It’s Time to Stop Repeating Donald Trump’s Lies

Get your news from a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily.

Just a quick note on something I’ve been doing for the past few weeks. I’m not sure how many of you have noticed, but I’m experimenting with refusing to repeat lies—especially Donald Trump’s—when I respond to them.

This morning, for example, I posted a chart showing the number of abortions by week of pregnancy. Obviously I didn’t do this out of the blue. I did it in response to Trump’s absurd statement at a Wisconsin rally that Democrats favor infanticide: “The baby is born, the mother meets with the doctor, they take care of the baby, they wrap the baby beautifully, and then the doctor and the mother determine whether or not they will execute the baby.” This, of course, is Trump’s hyperbolic version of the right-wing’s general notion that liberals favor abortion right up to the moment of birth.

The truth is that although many liberals prefer to see no non-medical restrictions on abortion, 91 percent of all abortions are performed in the first trimester and something like 99.9 percent of abortions are performed in the first two trimesters.

Question: what do you all think of this experiment? Should I keep refusing to give lies more attention? Or would you prefer to know exactly which lies I’m responding to?

UPDATE: And here’s the response to my mini-survey:

PLEASE—BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things it doesn’t like—which is most things that are true.

We’ll say it loud and clear: At Mother Jones, no one gets to tell us what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please do your part and help us reach our $150,000 membership goal by May 31.

payment methods

PLEASE—BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things it doesn’t like—which is most things that are true.

We’ll say it loud and clear: At Mother Jones, no one gets to tell us what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please do your part and help us reach our $150,000 membership goal by May 31.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate