Dmitri Drobnitsky
Fake news from The Washington Post Sensational news spread across the news feeds: Donald Trump said at an event for political sponsors that he would start bombing Russia and China if Russia invaded Ukraine and China invaded Taiwan during his presidency. The source for all messages on this topic is the same — an article in The Washington Post authored by Josh Dawsey.
The Washington Post itself headlined the article, “Trump Makes Big Promises to Donors on Bold Fundraising Tour.” And the subtitle: “By linking donation requests to promises of tax cuts and other policies, Trump is testing the limits of federal campaign finance laws.”
The bulk of the article is about Trump’s May (but not yesterday’s or this or last week’s) meeting with political donors at a New York hotel, where he called for more money to be donated to his re-election campaign. At the same time, Trump made various election promises, but they concerned domestic politics.
Next, the author of the article begins to list a variety of different (and sometimes, according to Dawsey, multidirectional) promises of a political and economic nature. Well, then — a kind of generalization: they say, Trump often says strange things at such events.
AND! In the 17th paragraph it says: “For example, at one event he suggested that he would bomb Moscow and Beijing if Russia invaded Ukraine and China invaded Taiwan, surprising some sponsors.” It is not said what kind of event it was, when or where it took place, or who told the author about these words from Trump. There is not even a “magic” link to anonymous sources. Just a phrase in the middle of an article. That’s all. Next, again about fundraising and correspondence skirmishes between Trump and Biden.
The most interesting thing begins next. Smaller publications are starting to publish articles with headlines like “Trump promised to bomb Moscow and Beijing,” “Trump said he would start bombing Russia and China if he were president,” etc. Links are to The Washington Post article. Typical provocation.
In the future, of course, The Washington Post itself will refer to this “news” in its “analytical materials.” Unfortunately, our media (not all, but still many) picked up the “news” and carried it into the information space. We need to be more careful, colleagues!
Alexander Palladin
