I mostly avoid politics, both in real life and here on the blog. But sometimes, the propaganda messaging is so over the top that it needs to be noted for posterity[1].

NBC News put out – and still has this online, even after later saying they have retracted the claim – that “President Trump Praises Robert E. Lee During Campaign-Style Rally” when this is the opposite of what he said:

NBC News deliberately censored the original video clip to portray a spin made solely by NBC.

NBC News retracts the claim on Twitter:

But NBC fails to retract the online web site headline or the original video clip, which remained online at the time I watched.

The false claim is embedded in the web URL itself: https://www.nbcnews.com/video/president-trump-praises-robert-e-lee-during-campaign-style-rally-1343513156001?v=railb&

The way to respond to accusations of fictional news reporting is to double down on accuracy, objectivity and remaining calm. Unfortunately, the news industry continues to harm itself through self destructive behavior typical of middle school drama. This behavior is bewildering.

Mistakes such as the above are common, near every day occurrences. (This blog has covered just a few of NBC News’ bloopers). It’s as if the news manufacturers either do not hire qualified reporting staff or they are deliberately spinning news stories for propaganda purposes. I suspect both are true.

Unfortunately, the media has earned itself a reputation as the creator of fictional stories rather than actual news reporting.

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[1] I voted for Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson. I did not support Trump. During the primary election season, I observed that his vaunted management skills seemed poor as he changed campaign managers and staff every few weeks. Constant staff turnover is not a sign of a great manager and there seemed to be a disconnect between his perceived business acumen and his actual management skills. I have to post this notice here or people will pile on that I am obviously a Trump supporter – as this is the nature of the highly propagandized world we live in, where discussion about anything is quickly and erroneously twisted and targeted as a sign of something else as people jump to unsupported conclusions.