Sam Smith - If I, in the course of an interview, were to tell a reporter that I had been married to Princess Diana before Prince Charles, the average journalist would not only not report that, they probably wouldn't regard much else I had said in the interview as worth reporting. And if it was reported it would be reported as a clear lie.
If I had said the same thing under oath in a court or to an FBI agent I would likely have been charged with a crime.
But the standard of journalism and the law is not being applied these days by the media dealing with Donald Trump. True, the Washington Post has tallied the score of roughly ten lies per day of his administration, but such a historic analysis doesn't counter a TV cable channel runnilng the president speaking lies in endless speeches and not doing a damn thing about it.
The media must realize that to broadcast or print a presidential lie without identifying it as such makes it a partner in the offense, just as it was when German newspapers faithfully reported the lies of the Hitler regime.
The solution is simple: don't print or broadcast any Trump lie without identifying it as such. Do anything else and you're part of the presidential propaganda machine.
