A tweet from President Trump about Fox News and OANN caused the Washington Post’s lead fact-checker, Glenn Kessler, to serve up what ended up being a two-fer:
A reminder that most modern presidents barely looked at television, unless it was a breaking news event, since they had access to much more accurate information from government sources https://t.co/F63TUdFXdS
— Glenn Kessler (@GlennKesslerWP) January 1, 2021
Hmm…
That time the @washingtonpost ‘s leading fact checker told us Trump was the only president who ever watched television… https://t.co/Yly0I61b1p
— fudgetosser (@fudgetosser) January 2, 2021
Others have different recollections:
Hold up here, Sparky. pic.twitter.com/rGwtd5PntQ
— Mostly Plorable (@mbeauchamp3) January 1, 2021
— T. Garcia (@tacitus_012) January 2, 2021
Hmmm… https://t.co/reMEc0kSRo pic.twitter.com/ngOi9KUkUm
— Rev. Ducati? (@Reverend_Ducati) January 2, 2021
Television seemed to be one of the primary ways the nation’s 44th president learned things about his own administration, at least according to Obama himself:
Bro.. This is literally how Obama found out about all the bad stuff his admin was doing https://t.co/Y66lKm17Qo
— Kazundo Gōda (@Anonsource7) January 1, 2021
That's where Obama learned about almost everything negative that happened in his administration, according to him.
— (. ❛ ᴗ ❛.) (@mac_n_cheezcake) January 2, 2021
*cough* https://t.co/KPjUKihKg8 pic.twitter.com/oXUfqOaojS
— Glubbling™ Coral Reef ? (@MrRandem) January 1, 2021
Maybe the media was too busy carrying Obama’s water to notice that he had an affinity for television, sports and other entertainment.
“President Johnson simultaneously talks on the phone and watches three television sets in the Oval Office.” https://t.co/cpNKZ735Fa https://t.co/aqLDHSohXJ pic.twitter.com/UutewxAe2y
— Sean Durns (@SeanDurns) January 1, 2021
The apparently unintentional swipe at the media is a nice touch as well:
So the news media isn’t accurate he’s saying. We know. https://t.co/2CBVf2VMMw
— Ashley (@sassy_ashy) January 2, 2021
Glenn takes dig at DJT and ALL of broadcast journalism in one fell swoop. WaPo is totally reliable though… https://t.co/ouYEv8IHYX
— BlueNGold (@BlueNGold92) January 2, 2021
Only thing worse than thinking the government is accurate? An alleged journalist doing so. https://t.co/FvXo46WbnJ
— Anthony Bialy (@AnthonyBialy) January 2, 2021
So at least that part of the fact-check was accurate.