Pants on fire! The media gets more comfortable with the L-word
The New York Times dropped an L-bomb yesterday in an article describing President Trump’s outrageous claims that millions of unauthorized immigrants voted for Hillary Clinton. “Trump Repeats Lie About Popular Vote in Meeting With Lawmakers,” went the headline.
This was a big topic of debate a few weeks ago after Gerard Baker, editor-in-chief of the Wall Street Journal, said in an interview that he would be careful about using the word “lie” to describe Trump’s statements because it gets into the issue of intent. Baker’s comments were roundly criticized in media circles, and now it appears that his paper’s chief rival is drawing a line in the sand.
"Unsupported," eh?
Timidity in the face of Trump is becoming a @WSJ pattern, and it has to alarm the many great journalists there. https://t.co/tt9CR585Vh
— David Leonhardt (@DLeonhardt) January 24, 2017