“Truthiness?”

“Truthiness” is a word coined by comedian Stephen Colbert about ten years ago while criticizing the Bush administration.  Colbert used it this way:  “We’re not talking about the truth, we’re talking about something that seems like truth—the truth we want to exist.”  Truthiness, says Michael V. Hayden in The Assault on Intelligence, was Wikipedia’s entry for the word of the year in 2005 and was defined as “a truth ‘known’ intuitively by the user without regard to evidence, logic, intellectual examination, or facts.”

Now there appears to be two videos of the encounter between Mr. Trump and Mr. Acosta (CNN reporter) during the news conference this past Wednesday.  There is the C-Span video taken at the moment of the encounter and there is the video sent out by White House Press Secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, with the message that Mr. Acosta’s White House credentials were withdrawn for the inappropriate behavior of “placing his hands on a young woman just trying to do her job.”  Yesterday morning I watched the C-Span video a half-dozen times and did not see any inappropriate behavior, other than Mr. Acosta’s determined hold on the mic and prodding the president with his question. But now, the video of the incident provided by Sanders (which CNN and others claim to be an altered or doctored video) is flooding social media.  You can view the two videos side-by-side on NBC’s website.  The two videos are different.

The video Sanders tweeted on Wednesday night matched a video clip posted by Paul Joseph Watson, editor-at-large for far-right media outlet Infowars.  Watson denied altering the video, tweeting: “The mainstream media is trying to distract from Acosta’s behavior by claiming I ‘sped up’ or ‘distorted’ the footage that was later posted by Sarah Sanders of Acosta overpowering a woman who tried to retrieve a mic.  This is complete bunk.  I did not.”

Then who did?  Watching the two videos side-by-side one can easily see a difference, though neither video shows Acosta “overpowering a woman who tried to retrieve a mic.”  Yesterday Sarah Sanders said, “The question is:  did the reporter make contact or not?  The video is clear, he did.”  Which video?  The original C-Span footage or the one tweeted from the White House?

Is this an example of “truthiness”—“a truth ‘known’ intuitively by the user without regard to evidence, logic, intellectual examination, or facts?”  Or is it, as Matt Dornic of CNN tweeted:  “Absolutely shameful, @PressSec.  You released a doctored video—actual fake news.”

Antelope Canyon, AZ