A "who said it?" mystery

The national press seems to have missed the point when it comes to “Fake News.”

I was watching a press conference with the new Trump spokeswoman - the brunette, not the blonde - charging that the media gives fake news all the time, and using the latest CNN flap as proof that they all do it all the time, running stories without naming sources or naming names.

I was aghast. Not because I used to do it all the time myself - you might guess that a lot of the information came from insiders who would be fired if their bosses knew that they were talking to me - but because the Trump people do it all the time as well.

“Hypocrisy,” someone said. I won’t say who, but probably some Greek.

What do I mean? Well, she was asked about Trump’s warning about serious consequences if the Syrians use chemical weapons again, and the charge that Trump made his little tweet without consulting the military or the state department.

Oh no, she said. We talked to the top people about it.  (I have not used quotation marks just to prove that I was not quoting her word for word, only trying to get at the essence of what she said. It’s a small point, but I don’t want to have to fire myself for making a single mistake in this rant.)

Well, Trump may well have talked to people in those agencies. Top people, maybe. But, how will we ever know unless she names the people, and we can talk to them and see if they are being quoted correctly, or if their opinions are being reflected fairly and accurately. That’s three different things we can’t know unless she names them.

There is only one conclusion to make. Fake Official Comment.

But, wait. What if the press conference was behind closed doors, and recordings were not allowed. And what if she later denied saying whatever it was that she said.

It would just be her word against the words of a pack of journalists who whine about everything and always support each other anyway.

You can see where this is going. Maybe it’s time to start asking her just who in State and the Pentagon were consulted about the twitter threat, and what it actually means, and what they said. And, maybe, when they said it and what the context was and what Trump originally said to them - was the proposed tweet mentioned word for word? - and all the other follow-up questions that would be appropriate to ask.

Or, do we just learn to live with Fake Official Comments.