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Comment by empath75 | Hacker News Reader

Even if trump didn’t say to drink bleach, his statements in context showed such a complete ignorance of many basic facts that even the average 8th grader would know. It’s impossible to defend what he said so people attack the media response to it instead.

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>his statements in context showed such a complete ignorance of many basic facts that even the average 8th grader would know

How does that make the media lying ok? The president being a dumbass does not excuse the media lying, especially not with such dangerous lies.

Whataboutism is apparently not reserved for China criticism

There is no whataboutism. You are creating a strawman, and then complaining about it being fallacious. I am not defending Trump, I am attacking the media. The media are the ones spreading the bleach drinking meme. That is bad. They should not do that. And all I get are these histrionic "omg u luv blumpf fox watcher!1111" responses, nobody actually addresses the issue. If the media did not run insane "don't listen to Trump, drinking bleach is bad!" stories, nobody would think Trump said to drink bleach, because he did not, and because nobody listens to anything he says in the first place, only to what the media says he says.

You have not provided proof that the media said people should drink bleach (let alone a media frenzi about him saying it) and please you should apply the same standards that you apply to the media to your own claims.

Google for "Trump bleach". The entire first page is media either saying Trump said to drink or inject bleach or lysol, or the media saying "don't listen to Trump, drinking bleach is bad", which is clearly implying Trump said that. This should be a pretty big red flag, since the word bleach does not appear anywhere in Trump's remarks. You even have them doubling down on it in the face of people pointing out they are liars:

https://reason.com/2020/04/24/its-not-fake-news-trump-did-ac...

There is no way for them to pretend they don't know better here. They are outright saying "our lie isn't a lie" and repeating the lie.

Here's a quote from the article you linked. Can you specify what part of it is inaccurate? Or dig around, of course you don't have to use the quote I picked. (The quote below may be unsympathetic to the President, but I'm asking where it is inaccurate.)

" Did the president recommend that Americans inject themselves with bleach as a COVID-19 cure or prophylactic? Strictly speaking, no. As McEnany emphasized, he said "you're going to have to use medical doctors" for that sort of thing. But he did idly speculate that, since disinfectants kill the COVID-19 virus on surfaces, it was worth investigating whether they might work as a treatment, and he specifically mentioned "injection," which was not only scientifically naive but reckless given the prevalence of quack remedies and wacky ideas about how to ward off the disease. "

And what does the headline say?

" It's Not Fake News: Trump Did Actually Suggest That Injecting Bleach Could Be a Cure for COVID-19 "

The media didn’t lie. They interpreted his incoherent nonsense uncharitably.

Many media outlets have claimed Trump told people to drink bleach. Unless you can provide a quote of Trump saying that, yes they are absolutely lying.

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