Fake News: THR, TheWrap Omit Warren’s ‘Pocahontas’ Roots
Today’s entertainment outlets love reporting on the latest political headlines.
Why?
Maybe it’s a clickbait thing. There’s certainly enough going on in entertainment today to fill up any arts site. Trump equals clicks, no doubt about it.
Still, at a time when the Associated Press regurgitates the latest anti-Trump “Saturday Night Live” sketch it’s easy to understand. Entertainment news is often plain ol’ news. And vice versa.
That means the same liberal biases infecting mainstream reportage is found on purportedly neutral Hollywood sites. This week offered a perfect example.
On Monday President Donald Trump paid tribute to Native American code talkers at the White House. During the presentation Trump took a dig at political rival Sen. Elizabeth Warren by calling her “Pocahontas.”
He’s used the moniker before on the liberal senator. Why? Because Warren’s claim that she’s of Native American descent is likely a lie. She’s never been able to prove it, but we do know she used that “status” to boost her career.
Here’s the full story:
The truth is, Warren is probably not Native American but claimed she was to advance her academic career, which eventually landed her a gig at the prestigious Harvard Law School. The university even promoted Warren as a Native American faculty member back in 1996 in a Harvard Crimson piece on diversity on campus. The Boston Herald eventually revealed that Warren claimed to be Native American in 2012 when she was in the midst of a Senate race and it became a subject of great controversy … Since then, various reports found that Warren had been describing herself as a minority since the 1980s and she simply chalked it up to family lore that has been passed down but which she couldn’t prove with actual documentation.
It’s Cultural Appropriation 101. And a news outlet covering Trump’s Pocahontas slam isn’t doing its job without providing that critical context.
Enter TheWrap.com and The Hollywood Reporter. They both covered Trump’s “Pocahontas” comments. Guess what each forgot to mention?
The critical context.
For TheWrap it gets even worse. The site selectively quoted press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ defense of her boss while neglecting to mention this:
Sanders: Look, I think that Senator Warren was very offensive when she lied about something specifically to advance her career. I don’t understand why no one is asking about that question and why that isn’t constantly covered.
In short, TheWrap.com OMITTED both the rationale for the “Pocahontas” slam as well as Sanders’ articulate defense. The site did mention one hyperbolic critic’s rant against Trump – without naming him or her!
“Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters in White House daily press briefing that saying Pocahontas is NOT a racial slur!” one critic tweeted. “THAT is a KKK talking point, btw.”
Who said it? The Pope? Sen. Chuck Schumer? FrankTheTank249 from Twitter?
Maybe we’ll never know.
The Hollywood Reporter’s piece detailed how the liberal late night hosts piled on Trump for the comments.
Naturally, the progressive talkers didn’t give the mandatory context, either.
Why, it’s almost as if media outlets deliberately distort the news to favor one ideology over another.
Photo by mdfriendofhillary on Foter.com / CC BY-SA
If people in Massachusetts really want to kick Warren out of office, they need to check out Shiva Ayyadurai. https://shiva4senate.com/
OK so I watched the whole thing in the link above. I’d say the reason Trump got flak on this is nothing to do with the veracity of the Warren criticism, which may be accurate and may not. It’s that – after a presentation by genuine war heroes, and their sharing of a remarkable and solemn story – practically the first thing out of Trump’s mouth is a repeat of his “Pocahontas” dig. It was unrelated to the event and after the mention of the thousands who died at Iwo Jima, it felt entirely inappropriate and almost juvenile.