How to Deal with Trump’s Lies

“I won, by the way, but you know, we’ll find that out. Almost 74 million votes,” President Donald Trump falsely claimed on Nov. 20, almost two weeks after losing the presidential election.

That night, NBC, ABC and CBS all broadcast the president lying on their evening news shows.

Broadcasting the president’s lies about the election is a grave disservice to the American people and one that the three networks have committed all too often in 2020. This year has been filled with the president’s false statements about the COVID-19 pandemic and the presidential election.

In response to Trump’s barrage of lies, the three networks have fact-checked many of his statements. “But at what point is a fact check not enough? At what point does the president lose the bully pulpit and his ability to spew untruthful statements to millions of viewers each night?

As Jonathan Rauch, a senior fellow at Brookings, said on CNN’s Reliable Sources on Nov. 29: “The media needs to deal with disinformation without repeating it — without saying ‘Trump says ‘x’ but reality is ‘y.’’Just say what reality is.”

On Nov. 18, Trump tweeted, “…AND I WON THE ELECTION. VOTER FRAUD ALL OVER THE COUNTRY!” That was in addition to a string of tweets about alleged voter fraud in Wayne County, Michigan.

ABC’s Jonathan Karl fact-checked him candidly. He flat out claimed, “That’s not true,” and called Trump’s claims “baseless.”

However, one must wonder why Karl, and other White House correspondents, are so insistent on displaying Trump’s baseless tweets on the screen. The contents of Trump’s grievance-filled tweets have not changed much in the last four weeks. And yet, the networks broadcast them several times a week.

It’s important to verify these tweets and make clear that Trump was not reelected. It’s wiser to not broadcast his lies in the first place. The president’s false claims about the election, which are destructive to democracy, will always stick with viewers more than a reporter’s fact check. For this reason, Trump’s lies shouldn’t be broadcast on the evening news, even with a fact check.

Correspondents are always quick to call Trump’s claims, “simply not true,” or “lies.” But, how many people are going to pay more attention to what a reporter says than what Trump tweets when there’s a tweet on the screen and only a voiceover from a reporter?

At its core, journalism is a public service. The evening news is a storied institution in the U.S. where legendary reporters and anchors have delivered truthful, accurate news to millions of Americans each night for decades. This year, reporters have done a phenomenal job covering the pandemic and the 2020 election against immeasurable obstacles. But their reporting would be even better if, in the name of public service, they stopped broadcasting soundbites of Trump’s flagrant lies.