As you probably already know, Sean Spicer kicked out several media organizations from a gaggle last week. CNN, New York Times, Politico, and others were barred from entering the proceeding. Since no cameras are present in a gaggle, this was essentially a moment in which Spicer could say whatever he wanted without being checked by people who may be more willing to call him out on his lies. With only supporters in the room, he gets to do whatever he wants. In other words, Sean Spicer is an idiot who thinks that democracy is bad and who calls anything he doesn’t like “fake news.” Moreover, it’s increasingly clear that Trump will surround himself with people who appear to be his clones. We can at least be happy that Trump can’t be in more than one place at a time.
Now, maybe Spicer should be doing this. Maybe he’s supposed to be defending the Office of the Presidency. Maybe he’s supposed to be destroying literally every institution upon which our country is founded in order to ensure that his boss’s goals are met. I mean, Spicer is just kicking out a few people that disagree with the administration. Those few people only have an audience of a few, or several, million, and since Trump thinks 20 million is a small number, clearly kicking out more than that is, at best, arguably small, if we’re still allowed to argue numbers. I mean, seriously, I’m not sure. Can we do? Or are amounts just whatever they say they are?
Okay, so, what actually happened? Well, CNN wrote a report that said the White House wanted to the FBI to hush up about an investigation about the relationships between the Trump campaign and, who else, Russia. Whether I think Russia is the biggest concern or not, it’s painfully obvious that Russia had the means, motive, and opportunity and also that they were definitely involved in the 2016 election. Anyway, the White House doesn’t want people to know about that, and their second best option is to make sure no additional news comes out about it. So, they pressured the FBI to shut up. The FBI refused, but CNN found out and, ya know, told the public about it because it’s public news and relevant to everyone. So that’s how CNN got kicked out. Other news agencies have also been criticized for telling the truth. I, myself, have often wondered why people lie, but I’m more nauseous about lying than I am about the accusation of lying. If someone says I lied, I know if I did or didn’t. If someone lies, I don’t know what to do. I mean, spend forever collecting evidence that they’ll dispute if it doesn’t make them look good anyway? Let them continue lying and hope the reach a level of morality that self-censors themselves just before they’re about to lie again? I’m not sure, but where we are right now is that several news outlets that definitely report news and, for ratings and on par with all other news outlets, have opinion pieces and blocks on TV that talk about their take on things. So, several of those outlets were kicked out. Not to put on a finer point on things, but they were kicked out for their opinions despite the White House saying they were kicked out for lying. Remember? It’s the accusation of lying that is netting a win for Sean Spicer. He doesn’t even have to lie, just say someone else is lying.
Just as an aside, Trump at CPAC said that he wants to require journalists to name sources. This will even further prevent news from being negative against the administration. They’ll go after the source, and then all potential sources will be afraid to speak up. Therefore, no news is good news, right? WRONG!
The reality of all of this is that the press is going to continue doing its job. It’s an institution that is necessary and, moreover, an institution that can’t be stopped just by the White House keeping it out of a gaggle or two. They’ll just report on that instead of the content of the gaggle. Moreover, they can certainly read news that was reported based on information dispersed in the gaggle. I mean, journalists can read, ya know. So, I think, in reality, this is more an indication of a mental illness among many in the administration than a sign that things are going to change. We’re well-equipped to keep going.
We’ve all met someone who lies all the time. It’s infuriating. In the center of my life is honesty and happiness. Therefore, whenever someone asks me a question, I answer honestly. Sometimes, it can be embarassing, ya know, like, if I’ve done something that I didn’t really want someone to know I’d done. However, I have to answer honestly. That’s just me. However, in doing so, I can preserve the reality that what you see in front of you is actually there, that there’s a difference between truth and lies and that while there could be an academic argument regarding a bell-curve for veracity that discusses how much something was a lie and how much truth was in a statement, I believe we can all do well to ignore that. You either tell the truth or you don’t. I won’t brand you a liar, but if you lie, I’ll make sure everyone knows.
So, here’s what you do. Whenever you know that Trump, Spicer, or anyone in the administration has lied, just tell everyone you can. Don’t present evidence to the liar. They won’t change. Let them continue being incredibly stupid. Your efforts to change them will not work, but they will certainly try to lie to you about that. They’ll often thank you for bringing that to their attention, but they will continue lying. It will not change. Just get other people to know the truth. Support fact-checking. Create lists of lies and their corresponding truths. The best thing you can do is ignore the person lying and build a list of what’s really true. If you just call them a liar, then no one will know the real truth. So just ignore them.
We all have the power to do this. Whether you’re telling a friend, a politician, a co-worker, or someone who can’t even vote, it doesn’t matter. Besides, they might be able to vote in their country, and that can definitely help elect someone who can pressure our President. So, just keep telling the truth. We can do this.