This morning, Donald Trump – as he prepares for a 1 MILION-per-person “candlelight dinner” at the Trump Winery in Charlottesville this evening – took the time to post an unhinged, falsehood/lie-laden screed (see screenshots, below) on his Orwellian-named “Truth Social” platform (of course, there’s almost no “Truth” on there, along with a torrent of lies, vitriol, insanity, etc.) about the supposed horrors Gov. Abigail Spanberger has supposedly engaged in regarding taxes, business, etc. Gov. Spanberger responded (see below) to Trump’s hot garbage, saying:
“The President and his allies are talking about taxes that our state legislature never even voted on and I certainly didn’t sign. Why? Because if they don’t flood the zone with fake news about fake taxes, people might hear about the bills I am signing to lower energy costs, strengthen our schools, make housing more affordable, and bring billions of dollars of business investment to Virginia.”
Now, here’s what Trump had to say regarding Gov. Spanberger; I’ve labeled the parts that are lies, false, or at best questionable in RED/BOLD.
“Heading to Virginia for meetings at Trump National. I can’t believe what this new Governor, Spanberger, has done to the Commonwealth — So sad! She is adding so many Taxes, a Food and Beverage Tax, Digital Services Tax, Utilities Tax, and more. It has lost its Energy, Vitality, and Strength. People are leaving that would never have even thought of doing so! New companies that signed to come into the Commonwealth under Governor Youngkin are now looking for ways to get out — Break their Deal. It all happened so fast! This went from a thriving and powerful place, one envied by all, to a Commonwealth run by a person who has no concept of Low Taxes and Economic Strength. People that voted for Spanberger are saying to themselves, “Why did I do that, what have I done?”…
So for the record, Spanberger so far has added ZERO taxes, with no tax increases on food, beverages, digital services, utilities, etc. even coming to her desk. Also, of course, Virginia hasn’t “lost its Energy, Vitality, and Strength,” nor has Virginia gone “from a thriving and powerful place, once envied by all, to a Commonwealth run by a person who has no concept of Low Taxes and Economic Strength.” Just total nonsense, drivel…and random Capital Letters for Absolutely No Reason, lol. Here’s how VA Senate President Pro Tempore Louise Lucas put it about our “misinformed and inept” president:
Anyway, so the point I want to make here isn’t so much that Trump is a pathological liar, and that nobody should EVER believe a word he has to say – on this or on any other topic. Instead, I want to focus on how the media is reporting Trump’s latest lies. To be clear, what the president of the United States says is, almost by definition, newsworthy. HOWEVER, that does NOT mean that the news media’s job is to simply amplify, stenographer-like and/or uncritically, Trump’s L-I-E-S. Instead, the job of the news should be to inform their readers, listeners, viewers, etc. *clearly and right up front, in the headlines, ledes, etc.* whether what Trump said has any validity. Which in this case, of course, it overwhelmingly didn’t. (Of course, the Spanberger folks, DPVA, etc. should have been pushing back hard for weeks/months now on these lies, which have been posted untold number of times on social media, on right-wing media, and even in the “mainstream” media…but that doesn’t absolve the media of doing its damn job!
So with that, how has the media been doing on this so far? See below for how this is being reported, grouped into “tiers” (S-tier, A-tier, B-tier, C-tier, D-tier, F-tier) based on whether the news source is reporting clearly that THESE ARE LIES, whether they’re acting as stenographers, etc. (my comments in green/bold/parentheses) I’ll add more as they are published…
A-Tier
- Virginia Scope/Brandon Jarvis: “In a Saturday morning social media post, President Donald Trump attacked Gov. Abigail Spanberger over legislation she has not signed. The bills that the president alleges Spanberger is pushing did not even pass out of the Democratic-controlled General Assembly.” (Excellent; this is exactly what the media should be doing – right up front, in both the headline and the lede, state calmly and clearly that what was said was FALSE.)
- Virginia State Capitol Reporter Tyler Englander: “I don’t remember any bills passing that would have added a food and beverage tax”; “The General Assembly did not pass a bill adding a digital services tax, meaning Governor Spanberger can’t sign anything related to that”; and “Spanberger did sign legislation putting Virginia back in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. Republicans say the program acts as a tax increase on Virginians, but Democrats say the benefits of RGGI will save Virginains money in the long run.” (Solid; debunks what Trump’s saying, albeit in a diplomatic way that doesn’t flat-out call what Trump’s saying *lies*; so maybe this one gets an A-Minus?)
B-Tier
- James Surowiecki, who writes for The Atlantic and Fast Company: “Trump is, of course, lying. None of these new taxes have become law, so Spanberger has added none of them.” (BINGO! Although I do wish he hadn’t amplified the egregious tweet by Julia Manchester…marked down from A-Tier for that reason alone.)
C-Tier
- Sophie Brams of The Hill: “Trump says Virginia ‘has lost its Energy, Vitality, and Strength’ under Spanberger” (This would be D-Tier, just based on its horrendously bad headline, but if you read the article, in paragraph four it finally says “While Democratic lawmakers in the Virginia House have introduced a slate of new tax proposals this session, none of the measures cited by Trump have been passed by the legislature or reached Spanberger’s desk.” And it also later quotes Spanberger’s office, which says ““Governor Spanberger has signed dozens of bipartisan bills to contend with high housing, healthcare, and energy costs for Virginians — and not any of the taxes President Trump and his allies are lying about.” But c’mon, the headline here is horrendously bad, as are the first three paragraphs of the article, and many people don’t read past the headline!)
D-Tier
- Julie Manchester of The Hill: “President Trump lashing out at Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger over taxes this morning” (This is pure stenography, mindless, definitely not journalism, just amplifying uncritically Trump’s bullshit. Massive FAIL; but sadly typical of national political “reporters,” using that word loosely. Note that I’m being generous here by not putting this in the F-Tier, mostly because I wanted to leave room for Fox “News,” which not only amplified Trump’s lies, they also added lies of their own!)
- Markus Schmidt of the Virginia Mercury: Says Trump “took aim at the Virginia Democrat in a post on Truth Social on Saturday, accusing her of undermining Virginia’s economy through tax policy” and that “Spanberger pushed back in a post on X, formerly Twitter, disputing Trump’s claims and accusing him and his allies of spreading misinformation about her record.” (So the problems here are blatant – “both sides”/false equivalence, plus never informing readers that what Trump said is demonstrably, categorically FALSE. So bad.)
F-Tier
- Fox “News: “Trump blasts Spanberger ahead of Virginia meetings, says state faces tax base exodus like New York, California” (Everything about this article is completely f’ed up; just amplifies the lies, adds more lies of its own, etc. For anyone who thinks Fox “News” is anything but state media, far-right propaganda, etc. – think again!)
P.S. There probably should be another category of media outlets which don’t even cover this AT ALL – literally, what are they saying, that the President of the United States saying wildly false, insane shit is not newsworthy???
