Normally, I try to keep columns I write focused on local issues. However, what happened on the weekend in the U.S. following the inauguration of Donald Trump as the 45th U.S. president just can't be ignored.
Normally, I try to keep columns I write focused on local issues. However, what happened on the weekend in the U.S. following the inauguration of Donald Trump as the 45th U.S. president just can't be ignored.
During coverage of the inauguration, two photos side by side showed a far larger crowd during former president Barack Obama's 2009 inauguration compared to the crowd for Trump's inauguration – on the same ground.
Mass transit ridership was also much higher for Obama's 2009 inauguration, as reportedly, were television ratings.
But that didn't sit well with the Trump administration, so new press secretary Sean Spicer held a press briefing during which he said, "this was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period." He left without taking questions from the news media.
During an interview on NBC's Meet The Press, host Chuck Todd asked Trump senior adviser Kellyanne Conway why Spicer said that.
She said, "you're saying it's a falsehood. And they're giving -- Sean Spicer, our press secretary -- gave alternative facts."
This is outrageous. So now, whenever the news media bring out facts that don't fit with the Trump administration's narrative, it provides "alternative facts."
If the American people are fed a steady diet of "alternative facts" that could warp their view of what's really going on in the world, and that could be extremely dangerous, because the U.S. is still one of the most important countries in the world. What it says and does can have a huge impact on world events.
There is no such thing as an alternative fact. A fact is a fact. The truth is the truth, no matter how much you don't like it.
