At what little is left of Newsweek, reporter John Haltiwanger published a story on the unfortunate deaths of several pets in Vice President Mike Pence's family during the past two years.
In doing so, he followed what has apparently become a rule in the establishment press during the Trump administration — "There shall be no puff pieces" — and put on a virtual clinic on how to maximize bias, distortion, and disinformation.
Let's start with the headline at Haltiwanger's Thursday dispatch: "MIKE PENCE’S PETS WON’T STOP DYING." The reporter knows that many people will only see the headline, leading them to wonder whether there's something wrong in Pence's household, or even whether they might be neglecting their pets.
The reporter's final paragraph, which notes that the three Pence pets involved died at quite old ages, completely contradicts the implications of the scary headline (bolds are mine):
It is unclear if the stress of Washington life is getting to the Pences' political animals. The typical lifespan for a cat is between 12 to 15 years, so Pickle and Oreo (cats who died at ages 16 and 13, respectively — Ed.) had full lives. The same can be said for Maverick, as beagles typically live between 12 and 15 years, and he made it to the ripe old age of 13. So perhaps there isn't any capital intrigue to the issue.
No, John. There definitely "isn't any capital intrigue to the issue," and you know it.
The sole purpose of Haltiwanger's headline's was to plant a negative impression with headline-skimmers where nothing genuinely negative exists. How despicable — and he was just warming up.
The Newsweek reporter thought it was essential to drag President Trump into the story, with the obvious purpose of getting in a couple of gratuitous digs:
The Pences obviously love animals. But President Donald Trump is the first resident of the White House to not have a pet in many years. Before Trump, every president since William McKinley had a dog and some basically ran personal zoos inside the presidential residence. John F. Kennedy, for example, had 10 dogs, ponies, rabbits and birds. Calvin Coolidge had perhaps the most interesting White House pet: a pygmy hippopotamus named Billy.
Trump, however, is petless. He also reportedly views the Pences as "yokels" and "low class" because of all the animals they've brought to Washington.
There was no genuine reason to bring Trump into the story at all.
About one-third of Americans don't own a pet (68 percent do). The Trumps are among them. In the context of a story about the Pences and their pets, who cares?
The final bolded sentence is brazenly false and misleading. Haltiwanger failed to tell readers that Pence and Trump spokespersons have denied the story twice. His characterization of the "yokels" claim as "reportedly" true without mentioning the denials is, once again, designed to plant negative impressions, this time about the Pences' relationship with the President.
Then there's the video which appears just below the article's headline.
One would expect that the video would relate to the article itself. It wouldn't be difficult to put together a short, still-photo, dialogue-free video presentation on the Pences and their pets. But this is Newsweek, where Trump Derangement Syndrome clearly rules the roost, and where the primary objective appears to be to capitalize on any and every opportunity to bash the President or Vice President.
Instead, the late-October video presented, as seen in the graphic below, shows protesting "Handmaids" who objected to Pence's position on abortion:
In some cases, depending on the browser involved and its settings, the video will automatically play, forcing an uncalled-for distraction onto users who only wanted to read about the Pences' pets.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
