Trump continues to get away with lying because he is playing a game he understands much better than the mainstream media. He is even better than Right Wing who are the epitome of misinformation. These are the ten steps Trump perfected to make his lies into half truths.
Robert Reich describes how Trump turns lies into half-truths
Lies got Donald Trump elected. In other words, he proved that lying is his best asset and unless checked, there is no reason to change. To effectively neuter Trump’s ability to deceive, one must deconstruct his lies. Robert Reich did just that. He writes,
But Donald Trump is the most lying president we’ve ever had, and he seems to get away with it. Here’s his 10-step plan for turning lies into near truths:
Step 1: He lies.
Step 2: Experts contradict him, saying his claim is baseless and false. The media report that the claim is false.
Step 3: Trump blasts the experts and condemns the media for being “dishonest.”
Step 4: Trump repeats the lie in tweets and speeches. And asserts that “many people” say he’s right.
Step 5: The mainstream media start to describe the lie as a “disputed fact.“
Step 6: Trump repeats the lie in tweets, interviews, and speeches. His surrogates repeat it on TV and in the right-wing blogosphere.
Step 7: The mainstream media begin to describe Trump’s lie as a “controversy.”
Step 8: Polls show a growing number of Americans (including most Republicans) believing Trump’s lie to be true.
Step 9: The media start describing Trump’s lie as “a claim that reflects a partisan divide in America,” and is “found to be true by many.”
Step 10: The public is confused and disoriented about what the facts are. Trump wins.
Bloggers, writers, and columnist in the Independent media must get in at step 4 to prevent the mainstream media from losing its spine. We cannot allow them to frame a lie as a disputed fact. And we must explicitly force Trump to identify the sources of his lies. As we expose the cancerous web of deceit, exposure to the light will become the most effective form of chemotherapy. No more hidden cancers.
