Misinformation about Donald Trump abounds. This article, found on Politifact.com, is a good example. Written by a millennial reporter, Michaela Winberg, on June 5th, 2018, its headline screamed, “President Trump said Eagles players kneeled for the anthem. They didn’t.”
Winberg wrote:
The President released a statement Monday night informing the public that he had uninvited the Birds from the traditional post-Super Bowl victory visit. Why? In part because “only a small number of players decided to come,” and in part because Trump said that players had been kneeling or standing in the locker room during the national anthem, which he said was “disrespectful.” Many people on the internet made the reasonable assumption that Trump was talking about Eagles players.
Winberg is referring to Trump’s tweet (backup here), which says:
The Philadelphia Eagles Football Team was invited to the White House. Unfortunately, only a small number of players decided to come, and we canceled the event. Staying in the Locker Room for the playing of our National Anthem is as disrespectful to our country as kneeling. Sorry!
Michaela Winberg was mischievously editing and misquoting. To show this, see Trump’s words next to her quote:
Trump said:
Staying in the Locker Room for the playing of our National Anthem is as disrespectful to our country as kneeling. Sorry!
Winberg cited Trump saying:
…players had been kneeling or standing in the locker room during the national anthem, which was “disrespectful.”
Trump said staying in the locker room was as disrespectful as kneeling. He didn’t say they were kneeling. It was more mischievous misinformation by Politifact.com, or Politifake as I like to call them, and by the young millennial, Michaela Winberg.
So who is this knucklehead, Winberg? According to Google, she’s a recent graduate of Temple University’s Klein College of Media and Communication. She was editor-in-chief of The Temple News, where she oversaw the daily online content. Little Michaela thinks she knows all about 72-year-old billionaire POTUS Donald Trump. I must ask, what would Fake News be without young millennials to set us all straight?
