‘Alternative facts’ quip from Trump adviser sparks mockery
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway listened during the daily White House briefing, today, in the briefing room of the White House in Washington.
NEW YORK >> Down is up. The sky is red. Dogs are birthing kittens. Facts? Nope. Try “alternative facts.”
The internet went wild after a top Trump adviser, Kellyanne Conway, said the administration was supplying the media with “alternative facts.” The comment came after she was asked why Trump press secretary Sean Spicer mischaracterized the size of inauguration crowds.
Spicer made two unprovable statements in his briefing with reporters: that photographs of the audience at Donald Trump’s inaugural were intentionally framed to minimize the appearance of support, and that Trump drew the largest audience ever to witness an inauguration. He also made statements that were quickly disproven, including an assertion that the Washington Metro system recorded more riders on the day of Trump’s inaugural than when Obama was sworn in for his second term.
“Alternativefacts” quickly became a popular hashtag on Twitter, where users supplied their own such facts, including “cigarettes are good for you” and “it’s not Monday. It is still the weekend.”
The hashtag “spicerfacts” followed. Widely shared #spicerfacts included “Yoko Ono broke up the Monkees. Period.” and “The KKK is a peaceful community outreach organization.”
But even amid the snarky mockery, many users pointed to eerie similarities to George Orwell’s “1984,” a dystopian novel about a totalitarian regime. One quote reads: “The Party told you to reject all evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”
Veteran journalist Dan Rather told The Associated Press on Sunday that while past press secretaries have misled reporters before through the omission of information, the weekend’s demonstrably false assertions about the inauguration crowd size was the first time he could recall false material being delivered in this way.
70 responses to “‘Alternative facts’ quip from Trump adviser sparks mockery”
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Hold on tight everyone! We have only just begun. This is going to be a wild one, not just with the Trumpster, but his whole entourage. How the good old Repub’s are going to be able to sit back and let him “represent” their party will be amazing. Just a quick shout out to all my compadres that voted this guy in. He/they are going to provide more material for Saturday Night Live and all the rest of the stand up acts for the next 4 years, that all the previous presidents combined. Even more than Palin.
But “Pravda” fact-checked everything Spicer said, and they say it’s all true.
Dan Rather is a hero. Whatever MSM picks him back up again, I will watch, and will have the credo that CBS lost. CBS is CNN spelled backwards.
This is the REAL NEWS that hardly gets any reporting time:
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/01/24/gold-star-family-members-say-were-assaulted-during-inaugural-ball-festivities.html
You Libertards/Democrats are Tabloidists! The SA is Biased! while I’m at it.
“And actually, Trump could have been seen by more viewers than either Obama or Reagan. Nielsen ratings do not account for online viewing, which has grown sharply in recent years and is far more commonplace than even four years ago. CNN.com, for example, clocked 16.9 million live streams, tying with its Election Day coverage for the site’s top event (live stream tallies are typically not apples-to-apples with Nielsen’s strict methodology of counting average viewers, but are still additive). Plus, portals like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter offered live streams as well.”
From ew.com
Sounds like he could be right.
“I’ve always tried” to tell the truth. Feb. 18, 2016 HRO.
“HRC” not HRO
Ignorance is freedom. Knowledge is slavery.
Undereducation is bliss.
Sorry to be be the one to spoil your bliss.
“And actually, Trump could have been seen by more viewers than either Obama or Reagan. Nielsen ratings do not account for online viewing, which has grown sharply in recent years and is far more commonplace than even four years ago. CNN.com, for example, clocked 16.9 million live streams, tying with its Election Day coverage for the site’s top event (live stream tallies are typically not apples-to-apples with Nielsen’s strict methodology of counting average viewers, but are still additive). Plus, portals like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter offered live streams as well.”
I want to puke everytime Kellyanne Conway goes on the air and says something. A vile bold faced liar in front of millions. Sean Spicer is like her, peas in a pod
What do you expect? They learned from their boss.
And remember…conway also said we should look at what’s in trump’s heart instead of listening to what he says.
Does DRT even have a heart?
I puke every time I read one of your putrid comments.
These Libertarded Democrats cry on little issues everytime. Go to FoxNews and get the REAL news! Stop crying on your sissy talk news
Trump has adopted the motto of former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes, which is “The truth is whatever people will believe”. I bet Donald Trump was a big fan of P.T. Barnum, since his administration is already looking like a 3 ring circus.
Spicer needs to get his act together and be more forthcoming.
On the other hand, there is an interesting myth in the making. The myth is that Trump criticized the news media just because the media accurately reporting the number of inauguration attendees. I bet this myth will soon become fact in the minds of people and repeated by media not involved in the original story.
The story started when Trump said at a speech to the CIA, that one network inaccurately stated only 250,000 people attended his inauguration. He said that number were already near to the stage, but he could see that audiences were packed far beyond, up to the Washington monument. The AP ran a news story disputing the area beyond was packed because there were pockets of empty spaces. The AP story indicated more people attended Obama’s inauguration. While the AP may be correct on their points, they did not address Trump’s original complaint.
Trump’s complaint appears valid because CNN says 250,000 tickets were distributed. The viewing area for the ticket holders are near the stage. CNN also said the majority of viewers were in the area beyond the stage. CNN’s photo shows that the viewing area for the ticket holders is full and that much more people were in the non-ticket viewing areas. So Trump is correct that the one network was wrong in stating only 250,000 people attended.
Now this story has turned into a different story that Trump has dissed all news media for correctly reporting the size of the inauguration attendees.
For photo of the crowds and information about the ticketing, see: http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/20/politics/donald-trump-barack-obama-inauguration-crowd-size/index.html.
For a map of the inaugural viewing areas, see: https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/local/2017-inauguration-map/ and https://www.nps.gov/nama/planyourvisit/maps.htm.
I find it funny that Trump is so concerned about the attendance at his inauguration on Friday, compared to Obama’s inauguration attendance in 2009 and 2012. The Women’s March and rallies in Washington DC alone, had greater attendance than Trump’s inauguration. Then add all the other Marches on Saturday throughout the country and the world, which numbered in total to millions, there is no doubt a lot of people, not only women, are resisting and fighting the Trump and Republican policies and agenda
Irt vector, you think that’s funny, you are funny. You make me laugh trying to act like the man or woman in the know.
lespark, why the red herring? I’ve noticed in several of your comments that you don’t like Vector? Why is that?
This is totally fake news to exonerate Trump and his clowns. Tickets distributed means nothing, as anyone who’s attended a UH game at Aloha Stadium can tell you. If you saw the shots of the viewing areas, they contained only a smattering of people. It looked like the the Orange Section during Norm Chow’s final season. There were fewer people on the Mall AND in the viewing area bleachers. Face it. Trump is the least popular president. His ratings prove it and the attendance at his inauguration and TV ratings expose it as well.
Blues, ahh. Alternative facts is fake news.
Sean Spicer’s gonna be some press secretary. I wonder which school of media management he’s from. Is he more Russian propaganda, China cultural revolution, or North Korea “Democratic People’s Party” style? Personally I’m hoping for Nazi book burner; libraries are getting too cluttered, time for some “house cleaning.”
he won’t last long
Right, Trump won’t last long. Or were you talking about Spicer? The whole basket?
Trump isn’t leaving any time soon.
Get over it or just get.
Get with the times. The North won the Civil War. And then there was that Civil Rights Movement thing. I have a dream, and it’s not going anywhere.
Monkeys should lead, follow or get out of the way.
You finally got something right les. The chief monkey is one lolo and all the other lolos are following.
Dan Rather has a history of twisting the truth…
Lie once, lie twice, lie constantly, you lose all credibility. Obfuscation, deflection, deception, lies are now the modus operandi of the Trump/Putin mafia
We’re not talking about him right now though.
Kellyanne and Sean are Trump’s spokesman/woman, and saying whatever he told them to say
And Obama’s spokes people, or any other President for that matter, have the autonomy to say what they want?
As Klastri would say, are you really that dumb?
Ah, bombay, using the strategy of the truly desperate….look! Over there!
WAVE1, you are doing exactly the same
Hahaha…. “Oh yeah? What about Hilary?”
This isn’t about Hilary. In case you have been under a rock lately, she isn’t in the White House which means Chump will be under the microscope for as long as he is there! Those that voted for him will have to not only gloat that he’s in there but also take the blasting that has not only just started but will get worse as his term goes further!
Electrolytes. It’s what plants crave!
Yes, I think “alternative facts” is ridiculous but I do wish the press would be equally outraged when their favorite democratic party spokesperson makes equally stupid comments. I don’t know if we’ve ever had an unbiased media but we definitely don’t have one now.
Re “. . . democratic party spokesperson makes equally stupid comments…” Do you have an example of ANYTHING equally stupid as ALTERNATIVE FACTS????
Pointing out to liars the absurdity of their lies doesn’t make them tell the truth… it just makes them become better liars.
You know how someone always compiles a list of new words or phrases at the end of each year? I predict at the end of this year that “alternative facts” will be THE word/phrase of the year!
Kellyanne has finally achieved the fame and stardom that she was craving
I agree! Cool phrase…it will be politically correct to call someone a purveyor of alternative facts…
Insecure, politically immature Trump ranting about crowd size! Our president is worried how he looks in front of the people instead of world and national problems. He’ll take care of his image before a nuke war, national ebola epidemic, California sinks into the Pacific, and say its not happening and the press should shut up. This will lead to more doubt to who is telling the truth. This is happening just days into his presidency, can imagine the thoughts going thru his colleages and opponents minds. Hopefully he straightens his canoe or we’ll all be in trouble.
This is the perfect description to Obama’s presidency…Community “Organizer”, some 2 yrs. Senate experience, they the PC/MTV President. Where was HIS experience?
Trump says he got Bin Laden, not Obama, who do you believe when its the “alternative fact” and the press has been wrong all this time.
You got that right. Scary. . . where will his canoe end up!!!!
Nooooo this reply was to cigaripo. Bombay did NOT get it right! New at this.
Alternative Facts From Previous Admins. And all along I thought they were liars. They’re just practitioners of Alternative Facts. (snark)
“I am not a crook.”
“I’m going to say this again: I did not have sexual relations with that woman, …”
“If you like your plan, you can keep your plan.”
GWB=WMD
“Read my lips: no new taxes”
“We did not, I repeat, did not trade weapons or anything else [to Iran] for hostages, nor will we.”
“If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.”
Yes, I always took comfort in the fact that Barry Hussein and his press secretary never told lies about Obamacare. Oh wait, that was the alternate universe I just got back from. Barry and his bunch lied repeatedly about Obamacare. And unlike the crowd size distraction story Barry’s lies had a measureable, very negative affect on Americans.
I take comfort not hearing Barry lie and whistle through his teeth.
Nothing new folks – all we seem to get from the local powers that be (I’m including the rail peeps) is alternative facts.
I think they were talking about two interpretations
“largest audience ever to witness an inauguration. He also made statements that were quickly disproven,”
There were less people at the location, but “witness” would include on line, TV etc, for which I understand it was the largest.
First, Trumpster himself was bragging about the ground audience—and was completely wrong.
Second, initial TV and online data look significantly less than Obama’s inauguration. The Nielsen Ratings and other rating services don’t have the final results yet, so that is unofficial at this point. But for Spicer to act like he knows more than the rating services is really bad for a WH press secretary.
I mean Trump says he knows more about fighting terrorism than all the generals, but that’s just Trump being Trump. A press secretary needs to not be a BS-er. Trump will have a new press secretary by the end of the year.
Alternative facts is what my tutu used to call LIES !
tutulois, Bill Clinton would say he “misspoke”.
Tweedledum, Tweedledee and Twump. Hopefully, it’s just a poor start for this administration.
alternative facts = oxymoron
No.
Those ridiculing Kellyanne Conway’s comment about “alternate facts,” need to get their heads screwed on right. The word “alternative” means one or more things are available as another possibility or that there are one of two or more available possibilities. What she is telling the media is that things are not always as reported and in such instances the Trump administration will provided is version as “alternative facts.” A great example is the reporter who erroneously reported as fact that Trump had removed a statue of Martin Luther King from the Oval Office. The Trump administration quickly fired back with an “alternative fact” that no such thing had occurred. The reporter retracted his story, but it was already out there for the world to see. The media has been getting away with erroneously reporting “facts” for a long time. The Trump administration will serve us well by challenging the media each time it is done.
Can’t trust that Kellyanne Conway wahine. She starts to talk faster when she is trying to cover up the truth.
We noticed that too. She never just answers the question posed to her. She just has her pat answer and rolls with it even when it doesn’t answer the question, but gets her message out so that by the time the interviewer can stop her, she’s repeated the same alternative facts that people will take as the truth. Reporters need to pin her down to get her to just answer the question posed and not let her rhetoric take over. It’s so irritating listening to her.
With all the things going on in the world that need our attention… why is the media so fascinated with who had the biggest crowd.???
Agree that more important things should be reported. On the other hand – why is the Trump administration taking up this fight with such enthusiasm? Do they need to distract us and the media from the really pressing problems that need to be dealt with? Again – just for the record – did not support DT, HC, or BS or any of the other clowns who ran for POTUS. YMMV
Bill Clinton, the creator of the alternative fact (think, “I did not have sex with that woman”) must be laughing all the way to the bank!
And by the way, the world really is flat. We’ve just been looking at it wrong.
Trumper: Tru p does not lie. Hillary is the liar. She is the biggest liar. In fact, she’s the biggest loser at in the US. No, she’s the uber lyingest person on the planet. Anyone who says otherwise is a liar.