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Comment by burkaman | Hacker News Reader

Has the president set up an alternative system to promptly and comprehensively communicate public research to the public? Has he given any indication as to what problem this action is solving? Why has he chosen only these particular departments to muzzle? Aren't the press departments of every other executive agency continuing to reinforce the notion that they are an unelected fourth branch of government with their own continuity and agendas?

I think your analogy is reasonable to a point, although corporations and governments are very different. To continue it, is the president going to be forthright to the public about climate change, if the EPA is no longer allowed to issue its own press releases?

Edit: Sorry, these agencies are not the only two that have received gag orders: https://sunlightfoundation.com/list-of-federal-government-ag...

Still, it's not every executive agency.

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If his press sec is any indication, he will only allow their narrative to be told which will more than likely be filled with lies and omissions.

Chances are the press secretary does not want to be compared to Baghdad Bob (Comical Ali in UK and elsewhere). So he's going to have to get it together, sorta like he did today when asked whether he (personally) believed there were 3-5 million "illegal" voters in the election; and he did not say yes, he clearly said the president believes that. Whether the president is a liar or delusional is maybe not a significant distinction, but the press secretary can't tell a bald faced lie more than once, and Spicer just did that on Saturday. My bet is he is either canned or quits within 6 months, and for Trump Time, this will be more like 3 months.

What's the lie? I'm not seeing it.

Is it a lie that the president believes this? His belief doesn't make it true, nor does it mean that its been studied in depth.

It's like when prosecutors talk about court cases, they always say they believe someone is a criminal, sheer scum, and ought to be in prison for life. In fact, none of that has been proven true yet because the court is still in session. It could turn out that the prosecuter is delusional, was fed poor information, or is simply inept.

I'm referring to Saturday's statement as the lie: crowd size, magnetometers, mats, metro numbers. All false information, easily verifiable, and the very next day was called alternative facts by a member of his own team.

Tuesday, reporting what the president believes is the proper way to do it, rather than stating a bunch of falsehoods as if they are facts. So I'm considering Tuesday a Spicer recovery with residual damage of trust. The president on the other hand, proposes without evidence the are millions of criminal voters, while he's the law and order guy, who's not immediately investigating his own concern about electoral integrity. That's bat guano.

He did say that there's a 2008 Pew study that shows 14% of voters are non-citizens, which is a lie.

Which makes him different from what other major office holder?

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