The Trump administration’s “alternative facts”

January 23, 2017 • 9:37 am

Because I’ve been under the weather, I haven’t yet posted on the “alternative facts” issue, and I see from the discussion thread that several readers are aware of it.  In brief, Tr*mp and his minions have spent their first three days in office not only dismantling the accomplishments of the last administration, but in waging war against the press (a familiar tactic of totalitarian regimes), and, of course, lying.

The clips and articles below show two things: a). the Tr*mp administration’s willingness to lie when convenient, and then to dissimulate and waffle when caught on those lies; and b). the clashes between the press and the administration that are going to be common within the next four (or, God help us, eight) years.

And it introduces the a new mantra that, I suspect, will be with us for as long as Tr*mp: “alternative facts.” “Alternative facts” are, in fact, lies—the lies that Tr*mp et al. introduce in place of truths reported by the press. As a superannuated scientist, I’m especially offended by this notion: something is (unless it’s ambiguous) either a fact or not a fact, and cannot simultaneously be both—unless you’re Schödinger’s cat.

So, first we have Tr*mp’s press secretary, Sean Spicer, using his initial press conference to attack press reports about the relatively sparse attendance at Tr*mp’s inauguration (compared to Obama’s inaugurations), the BustGate issue, and to tout Tr*mp’s “triumphant” reception at the CIA. Spicer took no questions: not a good start for relations between the media and the government.

In a great piece by Chris Cillizilla, the Washington Post has annotated some of Spicer’s remarks. You’ll see that some of the statements are highlighted in yellow, and if you click on those you’ll see the reporter’s take on Spicer’s remarks. There are many lies, a few truths, and a lot of equivocation. This use of the “Genius” feature to highlight statements is a very nice thing.

Here’s the video: start at 1:18. Then read the piece highlighted above.

And here’s a remarkable exchange (also written up in The Post) between Chuck Todd, reporter and moderator of NBC’s “Meet the Press,” and Kellyanne Conway, officially named as “Counselor” to President Tr*mp.

Todd presses Conway to explain why Spicer was trotted out to lie to the press in his first public appearance (Todd is talking about the attendance at the inauguration). Conway’s non-response is simply a threat to the press: “If we’re going to keep referring to our Press Secretary in those types of terms, we’re going have to rethink our relationship here.” She then brings up the Martin Luther King, Jr. bust, a press error that was immediately corrected. (Spicer, of course, did not correct his lies.)

At 1:32 Todd, exercised at Conway’s refusal to answer his question, presses her to explain why Spicer lied in his first appearance. She responds that “You’re saying it’s a falsehood, and. . . Sean Spicer gave ‘alternative facts.'” Todd gets even more worked up and says, “Alternative facts are not facts. . . they’re falsehoods.” (See Cillizilla’s piece to see how factual the “alternative facts” are.)

Todd’s right. Conway went on equivocating and bringing up other issues: she’s a master at midirection and dissimulating, but she’s not going to win over the press.

This exchange, which took place two days after Trump was inaugurated, is a harbinger of what we’re in for. Thank Ceiling Cat that America has a free press and won’t passively put up with lies. For its part, the Trump administration will do everything it can to mock the press, but it can do little to muzzle it given we have the First Amendment. Let us hope that people like Todd will keep pressing the Administration when they lie and equivocate. It can’t help but come across to at least some of the American people.

Fasten your seat belts; we’re in for a bumpy ride.

Alternative facts, indeed!

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And, for more grins (we must not lose our sense of humor):

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h/t: Hempenstein

140 thoughts on “The Trump administration’s “alternative facts””

  2. Spicer’s avarice manifests as sycophancy, which binds him to defending Trump’s mendaciloquence. Like any good pet, he’s just following the money and keeping Trump happy.

    1. I don’t think it’s exactly money that shapes Spicer’s position. Poor Spicer has no choice. He was told what to say and Trump was watching to make sure he didn’t deviate. Spicer serves not as an independent believer in the cause, even though he may believe, but as a mere conduit (think toilet paper tube) extending from Trump’s lips.

