Strikethrough is a new Vox video series breaking down challenges in journalism and news media under the Trump presidency.
How should the media cover a White House that isn’t afraid to lie?
The Trump administration isn’t afraid to get caught lying. That poses a real challenge for journalists.
Between the never-ending barrage of breaking news and overt hostility from White House officials, the first two weeks of the Trump administration have posed a challenge for major news networks. But one of the most telling signs of what the Trump-media relationship might look like over the next four years came the day after Trump’s inauguration.
During his first press briefing as White House press secretary, Sean Spicer told a silly, obvious lie about the size of Donald Trump’s inauguration crowd, calling it “the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration — period — both in person and around the globe.” That lie, along with several others Spicer told that week, reflected Trump’s own penchant for casual, blatant dishonesty. And it raised a tricky question for journalists who are used to seeing the White House as a credible source of information: How do you cover a White House that isn’t afraid to lie?
