Friday, February 03, 2017

Lies, Damned Lies And Kellyanne Conway

 

Kellyanne Conway justifies Donald Trump's travel ban by referring to what she calls the "Bowling Greene Massacre." It's true that there's a city in Kentucky called Bowling Green. But there never was any massacre. Claire Phipps explains:

Kellyanne Conway, a senior adviser to Donald Trump, has come in for criticism and ridicule after blaming two Iraqi refugees for a massacre that never happened.

Conway, the US president’s former campaign manager who has frequently faced the press to defend his controversial moves, cited the fictional “Bowling Green massacre” in an interview in which she backed the travel ban imposed on visitors from seven Muslim-majority countries.

Interviewed by Chris Matthews on MSNBC’s Hardball programme on Thursday evening, Conway compared the executive order issued by Trump in his first week in the White House to what she described as a six-month ban imposed by his predecessor Barack Obama.

It's true that two Iraqi men where arrested in Bowling Green on weapons charges. But Conway is peddling her own version of "alternative facts:"

Two Iraqi men arrested in 2011 did live in Bowling Green, Kentucky, and are currently serving life sentences for federal terrorism offences. But there was no massacre, nor were they accused of planning one. The US department of justice, announcing their convictions in 2012, said: “Neither was charged with plotting attacks within the United States.”

The Cato Institute pointed out that:

Of terrorist attacks on US soil between 1975 and 2015 found that foreign nationals from the seven countries targeted by Trump’s travel ban – Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Libya and Somalia – have killed no Americans.

There are lies and damned lies. And then there's Kellyanne Conway.

Image: The Guardian

10 comments:

the salamander said...

.. I finally read Lonesome Dove.. it was interesting to see how one of the protagonists got along with and was highly tolerant of rattlesnakes.. as long as he understood they were there, and their pattern.. it was just a slightly alert albeit uneasy relationship .. We can translate the spin of Spicer & Conroy.. plus the noyz.. from El trumpho.. we know who they are, what they are & where they are.. in a fishbowl to be stared at & examined for cooties ..

Owen Gray said...

People have consistently underestimated Trump, salamander. It should be obvious that we underestimate him and his acolytes at our peril.

The Mound of Sound said...


Perhaps there's a silver lining in all of this if the American media finally refuse to wave their government's false flags. For two decades or more they've succumbed to pitching both sides of the argument without mentioning that only one was true and the other palpably dishonest. Is it any wonder that the American public seems incapable of distinguishing fact from fantasy. Their confusion is genuine and far from inadvertent. It's part of conditioning. America's mass media have been complicit in this.

Owen Gray said...

As I wrote earlier this week, Mound, this is the media's moment -- if they rise to the occasion.

Unknown said...

Nietzsche once said Owen. "It's not that you have lied, but it's that I don't believe you anymore." Kellyanne and her Washington Cohorts lie with impunity. What really gets to me, is she is not even embarrassed about it. It's almost like she thinks, well this lie didn't work, so I'll just move on.

The complete indifference she shows about her story of there being a massacre in Bowling Green, Kentucky as not being true tells me that this woman has no moral compass.

If all she has to contribute to the conversation is lies and that seems to be the case with her,then people should stop listening to her.

Owen Gray said...

She is following in her boss's footsteps, Pam. Giving her air time encourages more scams.

Anonymous said...

Owen,

Someone in the States suggested that from now on, nothing she says should be considered news and whatever she says should be flagged as "entertainment". Viewers should be advised of that classification up front at the start of every news broadcast.

Same goes for Sean Spicer.

JM

Owen Gray said...

I agree. JM. It's the 21st century version of The Gong Show.

Anonymous said...

Without the Gong Owen. : )

JM

Owen Gray said...

These folks make a lot of noise, JM -- and they don't need a gong.