“Fake news” is a term we hear a lot these days, thanks to a certain orange-hued ex-president — but what exactly does that mean? One-half of the political comedy duo The Good Liars, Jason Selvig, recently caught up with one MAGA supporter and asked him that very question.
In preparation for CNN’s presidential debate between Trump and Biden on June 27, Selvig met up with one Donald Trump supporter and shared the interaction on X (formally Twitter). The gentleman Selvig spoke to wore wrap-around shades, a “Blue Lives Matter” hat, and an illustration of Trump peeing on the CNN logo in the style of Calvin and Hobbes on his T-shirt, which he gestured to, and said “Fake News.” So, Selvig took this man to be the perfect candidate to explain what was so “fake” about the network’s news coverage.
“Jake Tapper, CNN, we’re gonna find out next week,” the man told Selvig, referring to the shirt and the CNN Trump-Biden debate. But when Selvig asked, “What do you want Trump to say to CNN next week?” the MAGA acolyte responded, “Just expose them for the fraud they are.”
However, when Selvig pressed him further on what specifically CNN has lied about, Mr. Blue Lives Matter ran out of his Trump-approved talking points.
Unlike MAGA’s leader, who never seems to run out of something to say even when it’s unintelligible garbage, when Selvig asked the Trump voter to explain what CNN has lied about he couldn’t answer. The reason why? He doesn’t watch CNN. He said he watches — spoiler alert — Fox News, instead, and then gave Selvig the cold shoulder.
And there you have it — proof that the average Trump voter parrots whatever Trump says without independently verifying the facts, or taking the time to form their own opinions.
How accurate is CNN?
All major media outlets have their problems, CNN included, regardless of whether you fall on the left or right of the American political spectrum. But just how accurate is CNN? Although the MAGA supporter Jason Selvig interviewed couldn’t answer, reputable sources are tracking these things, like Media Bias/Fact Check which rates CNN “left-center” but “mostly factual’ in its coverage. Fox News, meanwhile, gets “extreme” rightwing with questionable sources, according to Media Bias.
But far be it from the average Trump voter to bother with something like facts, as was evidenced in the comments on Selvig’s The Good Liars post, which trotted out the usual suspects like the 2020 election wasn’t rigged or that January 6 wasn’t an insurrection as so-called “proof” CNN’s “lies,” two points alone that MAGA believes simply because the Trump propaganda machine tells them to.
In the end, though, one commenter summed it up nicely when he said, “Gotta give it to the MAGAette: he sure knows how to make poses to try and make himself look tough and superior! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣.”
