Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 09:12 pm
CBS News committed an act of journalistic malpractice by reporting on Trump’s birtherism without stating that the birther conspiracy is a lie.
CBS News reported on Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway’s appearance on the network’s Sunday morning program, Face The Nation, “Two days after GOP nominee Donald Trump finally conceded that President Obama was born in the United States, Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway blamed the entire “birther†theory on Hillary Clinton’s 2008 campaign.”
CBS thinks birtherism is a theory, which is a misuse of the word. If one looks up the definition of a theory, they will see that birtherism is not a theory. It is a conspiracy theory. CBS News chose to leave the conspiracy out of their description.
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In an apparent attempt to cater to Trump and Republicans, the story followed up the abuse of the word theory with, “Asked why Trump had spent five years peddling a “lie,†Conway said that only Trump can answer the question as to why he kept perusing the issue.
According to CBS News the idea that birtherism is a lie deserved to be in quotes.
Stories like the one that CBS News published, which is so full of both sides do it bending over backward to seem neutral, help Donald Trump.
Birtherism is no theory. The reality is that anyone who claims that President Obama was not born in the United States, or that Hillary Clinton started the birther conspiracy is lying.
The facts are that President Obama was born in the United States and that Donald Trump has spent years fanning the flames of birtherism.
It isn’t difficult to write that Conway was lying, and notion that CBS News refused to address such a basic matter of fact in its reporting should make Walter Cronkite spin his grave.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
