whole story.

72. Feb. 26, 2019
It’s as good a day as any to point out that The Washington Post and
others reported last November that Trump was imminently about to fire
DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. The Post confirmed this with five
anonymous sources. The firing was said to be likely to happen the
following week.

Nielsen remained on the job for five more months before resigning.
Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen

73. Feb. 27, 2019
Testimony by former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen seemed to put the final
nail in the coffin of the “dossier” claim reported by many— that Cohen had visited Prague to meet with Russians to help collude on Trump’s
behalf. Cohen told Congress he’s never been to Prague or the Czech
Republic, for that matter. McClatchy even reported that Cohen’s cell
phone had pinged off Prague towers. Where did this apparently false
information come from? “Four people spoke with McClatchy on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of information shared by their foreign intelligence connections. Each obtained their information independently
from foreign intelligence connections,” reported McClatchy.
Former Trump attorney Michael Cohen

74. March 1, 2019
The Washington Post deleted a tweet containing false reporting about a
January 19 incident regarding a standoff between Trump-supporting
pro-life Catholic high school students and a pro-choice Native American activist. The Post wrongly stated, without attribution, that the
activist had fought in the Vietnam War. The activist also falsely stated
that a high school student had blocked him and “wouldn’t allow him to retreat.” These events were later called into question, and the
Washington Post is being sued in a multi-million dollar libel suit over
its allegedly false reporting and misrepresentations. The Post also
posted an “editor’s note” on this date stating that “a more complete

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