      1. “He was told what to say and Trump was watching to make sure he didn’t deviate.”

        I don’t believe this. Must he obey a command to lie to the press?

        1. Sean Spicer embodies the three qualities Trump prizes in his spokespersons (or any of his other lackeys): He takes order, doesn’t ask questions, and there’s no lie so demeaning he’ll refuse to tell it.

          This is the man, after all, who blamed Melania’s convention speech plagiarism on Twilight Sparkle from “My Little Pony.”

          He should be made never to forget that incident.

      3. Of course he has a choice; act reasonably and risk being fired.

        Nobody should be thinking of Conway, Spicer, et al as victims here. In whatever lie or deception the white house engages, they are collaborators.

    2. Trump’s mendaciloquence

      There ain’t no “loquence” in Trump’s mendacity. It’s just a cheapjack pile of lies.

      1. Loquence is ok if used to mean speech. Latin: loquax for talkative and loquor: to speak. He likes to talk a lot but he isn’t eloquent. He’s anti eloquent or if I mixed Greek with Latin: aloquent.

  3. Another example of a bat-shit crazy lie – Conway was asked why Trump still refuses to release his tax returns. Answer, because “nobody cares”.

    According to a ABC News/Washington Post poll from last week:
    Seventy-four percent say he should release his tax records, according to the poll, and further, among Republicans, 49 percent also say the president-elect should release his tax records.

    I wish someone would ask again and point out the poll results. The rather bleak prospects for the future of this presidency have not improved. Not good. Unfair.

    1. Her answer, “Polls said Hillary Clinton would win, we all know how biased polling is just look at the results of the actual election rather than the polls”

        1. But once you take out the 3-4 (or is it 5, what ever number the dumpf needs) million illegal votes he won bigly

  4. A free press will destroy Trump, if he doesn’t attempt to mend bridges and to work with them. That’s why the totalitarian states to which you refer begin by tethering the press.

    1. The Bush Jr. administration did a pretty good job of subverting the press. The reason they were able to, though, was that a significant portion of the press was complicit in the process. The Trump administration doesn’t have that going for them. At least it looks as if a much smaller portion of the press is sucking up to them.

      1. You have to give to get. Bush gave access and the ability to ask questions in return for positive coverage. (Also, remember, there was probably a lot of good will after 9/11 and in the early stages of the war in Afghanistan, so it wasn’t just WH subversion, it was the press being charitable to a perceived ‘war time’ President.) Spicer, in contrast, allowed no questions. None. Not even FOX is going to be happy with that.

      2. I know a very important part of that was with the Iraq war. The press did fail us on many occasions there, but they were falling over themselves to be granted unprecedented access to the war.
        That is not an excuse, though.

    2. Geoff Toscano: doesn’t your thesis depend on having enough people paying attention to said press to make a difference? The same “enough people” to prevent his election in the first place?

      Perhaps I’m overly cynical, but I think that his followers revel in his lies. It shows how strong he is, that he won’t let mere facts deter him.

      1. Trump himself also revels in his lies. For him, “truth” isn’t about “facts”; it’s about power — about his capacity for forcing others to accept that which is demonstrably not so. Accordingly, for Trump, the bigger the Lie, the bigger the “truth.”

        What we must all come to understand about Trump is that he and truth are orthogonal. All representations of fact are, for him, situational. The question for him when he says something isn’t whether what he says reflects reality, but whether those representations aggrandize the Trump brand. Anything that does must be true; that which diminishes him is false by definition.

        This is why Trump clings so steadfastly to his lies. It is also why he is so slow to disassociate himself from anything perceived as pro-Trump — his endorsement by neo-Nazis and the Klan, for instance. Trump will cut such ties only when the stigma attached to them becomes intolerable. Even then the uncoupling comes grudgingly: “You want me to renounce? There, I renounce. Are you happy now? Can I go back to making America great again?”

          3. Yes, indeed. And it’s why his opinions of others vacillate so wildly from “the greatest” to “the worst” and back again — as with Mitt Romney or Pope Francis or even Barack Obama himself.

