Trump White House assembling “war room” to strike back against fake news media

The Trump administration has had enough of the “fake news” and media stories that are full of innuendo and allegations but devoid of evidence. The White House is devising a strategy to fight back against the deluge of false and misleading stories that includes assembling a “war room” meant to counter the hostile anti-Trump establishment media.

As reported by Lifezette, the decision comes on the heels of a fake news story by the Washington Post, a serial media offender when it comes to the Trump administration, that alleged the president’s son-in-law and key advisor, Jared Kushner, tried to establish a secret, permanent back-door communications channel to discuss Syria with Moscow, and sought to use the Russians’ own secure diplomatic communications channels — a suggestion that supposedly was reported over open channels to the Kremlin by a surprised Ambassador Sergei Kislyak.

Turns out the story was completely false; in fact, as Fox News corrected the record, it was the Russians who suggested the communications link regarding Syria, and it was just a one-time deal. Following the Post’s report, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., expressed doubts that it was real, saying, “I don’t trust this story as far as I can throw it. I think it makes no sense that the Russian ambassador would report back to Moscow on a channel that he most likely knows we’re monitoring. The whole story line is suspicious.” (RELATED: As Trump struggles to control leaks to media, majority of Americans say publishing classified info is treason)

Regardless, the story reportedly upset the Trump administration, which immediately pushed back — via the Fox News report and through official statements.

“The placement of a counterstory with an outlet considered more fair to the administration signals a small but significant change in tactics after the resignation of White House Communications Director Michael Dubke,” Lifezette reported.

Up to now, the administration has generally been slow to react and respond to false and misleading stories. While there has been some pushback, oftentimes it was uncoordinated and confusing.

The Post especially has been hard-hit by sources who allegedly were supplying the paper with bombshells, only to see them fall far short of their hype or be completely disproven when scrutinized. But the new media war room is meant to address administration response shortfalls by speeding pushback and coordinating counter-narratives.

“I think the news-reading public should tell the media that unless the source is named, we’re going to assume automatically that the source is fictional,” Tim Graham, research director of the bias-monitoring Media Research Center, told Lifezette. “If you really have the goods, then name names.”

So who will head up the new media office? Reports have suggested that President Donald J. Trump is considering bringing back some old, and loyal, hands from his campaign. They include former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and David Bossie, the latter president of Citizens United, a conservative political action and media organization.

The term and concept “war room” came from Bill Clinton’s presidency. When he ran for his first term as governor of Arkansas, he believed that his political rivals would dredge up information about his scandalous personal behavior and he wanted to have a team in place to quickly respond to any and all allegations.

Inside the Trump White House and outside of it, Trump supporters are all in with the idea of a new war room’s “going to the mattresses” strategy of combatting the truly historic nature of hostility shown the current commander-in-chief by the establishment media. (RELATED: Bogus “Trump-Russia Collusion” Story Nothing But A Political Hatchet Job Cooked Up By Obama Loyalist John Brennan)

Following Trump’s first trip abroad, White House spokesman Sean Spicer blasted what he called “fake news,” the overuse of “anonymous” sources and factual errors.

“I think that [President Trump] is frustrated, like I am and like so many others, to see stories come out that are patently false, to see narratives that are wrong, to see ‘fake news,’” he said. “When you see stories get perpetrated that are absolutely false, that are not based in fact, that is troubling. And he’s rightly concerned.”

Another close Trump advisor, Stephen Bannon, formerly of Breitbart News, has called the Leftist establishment media the “opposition party” and an “enemy” of the country. In many respects, he’s correct.

J.D. Heyes is a senior writer for NaturalNews.com and NewsTarget.com, as well as editor of The National Sentinel.

Sources:

Lifezette.com

MediaFactWatch.com

FoxNews.com