On Wednesday, 17 January, American President Donald Trump announced the winners of his administration’s inaugural Fake News Awards.
The awards were initially scheduled to be held on Monday, 8 January, but were postponed to the 17th, and the names of the winners, which include major US media outlets such as the New York Times, CNN, ABC, Newsweek, and the Washington Post, have since been published on the Republican Party (GOP) website.
The Fake News Awards are a response by the Trump administration, and in particular, President Trump, to what he terms as Fake News – blatant lies or mistruths published under the guise of being authentic news. Trump views US media as being hostile to him and his presidency, and regularly asserts that the mainly liberal leaning media in the US routinely fails to cover his administration’s achievements, and seeks to undermine his presidency by dedicating considerable coverage and reportage on alleged ties or collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia in the 2016 US elections.
When Trump initially made the announcement on 2 January on Twitter it was met with scorn and ridicule from the US press, with some viewing it as an attack on media freedom. The response to this latest development will likely be the same, though Trump’s voters and supporters will likely cheer the move, especially in light of the growing distrust in mainstream news in the US, according to the Gallup and Harvard-Harris polls.