            Everything turns on whether the other person is praising or criticizing Trump, or is otherwise advancing or impeding his interests.

        2. Trump himself also revels in his lies. For him, “truth” isn’t about “facts”; it’s about power — about his capacity for forcing others to accept that which is demonstrably not so. Accordingly, for Trump, the bigger the Lie, the bigger the “truth.”

          What we must all come to understand about Trump is that he and truth are orthogonal. All representations of fact are, for him, situational.

          This reminds me of something I’ve posted before, but it is so appropriate for the power crazed, especially those of the right:

          In a famous October 2004 New York Times article on the Bush administration, journalist Ron Suskind described his encounter with a “senior adviser” to the president: The aide said that guys like me were “in what we call the reality-based community,” which he defined as people who “believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.” I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. “That’s not the way the world really works anymore,” he continued. “We’re an empire now and when we act, we create our own reality.” (Chris Mooney, The Republican War On Science, p. 243)

          1. “…we create our own reality.”

            This fits the Donald perfectly. I’ll keep it in mind going forward. Perhaps his statements will be less of a jolt.

  5. The media needs to take action by not asking people like Conway to speak anymore because they aren’t reliable. If the administration wants to get their side out, they need to meet certain standards. I am not sure what to do about Spicer. I am tempted to say boycott the press conferences, but that could backfire.

    1. I think it might be better for the press to talk with people like Conway as often as they can.

      1. Yeah I agree. In this case, the best way to undermine Trump’s administration seems to be to hand them an open mic.

        2. I agree too. The more they talk, the more they expose themselves.

          There are other things too that are very serious here and aren’t getting a mention. At the CIA, Trump repeated the mantra that the US should have taken Iraq’s oil. He’s once again advocating illegal acts.

          And what about Sean Spicer highlighting the (don’t know if it’s true) “five minute standing ovation” Trump received at the CIA? That’s not even Putin, it’s Stalin or the Kims of North Korea.

          There’s reporting that there was a strong division in the audience at the CIA too. Much of the audience was apparently stony-faced at his comments. The cameras, of course, couldn’t point at the audience at the CIA.

  6. Trump and his sycophants are trying to gaslight the entire country. But I think we have enough of a professional and free press that they cannot get away with it. Alternative facts will not fly. Trump is off to a very bad start from day one.

    1. I wonder if Fox News is still defending Trump and company as they continue to deny reality. Personally, I dare not look.

        1. Yes, I saw that too. Wallace really held Preibus’s feet to the fire. Other reporters are doing the same Trump has his sycophants on opinion shows though.

      2. I think you will see who has some semblance of journalistic integrity or human decency. Some among the Fox crew probably do. Now is the time for real journalists to step up and do their job.

        1. As I said above, even FOX isn’t going to be happy if the White House refuses to allow questions. They way you get FOX on your side is you give them preference in the Q&A session. Abandoning the Q&A altogether doesn’t give them squat.

          I also wonder if FOX is feeling a bit of a pinch with Megyn Kelly leaving. They may be afraid that if they don’t allow some investigative reporting by their better conservative reporters, those reporters may just get frustrated and leave. Kelly showed that that was a viable option, and that may have FOX running a bit scared.

        2. This is where I truly feel the loss of Gwen Ifill. Her excellent journalistic skills are dearly missed in this moment.

    2. “Alternative facts will not fly.”

      Do you mean generally or in the specific case of the Trump administration at the present time?

      In general I’d say many people / groups have been successful at making alternative facts fly. The Bush Jr. admin and, a bit more generally, the Republican Party of the last 20 or so years are great examples of that.

      But, I hope I am not being overly optimistic in agreeing with you that I don’t think the Trump admin is going to be able to do it. The press looks like they might actually stand up and do their job after having largely abandoned it for many years.

      1. What I mean is that you cannot say the sky is green and up is down when it clearly is not. You cannot say Trump’s crowd was the largest ever, when it is obvious to all that is not the case. They will dissemble and spread propaganda, but who will you believe? Trump or your lyin eyes?

