FAKE NEWS/MEDIA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “In a wild, combative press conference Thursday [2-16-17], President Donald Trump tried to erase doubts about his early days in the White House by returning to what got him there: being Donald Trump.
Blunt and unscripted, the president lambasted the media as dishonest and unfair, blamed Democrats for the ‘mess’ he inherited and bragged about the scope of his electoral victory.
He was, by turns, menacing and jarringly playful, calling reporters by their first names — only to accuse them of not just spreading ‘fake news,’ but a new, more sinister category of dishonesty, ‘very fake news.’ He talked over a question about anti-Semitism and asked an African-American reporter to set up a meeting with black lawmakers.
Almost incidentally, he made some news, including at least one potentially pivotal statement: a declaration that he was not aware that any of his campaign advisers were in contact with Russian government officials. ‘Nobody that I know of,’ he said.”
– Justin Sink, “Candidate Trump Tries to Salvage an Embattled President Trump,” Bloomberg Politics, Feb. 16, 2017