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We asked experts how the media should handle dishonest White House claims

We asked experts how the media should handle dishonest White House claims
We asked experts how the media should handle dishonest White House claims We asked experts how the media should handle dishonest White House claims

White House press secretary Sean Spicer’s blistering first press conference stunned the media world.

He lectured reporters, accused them of framing photographs to undermine Donald Trump and falsely claimed: “This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period …”

In fact, crowd scientists said Trump had just one-third the attendance of Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration and comparable images from both events showed stark differences.In a later conference, Spicer said to reporters: “I think sometimes you can disagree with the facts… Our intention is never to lie to you.”We asked media experts how the press should report on obviously false claims coming from the most powerful administration in the world.Charlie Beckett, a journalist and professor at the London School of Economics, said Spicer “overstepped the mark from spin to distortion”.

Sean Spicer (Evan Vucci/AP)

He said: “They’re shifting the unwritten rules of engagement, self-evidently making statements that are false.“This needs to be pointed out in headlines because that’s the way stuff is read and shared now.”

Screengrab (New York Times)

In recent days the New York Times has called out Trump on “falsehoods” and “lies” in headlines of reports rather than presenting news in the ‘he said, she said’ balanced style.Journalism professor Jane Singer, from City University, said this “has to be the way to go” for press covering the White House.Meanwhile the BBC used a much more ‘neutral’ tone for its reporting of the same event.

Screengrab (BBC News)

Singer said: “You can have different perspectives but they have to be credible.“It’s completely misleading to give both sides equal weight on what is a demonstrable falsehood. It’s not just enough to find the counter view, you really have to help people identify what’s real and what’s not.”Both professors said journalists needed to be careful about appearing partisan and not be drawn into “part of the theatre”.Beckett said a CNN reporter rebuffed by Trump as “fake news” understandably “kind of lost it”. But by heckling the president the correspondent came across as “quite aggressive”.They both agreed the Trump government would be quick to grasp any mistake a newspaper made and use it as proof of dishonesty.

In recent days TIME reporter Zeke Miller mistakenly reported a bust of Martin Luther King had been removed from the Oval Office.He quickly apologised and corrected the error, but was attacked by Trump who said: “This is how the dishonest media is.”Singer said: “It’s going to be tricky. The media will screw up sometimes and that’s going to get blown out of proportion.“Journalists are walking a fine line. You have to counter disinformation quickly but you have to be right when you do it.”

(Evan Vucci/AP)

Beckett added: “It’s quite a challenge to someone like the BBC. They’re always careful not to adopt a partisan note covering foreign affairs but perhaps that’s being challenged here.“In trying to intimidate the press Trump has in a way stirred up a hornets’ nest.“American media are much more likely to cross lines than they used to be.”