        1. But powerful people and groups have done that sort of thing many times in human history, including recent as in the examples I gave above, and not only gotten away with it but very much benefited from it.

          If the press doesn’t call you on it then much of the general public won’t have the information they need to see the lies. Even when people do have the damning evidence presented to them a sizable percentage won’t believe it. They’ll invent much more unbelievable conspiracy theories to explain why it isn’t true.

          But I have to say, I am starting to feel optimistic that Trump’s already low ratings are going to quickly take a beating. Largely because of his own extreme idiocy and the press being against him and taking every opportunity to expose his lies and misdeeds.

          1. Furthermore, there is a considerable chunk of the electorate that is willing and eager to swallow the lies, if it’s what they want to hear (no need to worry about the environment, or civil rights, etc.).

        2. “What I mean is that you cannot say the sky is green and up is down when it clearly is not.”

          Obviously, you can. Trump and his minions have and do, and will continue to do so. We will have to depend on our “lyin eyes”, intelligence, research and rationality to get to the truth.

          1. Trump has been going out of his way to demonize the press. I’ve seen that handled on CNN with journalists telling the audience not to believe them and to look it up for themselves. Unfortunately, some who look it up for themselves will find Alex Jones of Infowars etc and believe those versions.

            I think a lot of his supporters believe that Trump just wouldn’t lie so blatantly to them.

            There’s also the phenomenon of how hard it is to let go of a belief system. When a leader is put on a pedestal the way a US president is, it’s not dissimilar to losing belief in a deity. People have invested a lot in Trump emotionally.

          2. Stuff is even more dangerous in a way. Stalin and the like no doubt had lots of guys working to airbrush photos. Now, any teenager with a copy of GIMP can do this.

      2. Bear in mind that the percentage of Trump supporters pretty closely mirrors the number that think the world is 6,000 years old. Critical thinking not actually their niche.

    1. Hell, Spicer is so dumb he couldn’t pour pee from a boot if the instructions were written on the sole.

      To be any dumber, he’d have to be twins.

        1. Filippo, maybe you’re being flippant, but if you’re serious…what does obvious satire (no matter how savage and ill-considered) have to do with the “alternative facts” from Spicer and Conway.

          Why the tu quoque?

          1. Per the customary and required response of a subordinate to a superior in the US Navy, Sir, thank you for your inspection and instruction, Sir.

            Frank Bruni writes in today’s hard copy NY Times, referencing the SNL writer fiasco and regarding the best approach to dealing with and commenting about Trump and his assigns/subordinates/relations. As highlighted in the column: “Insult his youngest son. Surrender the high ground. And lose it all.”

  8. I saw this exchange on Meet the Press on Sunday morning, and was gobsmacked. Alternate reality and disinformation also sprang to mind.

    Dan Rather has also pointed out the bigger picture which is that the POTUS is wielding propaganda. (Note my non-astericized use of POTUS: in this case, PussyGrabber of the US).

        1. IIRC, the Third Reich book our host recently reread suggested there were a few in the Führer’s inner-circle who were, shall we say, a bit light in the jackboots.

    2. Josef Göbbels: If one is going to tell a lie, make it a big lie, tell it often, tell it loudly, and eventually people will come to believe it.

      This is the strategy of the Hitler wannabee, dummkopf Donald, and his administration.

  11. Watching Spicer’s briefing, I concluded that he is very much like his boss – expecting to get his way through blatant lies and verbal intimidation. This tactic is taken from the right-wing playbook: repeat the lie over and over again and before you know it, people will believe it. The press seems to have caught on to this and will not let the Trump team get away with it. A free society depends on it.

    1. And they could have just spun things. Said something like sometimes you aren’t popular when you make change or some such. It really is so easy to spin it.

  14. The good news is that the press is already on to Trump and his minions. I remember that it took a long time for the press to catch on during the Reagan administration, but I don’t think that’s going to be a problem this time. Probably a good time to read or re-read Orwell’s 1984.

