Actual Footage From The Event Shows A Crowd Of A Few Thousand Not The 80-100K Being Reported
(Insider NJ)–“Wildwood officials who were the source for the Associated Press’s reporting that former President Trump drew between 80,000 to 100,000 to a beach front weekend rally now say it was not the number on the beach at the rally per se, but rather it was the number of people “in our town.”
Lisa Fagan, the Wildwood press spokesperson AP originally cited as the source for the original crowd estimate was quoted as saying the eye-popping estimate was “based off her own observations on the scene Saturday, having seen ‘dozens’ of other events in the same space.”
Five days later, when asked to explain the wide variance between the AP reporting and the NJ.comvideo that reveals a crowd in the few thousands, Fagan provided a statement from Mayor Troiano at odds with what the wire service initially attributed to Fagan.”
“As a tourist town, we speak in tourism numbers,” Troiano wrote. “When we see that volume of people attending a beach event, we know that 80,000+ people are in our town. We see a quarter of a million visitors every weekend in the summer on our 1.89-mile boardwalk, not to mention our five-mile island, so we know what that volume looks like. They were watching and listening from the beach and boardwalk, in bars and restaurants, at hotels and second homes. People even lined up along the streets parade-style. We defer to the Trump Campaign for the exact count on the beach.”
(CEO)—This subject on its face may not appear to be a big deal. But it’s certainly symptomatic of a much broader troubling trend of the mainstream media’s complicity in spreading false and misleading stories. To the clear benefit of Donald Trump’s candidacy. These instances of bias if left unchecked can profoundly undermine the integrity of the journalism industry. Ultimately causing irreparable damage to one of the most important guardrails of our democracy.
The AP, CBS News and all the other outlets reporting the false information provided by Trump’s campaign and his MAGA surrogates in local government is alarming. Not fact-checking their sourced material is a “journalism 101” day-one mistake. Not only was the quoted crowd size wrong by at least 70,000-90,000 with that being an extremely generous estimate. They also utilized Trump’s baseless accusations of, the Biden Administration’s orchestrating Trump’s legal troubles, as the title of their articles. Two provable lies that manipulate the public’s opinion, especially those who are headline readers only. In an age when most people come to conclusions, solely off of the clickbait headings, instead of the actual content of the articles themselves.
Yet in this specific example even if the reader gets past the falsehoods in the title. The body of the report was also filled with inaccuracies and propaganda straight from the Trump campaign. When the Associated Press reads like a MAGA weekly newsletter there are fundamental flaws in their news reporting methods. I’ve discussed ad nauseam the false equivalency taking place throughout all forms of mainstream political outlets. Quoting the MAGA version of events in every story to give both sides of the argument. Whether the information being shared from the Right Wing is truthful or fabricated.
This case is taking that unethical approach to a whole additional level. Allowing the MAGA lies to stand on their own without any credible proof or counterargument to discredit the false narrative. If the AP, CBS News, and the rest of the guilty parties involved in this matter, plan to carry themselves like Fox News going forward. Democracy doesn’t stand a chance of being preserved. Not if the “free press” loses all its credibility in the public’s eye. It’s these types of illustrations that truly scare me the most. If the rest of the American population isn’t as disgusted by this kind of manipulation from the media, it’s time they wake up. Knowledge is our only true superpower to fight back with as citizens in this political landscape. So only promote outlets that strengthen our understanding of the truth and always demand better from the real “Fake News” Media reporting opinions as facts.
Click the link below for the Insider NJ article quoted in this column
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