Deny, Deny, Deny

A true phenomenon is being played out by the Trump White House and Fox News on a National scale...before our very eyes. It is the creation of deniability or even an "alternate" reality by simply and repeatedly claiming that what we experience (directly or indirectly) is not true.

It's made me think back on a skit injected into the 1967 comedy film  A Guide for the Married Man. In it Robert Morse is giving Walter Matthau advice on how to have an affair, and for this piece (played by Joey Bishop and Ann Guilbert) he's advising him to "Deny, Deny, Deny":  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGu8qiBUf-4 . Watch this You Tube now then return to this post.

This method of shaping reality, as bizarre as it appears, has been part of the Trump playbook throughout his business life and where he has been recorded early on advocating the use of repetition. However, as a Presidential Candidate and now as President he has leap frogged this tool to virtually manipulate millions of people.

It is now done through a triangle of influence. Trump will personally (by camera, by Tweet, or White House communique) deliver an untruth.  Whether this is an out and out lie or his narcissistic interpretation is unknown, but that question is ultimately irrelevant. It is then picked up by Fox News, which treats it as de facto truth simply because it was said by the President.

They will surround the statement with some "what about(s)" and patriotic sound bites and feed it to their (and Trump's) "base". It is then picked up by Republican Politicians and Conservative Pundits, who will use Fox News and each other as verification. Fox News will then repeat it as confirmation by broadcasting the Republican's comments.

This week the Trump White House published both the official transcript of the Helsinki news conference by Trump and Vladimir Putin. These are done routinely by all Presidential Administrations for the National archives. I watched live, and saw several times after, the Reuter reporter's question to Putin as to whether he (Putin) had supported Trump's candidacy and directed Russian officials to help Trump. To both Putin answered "Yes, I did".

Yet somehow the part about Trump in the question disappeared from the official transcript. And incase someone was charitable in assuming it was a rather large typo, the mention of Trump was also deleted from the video. The brashness of this action in the face of millions of people seeing the truth (and in the face of being called out on it by several media sources) is a stark example of Trump playing the part of Joey Bishop.

Somewhere along the way Fox viewers need to be put on notice. The rest of American journalism needs to call out on what is happening. They need to do it by publishing (in both written and video) what is occurring at Fox News. Stop fact checking Trump. The people who watch the endless parade of untruths that pass his lips are already aware.

Start fact checking Fox News...all the time. It's time to empower your readers and viewers to understand the reality of why their Conservative friends believe as they do, and, frankly, to share that concern with them.