  15. Worst job in the world: Trump’s press secretary.

    Think about it. Day after day, in front of television cameras, you have to go in front of a room full of intelligent, curious reporters, out for blood because they know you’re a craven liar from day 1.

      1. Can anyone here tell me why the “Notify me of new comments via email” button has quit working for me? I don’t want to bother PCC directly about this.

        But if I click that button when posting, the button then disappears, as it should, but I never any more get the emailed notifications of new comments that I used to get. ??? (And yes, I have checked my spam digest and junk folder–nothing there.)

        1. It’ll be a problem with your WordPress account rather than WEIT specifically. It’s quite touchy, and you can block things from happening when you think you’ve done something entirely different. I couldn’t get notifications of new posts for a long time no matter how many times I tried to re-subscribe because I’d set it to stop getting comments on a particular post. I couldn’t tell you what’s wrong, but try having a look in subscription management of WordPress. You might have to subscribe to comments on another WordPress website, then when you get the email to confirm, go into the option to manage notifications.

  18. I have a serious question. The followers of this website by and large are able to see what is happening and we agree that is presents a huge problem. What can we do, however, with the millions who either don’t get it or don’t care and refuse to open their eyes? Do we keep trying to make them see, or simply give up and accept that a large segment will follow and support Trump no matter what he does to erode the freedom of the press? I really do not know what I can/should do on a personal level.

    2. On a personal level, scorn. Consistent, unrelenting scorn. The thing that finally pushed me out of religion, after getting educated had laid the (still partly subconscious at that time) factual foundation, was someone whose intelligence I respected telling me my arguments were idiotic. He was right. I woke up the next morning an atheist.

    3. If you are able, get involved with your local political organizations. Talk to your family, friends and neighbors. Above all, do not let the Fox News zombies get away with a lie. Do not be intimidated – always challenge the lie. Never let them get away with it. You probably won’t change the minds of most people you talk to since psychology seems to say that it is a difficult task. But, you don’t have to change most minds, just a few should suffice to alter the political balance in this country.

      Democrats have failed to concentrate on state politics, which is a major reason for their current predicament. State legislatures determine congressional and state house district boundaries. Hence, they can gerrymander districts in favor of the majority party. Most state houses and governors are Republican, thus they have created districts which favor Republicans in the national House of Representatives. Change state government and you will be changing national government.

      1. Now that is a sane thought. I guess the only way out in a few years, marches will not achieve much.
        And not just the gerrymandering, also ‘Crosscheck’ and provisional votes, oversight of counting, etc.

    4. Someone should set up a website dedicated solely to monitoring the lies. It would have to provide documented evidence why they are lies. If such a website could be promoted well and adopted and supported by a large number other websites/organisations, it could become a very sharp thorn in Trump’s side, and we all know how Trump would react. If his supporters are constantly exposed to the banalities that would ensue, maybe some of them would join in.

    6. We also need to get out more. Get to know Republican Trump supporters and understand what is important to them, and show them that they’ve often, though not always, been misled by Trump on those issues.

    7. It’s worth noting that it’s not just Obama’s inauguration that was bigger than Trump’s. The Women’s March was also bigger than Trump’s inauguration. And there were Women’s marches all over the world.

      Trump thinks he’s the leader of a worldwide populist movement. But that movement is dwarfed by the anti-Trump movement.

      And millions more voted for presidential candidates other than Trump. He did not win the popular vote. The electoral college is a form of gerrymandering all on its own. The votes of people in some states count for more than three times what they do in others.

      Also remember that Trump wasn’t the only populist candidate in 2016. Bernie Sanders was a populist too and he represented a very different philosophy.

    8. The worm will turn once Trump is revealed to be a loser. Then, his reality tv fans will abandon him — and the label will drive Trump himself (even more) batshit crazy.

      In American society, Being a Loser is the one (and may be the only) Unforgivable Sin.

  20. Couple of things. The serious one being that the lack of focus on real issues we saw in the campaign continues. If this lot is so easily distracted by trivia and perceived slights perhaps that’s good, or perhaps they are evil geniuses and are using the distraction to work under the table while we are not looking.

