Don Surber spotted the first instance of fake news on 2019, and it only took a few hours.
The American media is so vested in the failure of President Donald John Trump that it turned inside out Kim [Jong un]’s New Year’s message of peace.
Reports outside the United States, in South Korea, where the issue is a matter of life and death, saw an encouraging message:
First, this is how the Korea Herald reported the story: “The North Korean leader on Tuesday reiterated his determination to achieve complete denuclearization and also called for economic development in his annual New Year’s address, stressing the need to strengthen the North’s defense.
“In the address, Kim Jong-un highlighted last year’s developments in inter-Korean and US-North Korea relations, while calling on his country to seek economic development and modernize its defense industry.
“Kim delivered the address while sitting on a sofa in an office with portraits of his father, Kim Jong-il, and grandfather Kim Il-sung in the background. His previous New Year’s addresses had taken place in more formal settings, with Kim standing at a podium.
Interesting, this choice of a business suit and a casual setting. In dictatorships, such contextual clues usually tell us a lot about what the tyrant is trying to communicate. In Seoul, they picked up the positive nuance:
While Kim’s address included conditions for further talks with the US, Seoul welcomed the speech as a sign of the North Korean leader’s willingness to improve inter-Korean relations and achieve denuclearization.
But as Don shows, this was much too positive a message for CNN: MORE
Are these fake news readers using “1984” as a work manual now?
Hunh. I’m looking around, trying to find out what CNN asked Romney yesterday about Trump’s “foreign policy disaster” in North Korea. Can’t seem to find anything. Seems like if it was true, CNN would lob that softball to Mitt, since it fits so perfectly with his FoPo narrative about Trump. If it was true, of course.