Todd Bishop
In this era of information explosion, sometimes, what you see is not true, because someone will make up news, such as Peter Navarro, director of the White House National Trade Commission.
Navarro once wrote “Fatal China”, saying that China “deliberately manipulates the exchange rate” and “creates a trade deficit” and so on. It is because of this remark that he was labeled as “extremely anti-China” within the government of Donald Trump.
There are not many people in the United States who blame China. The problem is that Navarro has used the term “Ron Vara” as an expert in the text to “certify” himself. This person is described as a doctoral student at Harvard University. Moreover, this person appeared not only once, but in the six books of Navarro, and even appeared in the index.
But Australian National University scholar Tessa Morris-Suzuki found that this so-called “expert” did not exist in reality, and Harvard did not have his record, only the transformation of Navarro’s own real name ( Navarro – Ron Vara). In this regard, Navarro explained that this is a “wonderful setting and pen name”, just to increase the “entertainment value.”
But in terms of “making fake news,” Navarro is a little sorrowful compared to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. When Pompeo answered questions on April 15, 2019 after a speech at Texas A&M University (a famous American military academy), he directly said: “What is the school motto of West Point? “Rejecting lies, refusing to deceive, and taking theft, and I will never tolerate people who act like this, but I was the head of the CIA. We lied, deceived, and stolen. We can almost say that there are specialized courses to train people to do so.”
When the Saudi oil field was attacked in September, and the outside world was still guessing who was the mastermind, Pompeo immediately stood up and said: It is Iran. On the Venezuelan issue, on April 30, Venezuelan “provisional president” Juan Guaido led dozens of people to launch a military coup against the government of Nicolas Maduro. Mike Pompeo said: “Madro has a plane on the tarmac ready to fly to Cuba, and then Russia hints that he should stay.”
As a result, Pompeo’s words are hard to prove. The attack on the Saudi oil field is still inconclusive, and Maduro has not been overthrown yet.
US President Donald Trump is always dissatisfied with “fake news media,” which has become a proper term in his mouth, including but not limited to CNN, The New York Times, and Mainstream media such as The Washington Post. As long as CNN, The New York Times and other media released news about Trump’s unfavorable news, Trump would stand up and denounce them.
Trump claims to be deeply victimized by “fake news.” In reality, he is also creating “fake news.” For example, on the issue of trade wars, he said that thousands of companies have withdrawn from China, saying that China’s economy is very bad. These are all refuted by the data.
“The soldiers do not deceive,” the United States enjoys the right to speak in the West and the dominance of public opinion. The government’s position is usually more rigorous. Sometimes, what the United States says, public opinion thinks this is the truth. But today’s US government has tore up this layer of “figure cloth”, directly spreading rumors and launching a public opinion offensive.
In the case of a large amount of information circulating today, unclear public opinion is often spread without rigorous confirmation, and it is rumored to be rumored without knowing or knowing it. The Trump team can be described as the forerunner of this situation – first create a fake news, public opinion is true and false, and if it is questioned, you can find a reason to correct it. If Navarro is, Pompeo is like Trump, and Trump is even more.
For the world, this trend may be difficult to reverse. The US government chooses to act in this way without any cover, and it is impossible for people to stop it. Perhaps, in the end, people can rely on the old saying: rumors stop at the wise.
