The media, who is so eager to bash President Trump at every turn they can’t even give him credit when he kills a murderous terrorist, also can’t seem to take a joke. Wednesday morning, Trump retweeted an obviously photoshopped image, of himself placing the medal of honor around the canine who chased down ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in the raid in which he was killed. The medal had a dog paw on it and was made by conservative outlet The Daily Wire.
AMERICAN HERO! pic.twitter.com/XCCa2sGfsZ
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 30, 2019
Just about every major media outlet beclowned themselves by panning the tweet, from The New York Times to the Washington Post to ABC News to USA Today to The Hill, to The Guardian and others.
Self-important journalist Jim Acosta let everyone know that he did some investigating, and the dog was not at the White House for this picture:
A WH official said "the dog is not at the WH." https://t.co/eJLqBMyKna
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) October 30, 2019
Washington Post reporter Alex Horton was also on top of this important story. He actually contacted the Daily Wire to ask if they had altered the original image. When the Wire’s editor sarcastically responded to the stupid question, Horton ignored his response in his write-up, instead complaining about Trump’s “weird flex:”
Weird flex but Medal of Honor recipient James McCloughan was photoshopped out of a photo and replaced by a dog in a pic Trump tweeted (hours before another MOH ceremony) https://t.co/d1C3N0vXIn
— Alex Horton (@AlexHortonTX) October 30, 2019
Huffington Post White House correspondent S.V. Date complained it was fake news by a “propaganda” site (wait, isn’t that the Huffington Post?):
Fine, just the president of the United States disseminating a doctored image created by a right-wing propaganda site. pic.twitter.com/Ky26zdDaXe
— S.V. Dáte (@svdate) October 30, 2019
Steve Herman, Washington correspondent for the international outlet VOA News, also was eager to reveal the photo wasn’t real:
I've requested details from the @WhiteHouse on this photo.
— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) October 30, 2019
There was no such canine event on today's @POTUS schedule but there is a Medal of Honor ceremony set here for later today for an active duty Green Beret. https://t.co/NESINT9J4b
While Politico and New York Magazine contributing editor David Freedlander took the tweet as seriously as he could:
James McCloughan ran through VietCong gunfire for 2 days, saving 10 men, taking shrapnel from a rocket-propelled grenade and small-arms fire into his head and arm, refusing a superior's order to evacuate. Today he was replaced by a picture of a dog https://t.co/BTDa3qv9KX
— David Freedlander (@freedlander) October 30, 2019
Really showing their desperation, the New York Times even sought out the original medal recipient from the 2017 photo, who was not offended but laughed at the recreated image, much to the media’s disappointment.
