Wall Street Journal Editor Says His Newspaper Won’t Call Donald Trump’s Lies ‘Lies’

[Benton]

(01-02-2017, 09:02 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: I am biased to print, as well.  For pretty much the same reasons that you stated. 

With that in mind, what would make it alright for print media to put the word "lies" in a headline of a news story?  It's not like it was the results of a court finding, just showing bias against a particular person.  Is that acceptable, in your eyes?  (I know that it isn't, from reading enough of your postings)  I'm just saying, even the print needs to keep the editorial to the oped section.

One that comes to mind is JFK who said publicly in March 1961 that the US was not planning "military intervention" in Cuba.... which was followed a couple weeks later by a CIA-led invasion of Cuba. He had known since January of the planned attack.

On the other hand, I wouldn't say Clinton's "I didn't have sexual relations with that woman" would be acceptable given that — according to Clinton — his interpretation of the definition presented was that since he was the receiver and not the doer, he wasn't having sex. Was he dishonest? Oh heck yeah. But he was technically not lying.

And I don't think a lot of what Trump says are lies. I think he's woefully ignorant, but not willfully. Like the Carrier jobs. I think he thought tax incentives would save jobs... he just didn't realize Carrier just planned on using the money to automate and get rid of the jobs "saved." And that's what a lot of lawmakers don't realize. You can toss tax incentives at a company, it doesn't mean they're going to spend it on people. Often, they spend it on ways to get rid of people.