    On a more frivolous note, I saw a comment on, I think, the Independent site this morning to the effect that the tr*mp crowd was larger than it appeared in the pictures, the white sheets they were wearing just blended with the grass covering 🙂

    1. Well, right now Trump’s team is way behind in confirming political appointees for their administrative positions. There’s something like 1,100 appointments throughout the executive branch that need to be confirmed by the Senate. A typical President aims to have the most important 100 or so lined up for confirmation on the first day; Trump has so far had 2 appointments confirmed (Defense and Homeland Security), and has about another 25-30 more named. He’s not even meeting the “first 10%” standard.

      So, for now it appears that their penchant to get distracted by every shiny penny is on the ‘good’ side, meaning the civil service is running itself for the time being and not being run by any hard-right appointees (evil geniuses or otherwise). That, however, could easily change in the future.

  22. “Alternative facts”. – Something that even Orwell never thought of. Of course, using such an expression will not even slightly embarrass the Trump Administration, most of whom will be entirely ignorant of 1984.

    1. I think “alternative fact” exists at the intersection of “Newspeak” and “Doublethink.”

      I doubt Orwell would be surprised at all.

  23. I don’t understand why the press suddenly got religion. Is it because Trump is now actually the president and not a candidate or president-elect that the press woke up from their deep sleep?

    Propaganda Barbie Conway has been lying and misdirecting for over a year, in interview after interview, and the press NEVER called her out, NEVER pushed back and NEVER made a fuss about her. Now, here she is doing the same old Kellyanne schtick and the press is suddenly surprised to find there’s gambling in this establishment!

    Certainly better late than never, but I fear these news, er, entertainment outlets will find it easier to simply accept the Alternate Fact World rather than fight it.

    BTW, congrats to me, I just received the Nobel Prize in physics for my discovery of the framastat.

  24. I usually enjoy your posts whether I agree with them or not, but I can’t take you seriously when you call the Trump administration “totalitarian”. Okay, technically you implied it. We have a government with separation of powers. It would require a conspiracy involving the legislative and judicial branches to turn our government totalitarian. Even congressional republicans would understand the gravity of a situation in which a president tried to grab enough power to rule with total power. No president could abolish all opposing political parties like Hitler or Stalin. I’ve been a big fan of you and your books as well as this website, but you’re losing me with your alarmist and paranoid rhetoric about this new president. He can do no more damage to liberal ideas and policies than Obama did to conservative ones. If he tries to go too far, the Democrats will take back power in Congress in two years and if he doesn’t modify his behavior after that, he will lose the next election. And if he ever truly attempted some kind of total takeover, he would be removed from office through impeachment.
    People from all over the world, some of whom may not know how our government works (most Americans don’t), read your posts. I’m surprised you would tell them that anyone, including the president, could run this country in a totalitarian manner. I’m also surprised that your very intelligent and educated readers can think that the Trump administration has the ability to change the Freedom of the Press. I pity anyone who consistently lies to the press or the American people. That person will be destroyed by the free press. Yes, presidents get away with lies. Neither Bill Clinton nor George W Bush would have made it eight years unless they got away with lies, but nobody can do it over and over and survive politically. Continuous refusal to answer questions in a forthright manner certainly contributed to Hillary’s defeat.
    I don’t expect you or your readers will agree with me, but I haven’t written one word here that was motivated by my political leanings.

    1. Larry, several of your claims are contrary to the history of the past 20 + years, let alone all of human history.

    2. Larry: What term would you prefer to describe the type of government we are in for with Trump? Oligarchy? Kingship?

      Most of us older U.S. citizens have some remembrance of our high school Civics courses so are not totally without a sense of how our government is supposed to work based on the ideas put into place by our founding fathers

      You are not addressing or acknowledging the manipulation of the press by the owners (e.g. Rupert Murdoch), the influence of a jillion lobbyists, and the massive input of money into the political system at all levels of government by the conservative wealthy such as the Koch brothers.

