Trump postpones ‘fake news awards’, to be announced on Jan 17

Team Udayavani, Jan 8, 2018, 2:29 PM IST

Washington: US President Donald Trump today postponed the announcement until January 17 of his much- talked-about ‘fake news awards’ to the “most corrupt and biased” American mainstream media for its “dishonesty and bad reporting”.

Trump,71, has been at loggerheads with several US mainstream media outlets, including the CNN, ABC News, The New York Times and the Washington Post. He has quite often described these popular media houses as “fake media”.

The awards were supposed to be announced today, but Trump upon his return from the Camp David presidential retreat yesterday tweeted about the new date for one-of its-kind awards to be given to the several media houses.

“The Fake News Awards, those going to the most corrupt & biased of the Mainstream Media, will be presented to the losers on Wednesday, January 17th, rather than this coming Monday,” he tweeted. “The interest in, and importance of, these awards is far greater than anyone could have anticipated!” he said.

The “fake media” term is now popularly related to news with which one does not agree with. On January 2, Trump had tweeted that he would announce the awards to the media houses for “dishonesty and bad reporting”.

“I will be announcing THE MOST DISHONEST & CORRUPT MEDIA AWARDS OF THE YEAR on Monday at 5:00 o’clock. This would be one of its kind media award by the US president. Subjects will cover Dishonesty & Bad Reporting in various categories from the Fake News Media. Stay tuned!” he had tweeted.

In November, he tweeted about a competition among news networks for the ‘Fake News Trophy’, excluding the Fox News. “We should have a contest as to which of the Networks, plus CNN and not including Fox, is the most dishonest, corrupt and/or distorted in its political coverage of your favourite President (me). They are all bad. Winner to receive the FAKE NEWS TROPHY!,” he tweeted on November 27.

In an email to supporters of the president on December 28, the Trump campaign had sought nomination for the ‘King of Fake News’ trophy. “At President Trump’s request, we are holding a contest to name the 2017 KING of Fake News. And we want to hear from you,” it said.

“The FAKE NEWS has utterly abandoned their duty to fairly report the news to the American people. Some journalists and liberal pundits think that Americans are too stupid to see through their amateur efforts to manipulate public opinion, but THEY’RE WRONG,” it said.

Noting that Americans are sick and tired of being lied to, insulted and treated with outright condescension, the Trump Campaign had said “That’s why President Trump is crowning the 2017 KING OF FAKE NEWS before the end of the year”.

“There’s no point in pretending that some journalists are anything more than peddlers of falsehoods and liberal propaganda,” it said. As per the Trump Campaign list, the competition for ‘King of Fake news’ is between three news organisations.

“ABC News “MISTAKENLY” reported that candidate Trump directed Michael Flynn to make contact with Russian officials before the election,” it said. “CNN ‘MISTAKENLY’ reported that candidate Donald Trump and his son Donald J Trump, Jr had access to hacked documents from WikiLeaks,” it wrote.

“TIME ‘MISTAKENLY’ reported that President Trump removed a bust of Martin Luther King, Jr from the Oval Office,” the Trump Campaign said, as it asked the participants to “let the President know if there is another story you think should be crowned as the 2017 KING of Fake News”.

Trump’s postponement of the awards has come as questions about his mental stability continue to make headlines in the media. Trump hit back in a series of tweets on Saturday, calling himself a “genius”.