Plausible indeed. But as far as fake news goes there's not much of an impact there (aside from some erosion of credibility).

It's far more troublesome when as a result of fake news millions of people get to die...

 ScottFromWyoming wrote:
The press' behavior predates the Trump presidency. This isn't about Trump lying; the press has (on average) done a much better job fact checking stories they don't like (anythng Trump or his administration says, for instance). it's about the press failing to fact check stories critical of Trump. They want to believe it so it must be true!

This is basic journalism: check the story. The Hollywood Reporter (not exactly Fleet Street) broke the story but a number of allegedly reputable outlets repeated it. To their credit (sort of) the Hollywood Reporter also lead with a retraction when the story proved false, but a better outcome would have been to check the story before publishing.

I haven't checked all the places this story wound up to see if they all retracted their own stories, but I'm less concerned about this becoming part of Trump's folklore than I am about the erosion of credibility of the fourth estate. As Trump scandals go this one is pretty tame so it didn't wind up on a 24 hour CNN scroll, but I bet the story of the story will be headline news on Breitbart.

 Lazy8 wrote: 
Such a weird story. Who's Chicken Little in this scenario? Trump lies often. Sometimes he has information that we don't () and tweets that out. It's unsubstantiated, so we think it's another lie. Until the information makes it to the surface and we go, "oh." Sometimes he just makes a wild ass guess, or says something in case it happens to play out. Sometimes I think there's a double-agent Israeli Jew tipping over headstones but he's on the payroll of the anti-semites...

So a reporter jumps in the middle of this and says, "um, I think that one was a lie? Not really sure, but probably?" 
 
It's not just a simple case of poor reporting. It's military-grade PR chaff thrown out to the press. 

Yeah, you fell for it. Again.

And every time the press falls for this it burns up more credibility. First rule of getting people to believe you: don't lie to them.

R_P wrote:

KittenFeed Hoax Shows the Perils of Expecting Trump to Act Like Trump

A story about a teenager who was bullied by the president for creating a website that mocked him was not true, but it was sadly plausible.

It's beginning to smell a lot like treason.

                                       The Golden Shower Ratio

 islander wrote: 
Right?  Most of this administration seems to have the same policy in progress of facts on the fly.  Trump makes predictions and assumes they will come to fruition.  What I believe more and more is that they are behind closed doors telling GOP senators to vote for this disaster or ELSE!  That seems more consistent with how Trump runs his companies and operations.  Thereby Trump's predictions will eventually come true.  Are they waterboarding back there?  I wouldn't put it past them.  Who knows how infiltrated these KGB spies are and how far they are willing to go?  I know I know......I sound paranoid. 

 islander wrote: 


We need Dana Perino back, if I am going to listen to bullshit which is basically the job description of the Press Secretary then at least give me something nice to look at.

 Steely_D wrote: 
Shocked, I am ...

From Wikileaks ...

 UMBRAGE

The CIA's hand crafted hacking techniques pose a problem for the agency. Each technique it has created forms a "fingerprint" that can be used by forensic investigators to attribute multiple different attacks to the same entity.

This is analogous to finding the same distinctive knife wound on multiple separate murder victims. The unique wounding style creates suspicion that a single murderer is responsible. As soon one murder in the set is solved then the other murders also find likely attribution.

The CIA's Remote Devices Branch's UMBRAGE group collects and maintains a substantial library of attack techniques 'stolen' from malware produced in other states including the Russian Federation.

With UMBRAGE and related projects the CIA cannot only increase its total number of attack types but also misdirect attribution by leaving behind the "fingerprints" of the groups that the attack techniques were stolen from.

UMBRAGE components cover keyloggers, password collection, webcam capture, data destruction, persistence, privilege escalation, stealth, anti-virus (PSP) avoidance and survey techniques.

Does Spicer read his briefings before he gets to the podium?  His robotic delivery and rote reading of the sheet in front if him is strange.  

 Steely_D wrote: 

Oh FFS. But I suppose I should've expected this.
Fake news blah blah woof woof.

Kredo: DOJ Found Malware in Trump Tower Servers ‘Mimicking’ Contacts to Russian Entities

 Steely_D wrote:
This is a pretty straightforward proof:

Chevy chase has said "I'm Chevy Chase and you're not".



Chevy Chase has played a bumbling president on TV



Donald Trump is playing a bumbling President on TV



Therefore, trump might as well have said "I'm Chevy Chase, and you're not".

BTW, They are birds of a feather - I wouldn't want to have anything to do with either in most circumstances.

Please please please let him get a response of "I'm Chevy Chase, and you're not."

Trump defends wild claims: 'I'm president, and you're not'

"I'm a very instinctual person, but my instinct turns out to be right. Hey, look, in the meantime, I guess I can't be doing so badly, because I'm president, and you're not," he told Time's Washington bureau chief, Michael Scherer.

Read President Trump's Interview With TIME on Truth and Falsehoods

terrifying 

‘Trump Troubadour’ went to 45 Trump rallies in honor of his late son. Now he feels ‘betrayed.’

 Red_Dragon wrote: 
'Watching Trump in the White House left Breslin “a bit sour with what’s going on in our country.”

“Mainly because (Trump was) the kind of guy that in my neighborhood in Brooklyn and (Breslin’s) in Queens we despised,” Hamill said.

“The bulls—t tough guy. The guy is all mouth and couldn’t fight his way out of an empty lot.” '

Such a shame so many people got suckered. 

 pigtail wrote:

The health care "plan" really gets me. Granted, it's Paul Ryan's plan but Trump is peddling it as his own because he never had one in the first place. It's yet another giveaway to the rich. 

Fewer Americans Would Be Insured With G.O.P. Plan Than With Simple Repeal

How the Rich Gain and the Poor Lose Under the Republican Health Care Plan

 

AP Exclusive: Before Trump job, Manafort worked to aid Putin

Here’s what Jimmy Breslin had to say about Donald Trump decades ago