Trump returns to attacking ‘fake news’ after Moore’s loss

President Donald Trump returned to bashing the ‘fake news media’ Wednesday morning, hours after he congratulated Democrat Doug Jones for defeating Roy Moore in the Alabama Senate race.

The stunning GOP defeat came despite Trump’s efforts to prop up GOP candidate Roy Moore even after a slew of women came forward to say he tried to date or touch them when they were teenagers. 

The women came forward after being contacted by the Washington Post, whose stunning expose helped bring about Moore’s defeat. 

‘Wow, more than 90% of Fake News Media coverage of me is negative, with numerous forced retractions of untrue stories,’ Trump tweeted Wednesday. ‘Hence my use of Social Media, the only way to get the truth out. Much of Mainstream Meadia has become a joke! @foxandfriends’ he wrote.

President Trump went back to attacking the ‘fake news media,’ citing a study by a conservative research group that 90 per cent of statements about him on network news were negative

Earlier Wednesday, Trump tried to give himself a pass, noting on twitter that he had backed Sen. Luther Strange in the primary – though he also decided to endorse Moore and stump for him in nearby Pensacola, Florida.

‘Roy worked hard but the deck was stacked against him!’ Trump wrote. The president’s favorable rating was just 48 per cent in deep red Alabama according to election day exit polls.

Trump’s comments followed a study by the conservative Media Research Center, which tallied up positive and negative statements about Trump during the last three months, finding they were 91 per cent negative. In November there were 33 positive statements compared to 320 negative statements, according to the analysis.

The group, which gets funding from conservative foundations, says its mission is ‘to expose and neutralize the propaganda arm of the Left: the national news media. This makes the MRC’s work unique within the conservative movement.’ 

Confetti falls as Democrat Doug Jones and his wife Louise wave to supporters Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2017, in Birmingham, Ala. In a stunning victory aided by scandal, Democrat Doug Jones won Alabama's special Senate election on Tuesday

Confetti falls as Democrat Doug Jones and his wife Louise wave to supporters Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2017, in Birmingham, Ala. In a stunning victory aided by scandal, Democrat Doug Jones won Alabama’s special Senate election on Tuesday

Trump's media attack came hours after he tweeted congratulations to Democrat Doug Jones

Trump’s media attack came hours after he tweeted congratulations to Democrat Doug Jones

The story that kicked off some of that negative coverage came out Nov. 9, when the Post reported Leigh Corfman’s claims that Roy Moore took her back to his home and touched her when she was just 14 years old, adding that he guided her hand to touch him over his underwear.

‘I wanted it over with — I wanted out,’ Corfman recalled. ‘Please just get this over with. Whatever this is, just get it over.’

On Monday, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders uncorked a furious attack on the media after news outlets had to pull back critical stories – saying reporters are ‘purposely misleading the American people.’ 

Sanders escalated her attack on the media after CNN’s Jim Acosta told her that ‘journalists make honest mistakes and that doesn’t make them fake news.’

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders accused reporters of 'purposely putting out information that you know to be false'

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders accused reporters of ‘purposely putting out information that you know to be false’

‘You cannot say that it’s an honest mistake when you are purposely putting out information that you know to be false,’ Sanders responded.

‘There’s a very big difference between making honest mistakes and purposely misleading the American people, something that happens regularly,’ Sanders said.

Over the weekend, a Washington Post reporter apologized after he tweeted out a photo of a half empty arena after President Trump had said the Pensacola arena was packed. The photo was taken before Trump started speaking. 

In another media embarrassment, ABC had to pull back a story by correspondent Brian Ross, who erroneously reported that a source claimed that a close associate of retired national security advisor Mike Flynn’s was prepared to testify that Trump ‘directed him to make contact with the Russians’ during the course of the 2016 presidential race. The direction came during the transition. Ross got suspended.



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