'Fake news' Trump knows debunking his lies can take days, weeks or even months

Daily News front pages from July 17, above, and July 21, 2018, below, ran with a New York Times report on layoffs at the tabloid, which "positioned itself as an unapologetically liberal counterpuncher to Rupert Murdoch's New York Post," according to The Times.

The biggest shock in the announcement was not that the newsroom staff would be cut in half and that the editor in chief was out of a job. It was the small number of employees involved -- "more than 40 ..., including 25 of 34 sports journalists and most of the photo department," The Times reported, at what once was the largest-circulation paper in the country.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- "President Trump often cries 'fake news' when he doesn't like what's being reported even when he knows it's the truth," The Washington Post says.

"For example, Trump said he knew nothing about any hush money paid to ... alleged mistresses Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal during the 2016 campaign," The Post's Fact Checker reported on Friday, adding:

"But we later found out that he did know.

"Trump claimed he had no role crafting his son's misleading statement about a meeting with a Russian lawyer during the campaign. But his attorneys later conceded Trump had dictated his statement.

"The moral of this story is that some of Trump's claims can be fact-checked quickly -- say, when he cites spurious data -- but other claims, particularly those involving Russia, can be debunked only after reporters and investigators dig up a full factual record.

"The process can take days, week or months.

"It's easy to lose the thread, and there's a risk these types of claims will end up forgotten in a memory hole."

Confront Trump

As I've said many times before, one possible solution is for reporters to confront Trump and appeal to him to "stop lying to the American people."

But Trump seems to have the upper hand in every meeting with reporters, and when he doesn't want to answer a question, simply says, "Thank you" over and over again or insults the reporter.

Also, The Washington Post Fact Checker should stop calling Trump's lies "false claims." 

The White House press corps has only a few members willing to push Trump or his staff; instead they compete to see who can be first to disseminate the latest presidential lie or tweet.

Where are they now?

I occasionally see the name or byline of one of the staffers who fell victim to Gannett's purchase of The Record of Woodland Park in July 2016.

That was the beginning of the end for more than 350 employees at North Jersey Media Group, publisher of my local daily newspaper, which I no longer subscribe to.

In The Washington Post Fact Checker article I cited today, I saw a tagline for Salvador Rizzo, whose byline from Trenton often appeared in The Record.

And onetime Assignment Editor Debra Vial now is director of communications and community relations at Suez, the water company in North Jersey.

Daily News

More evidence that some newspaper print editions are just limping along came in last week's announcement of layoffs at the Daily News.

The New York tabloid's newsroom apparently contained fewer than 90 employees, including photographers and sports reporters.

The New York Times reported that laying off half the newsroom involved "more than 40 employees." I would have said "only about 40 employees."

This at a tabloid that once circulated in the millions, and in May 2o16 still was the ninth most widely circulated daily newspaper in the United States.