FRIDAY, March 29, 2024
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Getting beyond the groupthink on Trump

Getting beyond the groupthink on Trump

Re: “How Trump supporters bend the facts to support their lies”, Have Your Say, July 26.

I advise Egon and indeed all writers to strive for precision of language, and to recognise the sly distortions that pervade the mainstream media (MSM).  In the US immigration case, there are two policies – separation of adults from children, and “zero tolerance” – which were formulated, implemented and/or cancelled by different presidents at different times.  So we must be careful in our use of possessive adjectives (eg, “Trump’s”).
With this in mind, I now expose the errors in Egon’s statement: “Virtually all news channels and newspapers have reported that Trump’s ‘zero tolerance’ policy was responsible for the separation of toddlers from their parents.” Two things wrong: first, the acronym “MSM” is missing; second, it refers to the wrong policy. In other words, it’s fake news. For clarity, we should turn to the latest RealClear poll of polls on Trump’s approval rating. It went up five points following his intervention to keep toddlers and parents together, and up yet again to 52.8 per cent following his meeting with Putin. “Quod erat demonstrandum,” as Dr Frank might say.
Now to Egon’s last point. Have I been sleep-ranting? For a second time, Egon accuses me of making allegations about the sale of foetuses by something called “Planned Parenthood”. Eh? I will accept brickbats for what I say, but I have never ever held or expressed a view on this topic. To make sure, I have just searched my last 15 years of Nation rants for the relevant word-strings – nothing. More fake news, Mr Egon!
Nigel Pike

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