The Hill Owns Itself, Uses Pic of Trump Supporters Wearing Masks in Tweet About Them Not Wearing Masks
The media’s bias regarding President Donald Trump and his supporters is always showing, although the prejudice can be subtle.
No lie is too big and no omission is too small in the quest to deny the president a second term.
The gatekeepers of information, as reporters so often view themselves, failed in 2016 to prevent a Trump victory, so they’re doubling down and hitting the president with everything they have in 2020.
Ever so often, though, a story comes along that makes you wonder if for reporters, being disingenuous is such a second nature that at this point, that they don’t even care if you notice.
The Hill, for example, published a story on Twitter on Tuesday claiming that Trump supporters refused to wear masks at a rally in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
“JUST IN: Trump, supporters gathered without masks in North Carolina despite request from local GOP official,” the outlet tweeted.
There was just one problem: The image shared by The Hill showed every person in the crowd wearing a mask.
Literally every single person in this photo is wearing a mask, @thehill https://t.co/NzCFSk4Xzp pic.twitter.com/Frc5eNKs8o
— Harry Khachatrian (@Harry1T6) September 9, 2020
The Hill’s own story graphic disproved the entire narrative before the story even had a chance to be read.
Apparently it doesn’t matter what the facts are, so long as the story makes Trump look bad.
But this one really backfired.
Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, pointed out the low quality of the reporting with a tweet of his own.
“WTF? Literally all you have to do is zoom in on the picture to realize that everyone gathered in the stands is wearing a mask. I was able to do it on my iPhone in two seconds!” he tweeted in response to The Hill.
“I guess ‘journalists’ are not capable of basic observation, they just blindly run with the narrative,” he added.
WTF? Literally all you have to do is zoom in on the picture to realize that everyone gathered in the stands is wearing a mask.
I was able to do it on my iPhone in two seconds!
I guess “journalists” are not capable of basic observation, they just blindly run with the narrative. https://t.co/aNtxhmhgGn— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) September 9, 2020
The Hill quickly deleted the tweet, but the internet is forever.
The outlet rebounded by posting the same story with the same headline — although editors chose a different graphic.
Before: literally everyone is wearing a mask in the picture
After: No one in the crowd is shown in the picture ??♂️ pic.twitter.com/R4kyWkamJg
— Kelb Hull (@CalebJHull) September 9, 2020
But the damage was done and so too is the outlet’s credibility with many, many people.
The Hill is not the only outlet this year that has accidentally reported the truth when attempting to spin the narrative.
But the beltway publication joins some pretty unsavory company, as far as fake news purveying goes.
CNN chyron reads ‘fiery but mostly peaceful protests’ with blazing Kenosha backdrop https://t.co/jJdXged3tO
— Conservative News (@BIZPACReview) August 27, 2020
Watch: Standing in front of a burning building, MSNBC’s Ali Velshi claims Minneapolis situation is not “generally speaking unruly” pic.twitter.com/7296aR20x1
— TV News HQ (@TVNewsHQ) May 29, 2020
Outlets such as CNN and The Hill don’t count on voters being intelligent enough to spot their inaccuracies and to call them out on their lying.
Much like in 2016, they’re underestimating the public’s ability to see right through their reporting, which is little more than leftist activism cloaked as journalism.
Even mostly truthful fake news reporting will never hold a candle to actual journalism, which at this point — with the election less than two months away — is pretty hard to find.
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