Former CBS News anchor Dan Rather urged the news media to "step up" and call out Donald Trump's administration if it professes "lies."
"What can we do? We can all step up and say simply without equivocation, 'A lie, is a lie, is a lie!'" Rather said in a Facebook post Sunday in reaction to White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer's Saturday press briefing where he angrily attacked journalists for their "irresponsible and reckless" Twitter coverage of Trump's Inauguration Day crowd estimates.
On Sunday, Trump's senior adviser Kellyanne Conway also rebuked "Meet The Press" moderator Chuck Todd's "ridiculous" claims about the inauguration crowd, and defended Spicer's comments as giving "alternative facts," to which Todd snapped back: "Alternative facts are not facts, they're falsehoods."
"When you have a spokesperson for the president of the United States wrap up a lie in the Orwellian phrase 'alternative facts,'" Rather wrote. "When you have a press secretary in his first appearance before the White House reporters threaten, bully, lie, and then walk out of the briefing room without the cajones to answer a single question…
"When you have a president stand before the stars of the fallen CIA agents and boast about the size of his crowds (lies) and how great his authoritarian inaugural speech was… these are not normal times," Rather added, referring to Trump's speech at the CIA headquarters on Saturday where he called journalists "dishonest."
"Without their [media] support, Donald Trump's presidency will falter."
Reporters should ask one question first when speaking to Republican lawmakers, Rather said: "What will you do to combat the lying from the White House?"
"If they dodge and weave, keep with the follow ups. And if they refuse to give a satisfactory answer, end the interview," Rather said. "Facts and the truth are not partisan. They are the bedrock of our democracy."
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