I just posted on the recent PPP poll showing Donald Trump with a 9 point lead among Republican primary voters over Mike Huckabee but I had a side note (more a pet peeve) that I didn't want clouded by another topic.So, two in a row about Trump, so be it.
I keep seeing news articles claiming that Donald Trump "continues to push "birther" claims in interviews and public appearances."
This calculated attempt to mislead readers into believing that Trump is pushing the issue and not the media pushing it by asking Trump about it continuously, is starting to stick in my craw, so to speak.
Might seem like a technicality to most but that meme bugs me when from what I have seen after Trump's initial request that Barack Obama show his birth certificate, almost all subsequent mentions from Trump has been in response to someone else asking him about that initial statement or answers to questions asked of him following the initial statement.
So, in fact, it isn't Trump "pushing" the topic, it is the media pushing it and using Trump's initial question to do so.
Example: Joy Behar on The View, video below (Behar brings the topic up is at very beginning of the vid):
Joy Behar- "What about this, you recently said about President Obama and I am going to quote you 'He grew up and nobody knows who he is until later in his life, the whole thing is very strange'"
Then Trump responds, he didn't bring it up, Behar did.
From that date, until now, every time I have seen Trump address the issue it has been in response to a media personality asking him about it, not the other way around.
Yet news outlets continue to deliberately mislead their readers with examples like the one below from The Hill:
Trump has been steadily climbing in public polling and continues to push "birther" claims in interviews and public appearances. Trump has demanded that President Obama produce his birth certificate and says questions over his birthplace are legitimate.Ummmmmmmm, WRONG.
Even writers that admittedly enjoy bantering with Trump have bought in to the meme, saying things like Trump "Dwelling on the birth certificate is not the only way he has been playing to the Republican base," ignore the reality that Trump has two choices after his initial mention of it.
1)Respond honestly how he thinks when asked or 2) Beat around the bush like most politicians refusing to answer the question directly.
Which would you rather he do?
Why doesn't the media just admit the truth here? They keep asking Trump about the "birther" issue because the story generates readers, page views and ad revenues.
Period.
They need to show a little honesty and quit with the meme implying Donald Trump is the one that continues bringing the topic up.
.