Politics

One Year Ago Trump Turned The Media’s Favorite Term Against Them When He Called Acosta Fake News

Daily Caller News Foundation logo
Thomas Phippen Thomas Phippen is acting editor in chief at the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Font Size:

During his first major press conference as president-elect, Donald Trump coopted a phrase used against him, “fake news,” and slammed an entire news organization in the process.

Thursday marks the first anniversary of the raucous press conference at Trump Tower where the former reality TV star lobbed one of his most memorable insults at CNN’s White House correspondent Jim Acosta.

WATCH:

Trump criticized a CNN report about the now infamous dossier alleging collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. CNN’s report, Trump said during the press conference, alleged that Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen had met with Russians in Prague during the campaign, but in fact he had never left the country.

“Sir, since you’re attacking us, can you give us a question?” Acosta said, but Trump ignored him and called on another reporter. As Acosta continued to interrupt and Trump attempted to take questions from someone else.

“No, I’m not going to give you a question,” Trump said. “I’m not going to give you a question. You are fake news.”

“Mr. President Elect, that’s not appropriate,” Acosta said as some around the room cheered and applauded the put down.

The dossier, which CNN reported on but did not publish, was released by BuzzFeed News (which Trump called “a steaming pile of garbage” during the conference) in full and has continued to plague both news agencies as none of its claims have been verified.

A year later, the White House’s battles with the media and particularly CNN have only escalated, and the term fake news — first coined to explain the dearth of hoax stories that must have propelled a celebrity entertainer ahead of supposed front-runner former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — became one of Trump’s most effective cudgels against what he considers biased reporting.

BuzzFeed news media editor Craig Silverman says he helped popularize the term fake news years ago, well before Trump entered politics, but now cringes when he hears the term. Silverman says he used the term to research fringe websites that wrote objectively false stories to attract clicks and ad revenue, and that he never expected the term to become so partisan.

After the 2016 election, “shocked U.S. Democrats, looking for explanations, adopted the concept as an easy answer to the puzzle of Donald Trump’s election,” Silverman wrote in December. “And in response, Trump and his supporters saw the term as a threat and an insult — and a weapon.”

Trump continues to use the term fake news to point out willful bias in reporting, and CNN has repeatedly flubbed multiple high-profile stories about the White House.

The Trump team even has a pending award for the most egregious example of false and biased reporting from a mainstream outlet. The Fake News Awards were supposed to be announced Jan. 8, but was delayed to Jan. 17 because of the unexpected interest.

“The interest in, and importance of, these awards is far greater than anyone could have anticipated!” Trump tweeted Sunday.

Acosta took the occasion of the first anniversary of that initial press conference to thank people who gave him “kind words” and praise his colleagues for their work, concluding with the hashtag “realnews.”

ALSO WATCH: Daily Caller White House Correspondent Gives Predictions For The Fake News Awards

Follow Thomas Phippen on Twitter

Send tips to thomas@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Freedom of Speech Isn’t Free
The Daily Caller News Foundation is working hard to balance out the biased American media. For as little as $3, you can help us. Make a one-time donation to support the quality, independent journalism of TheDCNF. We’re not dependent on commercial or political support and we do not accept any government funding.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel