Donald J. Trump, the first U.S. president to become a felon, excoriated prosecutors and the judge in his criminal case and ran through a litany of false statements as he spoke to reporters and a small crowd of vetted supporters at Trump Tower in Midtown Manhattan.
Why did they say “false statement” when “lie” is much more efficient?
To call something a lie, the media outlet has to know, 100%, that the speaker knows it’s a lie. It’s difficult to impossible to meet that threshold in pretty much all cases.
A false statement is an untruth — a lie that could have resulted from an honest mistake, poor fact-checking, negligence, or just plain bad luck / stupidity.
People may say something that is known to them as the truth, but is not necessarily the objective truth as known by others. In that case, they would be making unwitting false claims. i.e. “it’s not a lie if you believe it”
Basically it comes down to liability. If a media outlet directly calls something someone says a lie, they’re going to get sued.
And Cheeto is a walking SLAAP lawsuit.
He won’t sue. If he sues they can subpoena and reveal that in private communications he admits the truth.
I mean, a smart person (or a dumb person who at least listened to the advice of their lawyers) wouldn’t sue in that scenario. But this is Trump we’re talking about, lol, so I’m less convinced.
Yes, but that would sink him if he did.
I would throw a few bucks in for their defense fund.
I don’t know what the law says, but it seems to me you can tell a lie without lying. If I hear a lie and then repeat it, transitive property, baby.
Honestly even that much is a big step for the New York Times. I’m a little surprised they’re not trying to “both sides” it.
True dat.
I am surprised they didn’t get a jab about Biden’s age in there.