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Reich writes: "The problem is not just that these and other Trumpistas do not seem to care about the truth (though this is certainly a huge problem); it's that a lot of people in the emerging Trump administration insist that their ravings are true. This naturally brings them into conflict with those whose job it is to distinguish fact from fiction - scientists, journalists, policy analysts. Hence, efforts to intimidate."

Robert Reich. (photo: Reuters)
Robert Reich. (photo: Reuters)


Trump and the Dark Art of Disinformation

By Robert Reich, Robert Reich's Facebook Page

09 December 16

 

he one quality that all of Trump’s picks for his cabinet and his transition team seem to share is an expertise in the dark art of disinformation. Three pertinent examples:

  1. Scott Pruitt, Trump’s nominee to head the Environmental Protection Agency, and currently the attorney general of Oklahoma, is an outspoken critic of the agency that he would lead. As a 2014 investigative piece in the Times revealed, Pruitt’s criticisms have little basis in evidence. Instead, he has basically served as a mouthpiece for talking points dreamed up by the oil and gas industries. In one case, Pruitt signed a letter criticizing the E.P.A. for supposedly exaggerating the air pollution attributable to natural-gas drilling in Oklahoma. It turned out that the letter had been written for him by one of the state’s biggest drilling companies.

  2. Chris Shank, the first person Trump has named to what’s being called the “landing team” for the EPA, has spent the last several years working for Representative Lamar Smith, of Texas, who chairs the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. Under Smith, the committee has held about a dozen hearings on climate change, all with the same objective: trying to prove that climate change isn’t happening.

  3. Andy Puzder, Trump’s pick for Secretary of Labor, opposes new overtime rules proposed by the Department of Labor that would extend guaranteed overtime pay, claiming that not having overtime pay confers “prestige” and “an increased sense of ownership” to overworked and underpaid managers. Puzder also claims that employees turn down promotions that could lead to $80,000 salaries because they "don't want to lose the free stuff from the government." There is no empirical basis for either of these claims.

The problem is not just that these and other Trumpistas do not seem to care about the truth (though this is certainly a huge problem); it’s that a lot of people in the emerging Trump administration insist that their ravings are true. This naturally brings them into conflict with those whose job it is to distinguish fact from fiction -- scientists, journalists, policy analysts. Hence, efforts to intimidate.

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