      Presidents getting away with lies have been part of the system from the beginning. Use of the media to promote one-sided views also has been. What’s different is the huge number of lobbyists promoting the interests of particular individuals and corporations, and the influx of millions of dollars to promote one side’s platform. “Personhood” of corporations was not always with us and has impacted our government adversely.

      In reality, big business and corporations have had too much influence on our government. We are entering a period when the interests of the wealthy and corporations will dominate.

    3. “No President could abolish all opposing political parties” — Trump and his acolytes don’t need to do any such thing. All they need do is convince sufficient numbers of American citizens that what they are doing is for the benefit of the PEOPLE and any main stream media which says different is lying for its own PEOPLE DEFEATING ends. In turn, the people will elect to Congress those with the same outlook. the only question is whether enough can be done over the relatively short time scale of a couple of presidential terms.

    4. Umm. . . if you can’t take my whole post seriously because I used the one word “totalitarian,” it’s distressing. Try using “autocratic” instead. Will you be able to take my post seriously then?

  25. I know squat about women’s couture, but what the hell was up with that inauguration outfit of Kellyanne Conway’s?

    Looked like something Shirley Temple would’ve worn to dance in a George M. Cohan production number.

  26. Latest “alternative fact” from Sean Spicer: dear leader Trump shot his usual par 18 at Burning Tree CC over the weekend.

    1. Kasparov had a brilliant tweet about record steel and grain production in the Soviet Union.

    2. I’ve heard from people who ought to know that he plays to a 4 handicap. That wouldn’t make a par “usual,” but it certainly wouldn’t be unusual.

      Hey, I wish that I had a 4 handicap. (I’m trying to get to 20.) But that doesn’t make Der Drumpf any less of a shit for brains.

  27. I’m not going to defend any of the Trumpers’ clais. But I think we need to be fair about the phrase “alterantive facts” which I think meant something like “other facts you could have discussed but didn’t because you are cherry picking”. Ann Althouse puts it well:
    “In context and read sympathetically, “alternative facts” doesn’t mean that there are competing versions of the truth and you can refer to all of them as “facts.”
    ….

    But what I think Conway meant was that there are many different factual issues, and some people choose to forefront one factual issue — such as the size of the crowd at the Inauguration — when there are many other factual issues that could have been selected as the main story. There are “alternatives” in that you don’t have to make such a big deal out of that one thing, and you could emphasizes something else. The “alternative facts” were all the other things that Trump did, good things, that would have put him in a good light, and the media is criticized for picking out the fact that diminished Trump.”

    Coyne has in the past pleaded for the principle of charity in interpretation.
    I confess I do not see that in the OP.

    1. If the understanding you have of what is intended by “alternative facts” is so, the
      terminology selected to describe it does not.
      We thave Trump and his cohorts who can’t put thoughts into sentences or paragraphs in a cogent manner, and don’t bother with FACTS at all. Having the leadership of this country in the hands of a chronic liar, ignoramus and blatherer is heartbreaking.

      There’s no such thing as “alternative facts”.

      1. Indeed there is no such thing. That is evidence she meant something else, isn’t it? Isn’t that how the principle of charity works?

    2. Sorry, but no. In this instance they were specifically talking about the size of the crowd. Conway said that Spicer offered “alternative facts” about the crowd.

      And his facts were wrong. He gave a figure for metro ridership on the 20th that was actually much lower than reality – the truth was slightly better than his data.

    3. What “alternative facts” support Trump’s lie (told during his CIA speech, and repeated by Sean Spicer to the assembled White House press corp) that Trump’s inauguration had the “largest audience to witness an inauguration, period. Both in person and around the globe.”

      That was the context of the whopper Kellyanne Conway told about the whopper told by Sean Spicer. The word for that is lie, not “alternative fact.”

      1. Where do I suggest “alternative facts” support his statement about the crowd? Nowhere. You are ignoring my point entirely. My proposition is that by “alternative” she meant “facts that you could alternatively have cited”. I think Althouse put it perfectly, so I won’t repeat it.

        1. My point, which you ignored completely, was what possible application did that concept have in the context Conway used it?

