Lesley’s Perspective: Trump this!

2017 was the year of fake news.

The term was named the word of the year and added to the Collins Dictionary, defined as “false, often sensational, information disseminated under the guise of news reporting”.

I must agree it was a good choice. Facebook was and still is full of it. Every second day I get a sensational headline urging me take the click bait.

Then there’s Donald Trump right in the middle of it. Some say he won because of it. And he’s very quick to accuse others of it. But it’s not just him. The world’s despots are fast learners. A report by Politico counted leaders or state media in at least 15 countries who have used Trump’s favorite insult to discredit free speech. “Hey Mr, you lied, cheated and stole”. “Oh no, that’s fake news.” How convenient.

Trump of course claims he invented the phrase (is there no limit to the man’s ego?), but trusty Collins Dictionary says no, it’s been around since the nineties. History tells us though that Trump’s version of fake news has been around a lot longer. The term Lügenpresse (lying press) was most famously but not exclusively used by one Adolf Hitler.

Late last year a Trump campaign email promised the president would crown the “2017 KING OF FAKE NEWS before the end of the year,” which didn’t happen. Probably because when he tallied the votes he realised he’d won… oops… But like a Staffie with a bone, he has not given up on the idea.

Recently Trump tweeted for his followers to “stay tuned” for him to announce the “MOST DISHONEST & CORRUPT MEDIA AWARDS OF THE YEAR” on Monday past. I was quite disappointed to see that he has pushed out the deadline to January 17.

At least that gives comedian Stephen Colbert more time to campaign for his award. Colbert paid for an ironic billboard (a billboard!) as part of his bid for victory in categories he made up including “Fakest Dishonesty.” You can tell that Colbert would wear such an award the same way war veterans wear their battle wounds, with pride.

Journalists at The Washington Post (my money’s on one of these guys getting an award, right after author Michael Wolff) found that as of Jan 1, President Trump had made 1,950 false or misleading claims since taking office – that’s an average of 5.6 false or misleading statements per day.

I often wonder how our own President would fare under such stringent fact checking? It’s a pity Zuma doesn’t have Trump’s flare for Twitter (he last tweeted in 2013). I can imagine him tweeting us from the lilo on his fire pool…

Anyway, I digress, Trump is clearly carrying out his own personal war against the media because they keep annoyingly pointing out his creative use of the truth.

Traditional newspapers take great pride in their role as the watchdog for the communities they serve. Trying to the best of our ability to bring into the light what others would prefer stayed hidden. This makes us unpopular with those who have a very casual relationship with Veritas.

But let us return to the word of the year. 2018 is a clean slate. The book is yet to be written. I propose that each of us decide for ourselves what the word of 2018 is going to be, at least in our own lives. Let the politicians fight over who’s the fakest while we set our own path.

As George Harrison famously penned in his song ‘Any Road’: “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there”. If words like truth, freedom of speech, courage, kindness, and justice are going to have any place in our lives then we need to decide beforehand to pursue them.

Our conviction must be strong from the outset for when the Trumps of this world try to bully us, and they will, we must be ready.

At the Courier, I can assure you, we are.

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