Exhibit B: NYT Eavesdrops, Turns Private Joke Into Fake News

Date: May 18, 2017
Article: “In an Aside to Trump, Homeland Security Chief Suggests He Use Sword on the Press”
Publication: The New York Times

Excerpts (emphasis added):

He said it softly, and it seemed to be a joke.

But John F. Kelly, the secretary of homeland security, probably did not intend for his quip suggesting President Trump use a sword “on the press” to be recorded such that the world could hear.

The remark came on Wednesday after Mr. Trump gave a commencement address to the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn., in which he lauded the service before telling graduating cadets that no leader in history had been treated more unfairly by the news media.

A private joke is made off mic. The eavesdropping press hears it. This “news” story results.

Here’s the worst part:

What might have been harmless banter on another day instead came during a tumultuous week for the White House that further strained its tense relationship with reporters.

Just a day before, The New York Times reported that in a February meeting with James B. Comey, then the F.B.I. director, Mr. Trump said Mr. Comey should consider putting reporters in prison for publishing classified information. The suggestion was swiftly denounced by some members of the news media as an ‘act of intimidation.’

So to summarize: What might have been (i.e. factually was) harmless banter isn’t harmless because of the fake news the Times created the day before and because they then went about denouncing the president for that fake news.

That isn’t just media bias, editorializing or bad journalism. It’s actually fabricating the news to fit an agenda. The worst part for Trump-haters/media defenders is that this just validates everything he said about the press.