          Sure, propositions can always be contradicted through the presentation of contravening evidence. There’s nothing novel about that. And there’s hardly any need for a new bafflegab term for it like “alternate fact.”

          What was the contravening evidence — or “different factual issues,” to use your even-more-obtuse coinage — that supported Sean Spicer’s contention that Trump’s inauguration crowds were larger than those in 2008 (which is the entirety of the context in which Conway used the term “alternate fact”)?

          Conway is up to something nefarious, and Althouse is acting as her quisling apologist in this instance.

          1. Ken: how did you figure out a way to format text (bold, italics, etc.) in WordPress? Can you point me to a URL with instructions?

    4. That this was your takeaway from the interview is just one more piece of evidence that Conway is amazing at her job. While I agree with the others that her use of “alternative facts” is pretty clearly about the crowd and Spicer’s comments on it, she spent so much of the interview dodging the question and bringing up other topics that she’s confused you into sympathizing with her.

  28. Trump administration … can do little to muzzle it given we have the First Amendment.

    What the Trump administration will do — indeed, what it has already begun doing — is to make an end run around the press. That’s one of the reasons why Trump (who fashions himself the Papa Hemingway of the twitterverse) continues his ubiquitous tweeting.

    Look for Trump also to pack the press room with alt-right and other “alternative” media (and, perhaps, even to move the press briefing room across the street to the old Executive Office Building, so it can hold even more alternative media and to keep the press corp out of his godawful hair in the west wing).

    Also, look for Trump himself to answer few questions from the media. The White House will stage beaucoup photo opportunities of Trump glad-handing dignitaries and performing ceremonial duties (like signing executive orders), but the press corp itself will be reduced to shouting questions fecklessly from the sidelines, while his nibs pretends to ignore them.

  29. “Hello. I’m Leonard Nimoy. The following tale of alien encounters is true. And by true, I mean false. It’s all lies. But they’re entertaining lies. And in the end, isn’t that the real truth? The answer is: No.”

      1. P.S. Sky TV here has caught on – they’re just advertising their upcoming movie lineup with the voice-over “It’s great…. great!! … gonna be great… it’ll be great… ”

        cr

  31. Also: facts are what is the case. So there are no alternative facts, for reality is one.

    However, fact *statements* come in some different varieties. In the most extreme cases, (completely) true and (completely) false.

  33. Alternative facts. American children learn what these are watching Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner.

    Apparently the Trump administration have been deprived.

    Here maybe they can catch up to my nine year old…

    Physics of Wile E. Coyote

  34. This is all we are going to get from Spicer and Kellyanne Conman: obvious, easily debunked lies and obfuscation. Because it works.

    Trump showed throughout his campaign that he could lie and distort all he wanted, and the sycophants that are fooled by his shtick will never hold him accountable. They look to Spicer and Conman and Trump himself to give them the barest excuse to ignore the lies, and they believe.

    The Trump team aren’t even deceiving the gullible; they are facilitating the self-deception of the gullible. It’s like the Matrix: remember the guy who betrayed his fellow escapees because he wanted to taste steak again even though he knew it was an illusion? Some people just prefer the “alternative facts” the Trump team weaves for them to reality. That’s hard to beat.

  35. Sean Spicer — worst White House press secretary since the hapless Ron Ziegler held the job.

        2. In Britain he was referred to as Comical Ali, a play on the nickname Chemical Ali, a wanted cousin of Saddam.

  36. Jerry, one small correction: the Washington Post reporter’s last name is Cillizza. You’ve got it spelled as Chris Cillizilla.

  37. Sean Spicer looks like he cut his own hair … while distracted by doing The Times crossword with his dominant hand.

  38. I suppose we could always blame the Pomo’s and their co-religionists the regressive Left. “alternative facts” == “other ways of knowing”.

    cr

  39. Your statement that “she’s a master at misdirection and dissimulating, but she’s not going to win over the press…” hits the nail on the head. She and her boss have been so viciously mean to not only “the press” but to specific reporters that there is now very little interest in forgiving her blunders. You reap what you sow…

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