When Kellyanne Conway referred to the non-existent "Bowling Green Massacre" during an interview on Thursday night, the statement was quickly seized on as yet another example of the willingness of the Donald Trump administration to play fast and loose with facts—and lie outright when it suits them.
The media, on the other hand, is growing too comfortable jumping on unconfirmed reports or anecdotes that feed into Trump alarmism. It comes at the cost of attention paid to legitimate news that needs no embellishment.
Just about anybody with a Twitter account (and a sense of humor) weighed in on the Bowling Green flub. By Friday morning, it was the top trending topic on Twitter, according to analytics firm Crimson Hexagon, and had been covered in some way, by seemingly every media outlet on the planet.
Credit: Crimson HexagonConway attempted damage control, noting that she meant "Bowling Green terrorists," in reference to two Iraqi refugees who came to the U.S. and were found in November 2011 to have been aiding Al Qaeda operatives.
Her statement in the interview backs that up:
"I bet it's brand new information to people that President Obama had a six-month ban on the Iraqi refugee program after two Iraqis came here to this country, were radicalized and they were the masterminds behind the Bowling Green massacre."
Conway certainly hasn't earned the benefit of the doubt. She's routinely skirted the truth, spouting lines that are blatantly false, and coining the term "alternate facts" along the way. On Thursday, she misrepresented a serious event to justify her point, and it's absolutely necessary to point out that no such massacre ever happened.
At some point, however, the response becomes its own form of misinformation. And the media, those opposing Trump, and anyone else interested in protecting the public dialogue should be concerned. About the response.
A casual media consumer at this point might think she made up the entire thing—Bowling Green, terrorism, all of it. And it's true: The Bowling Green terrorists didn't kill any people on U.S. soil, but did spur then-President Barack Obama to tighten vetting for refugees. Conway hasn't doubled down on the "massacre" line. Even some of the most fervent Trump fans have acknowledged she did not state the truth.
The Bowling Green event isn't a one off. Trump's demolition derby-esque start to his presidency left the media shellshocked. The sheer amount of news happening both right out of the White House and across the country in response to Trump somehow makes even the campaign days of "DDoS Trump" seem tame.
It's also, at this point, easy to believe nearly anything. And in this fast-twitch, retweet-friendly news cycle, an increasing number of journalists are finding themselves tweeting something out, and later, retracting it (this journalist included).
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The media, politicians and the general public should absolutely hold the Trump administration to the highest standards of truth and honesty, which it's not living up to. Those standards should also be self-applied.
Trump's made vilifying the press a core component of his political gamesmanship, and it's worked—well. Broader mistrust in the media helped insulate Trump from criticism, and made his willingness to mislead the public—and in particular, his base—a potent weapon. If the use of misinformation by Trump and his administration results in the broader media doing the same, they'll have succeeded in completely neutralizing the press, as the effective check on power they're suposed to be.
Which is an even greater shame, considering all the completely-insane-yet-true things actually happening. For instance: on Friday morning, a major Trump economic advisor equated a law requiring financial advisors not to screw their clients to a law on unhealthy food, and a lawyer for the government revealed that 100,000 visas have already been revoked due to Trump's Muslim-focused travel restrictions.
Instead, the conversation is around a bad comment that nobody actually believes. It's a fun, easy way to ignore everything else—the stuff that matters.
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Editor's note: This story has been updated to accurately reflect the year of the arrests of two Iraqi men in Bowling Green, KY.
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