The Trump administration's communications team has had a problematic start to the year, particularly in its relationship with the national media and White House correspondents.
Just days after President Trump took office, Kellyanne Conway told Chuck Todd on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that her colleagues were relying on “alternative facts,”
when describing the size of inauguration crowds.
The Trump administration's game plan is to undermine and discredit the news media. For many, the tactic remains deeply cynical and
dishonest — and we're only three weeks into what has become an official media paradigm.
Over the weekend, the White House again tried to confuse fact and fiction by
mechanically repeating the word “fact” — without offering a shred of evidence to support its repeated voter fraud claims.
Stephen Miller, Trump’s senior
policy adviser, appeared on four of the five major Sunday morning political shows to insist voter fraud had been a serious issue on November 8. (Note: Top White House adviser and National Security
Council member Steve Bannon was registered to vote in two states until recently.)
His claim that thousands of voters were bused to New Hampshire was questioned by various TV anchors. Miller
remained undeterred — even when pressed for evidence, which he refused to give. Or, more likely, doesn’t have.
President Trump’s obsession with the vote counts,
months after the tally, points to other deep-seated psychological issues, concerns raised repeatedly by various politicians.
What the White House is doing to the electorate is known
as "gaslighting," a manipulation tactic used to create doubt, until those rightly skeptical of unproven White House claims begin to question their own perceptions.
James Poniewozik,
The New York Times TV critic, weighed in on the issue with a tweet: “Maybe it’s time for producers to think about how to do a Sunday show without administration guests.”
Inc.com’s Jeff Bercovici suggested if administration guests repeatedly lie on national television, they eventually get shut out — “to separate the merely careless from
those intentionally muddying the water.”
Miller was intentionally muddying the waters. In addition to a lack of evidence for the White House claims, Miller appeared to be
reading from a teleprompter when answering questions on a live TV show.
Clearly, the White House is having trouble staying on message, as well as avoiding dubious claims that are
easily disproved. The administration's strategy, to double down on falsehoods and define its own alternative reality, is Orwellian.
Trump can chase ghosts in the night; the press will be busy
chasing the truth.