To the Point
CNN and President Trump: Truth and Truth Decay
When the Chief Executive lies repeatedly, what’s a reporter to do? CNN’s Jim Acosta defends his multiple public challenges of Donald Trump in a book called, “The Enemy of the People.”
By Warren Olney • • 52m ListenPresident Trump has changed political discourse as Americans know it by lying demonstrably 10,000 times and then doubling down on his own false information. Acosta has publicly contradicted him so many times Trump’s labeled him the embodiment of Fake News. It’s an example of what the RAND Corporation calls “Truth Decay.” With changing technology--from print to broadcasting to cable TV and digital media--news is based less on facts and more on opinion.
Warren Olney
former KCRW broadcaster
Andrea Brody
Senior Producer, KCRW's Life Examined and To the Point podcast
Jim Acosta
CNN chief White House correspondent and author of “The Enemy of the People: A Dangerous Time to Tell the Truth in America,”
Jennifer Kavanagh
Senior political scientist and lead author of the Rand report on “Truth Decay” and the declining role of facts and analysis in civil discourse and its effect on American life.