Early in his speech last night, Donald Trump challenged the fact checkers:
It is finally time for a straightforward assessment of the state of our nation.
I will present the facts plainly and honestly.
We cannot afford to be so politically correct anymore.
So if you want to hear the corporate spin, the carefully crafted lies, and the media myths — the Democrats are holding their convention next week.
But here, at our convention, there will be no lies. We will honor the American people with the truth, and nothing else.
You all knew that this was a lie before the words had even finished crossing his lips. It was followed by numerous more lies, distortions, manipulations of data and cherry-picking of data that the fact checkers have been having a field day with today. There are far too many to reproduce here, so I am providing links below.
Here’s the thing: this speech was seen on television, and few, if any of the television networks fact check what was said immediately after what was just aired, and never in the depth that the print media does. (Instead, they will take a snap poll to gauge viewers’ emotional response to the speech, totally meaningless information, because polls allow them to talk about something other than fact checking). Most Americans get their news from television and few bother to read newspapers, even fewer read magazines.
This is why politicians like Trump can get away with lying. Television does a horrible job of informing its viewers. You have to take the initiative to educate yourself to become an informed citizen. Most Americans will not.
AP: AP FACT CHECK: Trump resurfaces debunked claims in speech.
Politifact.com: Fact-checking Donald Trump’s RNC speech.
FactCheck.org: FactChecking Trump’s Big Speech: In accepting his party’s nomination for president, Donald Trump said “here, at our convention, there will be no lies.” But we found plenty of instances where Trump twisted facts or made false claims.
New York Times: Fact-Checking the Truth That Donald Trump Promised: Many facts in Mr. Trump’s acceptance speech appear to be true, though he sometimes failed to offer the entire story or provide all of the context.
Washington Post: Fact-checking Donald Trump’s acceptance speech at the 2016 RNC: The dark portrait of America that Donald J. Trump sketched in his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention is a compendium of doomsday stats that fall apart upon close scrutiny. Numbers are taken out of context, data is manipulated, and sometimes the facts are wrong.
USA Today: Fact check: Trump’s big acceptance speech: In accepting his party’s nomination for president, Donald Trump said “here, at our convention, there will be no lies.” But we found plenty of instances where Trump twisted facts or made false claims.
Time: Fact-Checking Donald Trump’s Acceptance Speech: Trump did a careful job of making sure the facts in his speech were cited to published sources, and the campaign published an annotated draft. But many of the facts, taken alone, failed to fully describe the nation’s condition.
POLITICO: Trump’s RNC address: Fact or fiction? The GOP nominee rolled out a series of frightening statistics about the state of the nation. They ranged from accurate to incomplete to outright false.
Bloomberg News: Trump Cherry-Picks Data, Stretches Truth in Speech: Fact Check.
CNN: GOP convention speeches Day 4: CNN vets the claims.
Vox.com: Fact check: Donald Trump’s speech at the Republican National Convention.
UPDATE: Stephen Colbert of The Late Show on The Word: Trumpiness. Basically, the definition of Trumpiness is: “If he doesn’t ever have to mean what he says, that means he can say anything.”
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Steve: it is unbecoming of a gentleman to begin name-calling when we are attempting to have an adult conversation about the a truly critical, and enormously complex election. When the topic is fact-checking, truth-telling and the necessary components of our national conversation, it less helpful when you draw conclusions that shut that conversation down, isn’t it?
May I suggest, in the interest of positive and responsible contributions to the conversation, that you apologize to the author, and that you provide a useful, well-reasoned analysis of Trump’s statements, declarations and the likely outcomes of his messaging. This race is important, to our world, our nation, our state, and to our children and grandchildren. It requires our best effort, our deepest analysis and participants that that will do the heavy intellectual lifting to get a good outcome. Perhaps you would like to be one of those responsible people that help us come to some positive conclusions.
If you are not a responsible, considerate, thoughtful contributor, with good intentions, may I suggest that you leave this conversation to people that truly give a damn.
Well…I will consider myself told!
The truth is that no amount of gentlemanly disuccsion is going to change the harsh reality that we have two VERY bad candidates for President this year. We can discuss them politely until we are blue in the face and it won’t change the basic facts. Hillary is corrupt, lies to us, is in the thrall of her corporate contributors, and will – in the grand old tradition of politics – use her power as President to pay off her cronies and supporters. Trump lies to us, has an ego the size of Texas, is ill suited for the Office of the Presidency, and will likely be a crashing failure if he is elected. The only real difference between them is that Trump actually believes he can do it, while Hillary is jaded enough to know she can’t but says she will.
I do owe the blog an apology for the use of bad language. You were correct to call me out for that, Paul. That is out of character for me and is a reflection of my frustration.
Oh! Paul, I forgot to address the idea of apologizing to AZBM for responding to his posting with bad language. AZ BM does not deserve an apology. He has one of the foulest mouths on this Blog and he is especially harsh on trolls like me. He IS a partisam hack and he is very proud of it.
I can hardly wait to see the same “honest” assessments made of Hillary’s pronouncements from the DNC. But that will require two things: (1) an unbiased honest media (not to be expected); and, (2) you not being a partisan hack for the left (something that is not going to happen for certain). But who knows, pigs may yet sprout wings and fly…
Actually, Steve, I do intend to post the fact check pieces next week, but as you indicate, you have already dismissed them as biased media, so what the hell do you care? I am always amused when someone does not realize that this is a progressive/liberal blog, it is fairly disclosed. Of course I take a partisan view, that’s what they don’t pay me the big bucks to do. I always provide a link to the sources I am citing, unlike the trolls who post here.