"After green lighting the continuation of the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline in an executive order January 24th, President Trump declared as recently as last week that the pipeline had to use American made steel 'or we’re not building one.
"But on Friday, Trump spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced that the directive would apply only to new pipelines or those currently undergoing repair. That sharp reversal now paves the way for the use of a stockpile of steel manufactured in Canada by a subsidiary of Evraz, a company in which Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich owns nearly a one/third stake."
Meanwhile, in the grand tradition of Harry Houdini, the President of the United States issued a series of presidential tweets (I can't believe I'm writing that) to the effect that the Obama Administration tapped his phone during the campaign. Of course, as always, 140 characters per tweet leaves no room for any proof. The director of the FBI has already repudiated the charge. Even Fox News has questioned the veracity of the claim.
No matter... it serve POTUS's purpose: don't look over here, where I am hiding the red ball in my right hands. Look over there at my left hand... see nothing up my sleeve.
What can higher education do about this perfidy? A good start has been the series of seminars and workshops on fake news, such as this one:
Fake News and Responsible Citizenship
This symposium will provide
students with historical and political context for understanding fake,
misleading and highly ideological news. Speakers will discuss the
political conditions that lead to the proliferation of fake news and
what the consequences are; they will also explain what distinguishes
fake and misleading news from responsible and reliable news gathering.
Library faculty will provide students with concrete tools to recognize
fake news and fact check media sources.
Sponsored by the Political Science Department, the Communication and Journalism Department, and the Rider University Libraries.
We need to be doing more of the same all across America's college campuses. And we need to keep right on doing it, so long as POTUS continues tweeting his phony stories... which, friends, may be a very long time.
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