As the 100-day mark of Donald Trump’s Presidency came and went, we were once again reminded that our news media should be given “a big, fat, failing grade” at being authentic; apparently they have not been covering our fearless leader’s ‘achievements’ to his degree of satisfaction. Meanwhile, at the White House Correspondent’s Dinner, which was absent a U.S. President for the first time since 1981, President of the White House Correspondents’ Association Jeff Mason reminded us that the role of journalism is to “report on facts, and to hold leaders accountable”, and that “We (the media) are not ‘fake news’. We are not failing news organizations, and we are not the enemy of the American people.”

With all of Trump’s talk of ‘fake news’, you would think that it’s a relatively new concept, but actual, truly fake news is nothing new. ‘Fake news’ is defined as ‘a sensational piece of news which does not map to reality, created to attract attention or damage somebody’s reputation.’ This definition is synonymous with the definition of propaganda, ‘the spreading of ideas, information, or rumor for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, a cause, or a person.’ Thus, we can say reliably that fake news has existed since as far back as the first instances of propaganda.

What does this mean for Donald Trump and the news organizations that he continuously slams?

For the news media, it’s vindication. They’ve been doing exactly what they have been tasked to do: reporting the facts. They’ve told us what has been said and who has said it, what has been done and who or what has done it. They’ve been fulfilling their role to the United States and democracy. How the facts are interpreted is where the waters get muddied. If someone asks, “Is it true that because so-and-so did this thing to what’s-his-face that there is corruption in the House of Representatives?” there’s an inherent bias in the person’s mind that there is corruption in the House of Representatives. That’s not the fault of the news, that’s a fault in the questioner’s logic, whether there is or isn’t corruption in the House.

For Donald Trump, it’s a big fat failing grade for every instance where he has made accusations against people and organizations without any factual basis. His ever-present claims of the media being fake, his claim that our murder rate is the highest it’s been in 47 years, saying that Hillary Clinton invented ISIS, and painting illegal immigrants as criminals… these and many other statements that he’s said in person and over Twitter are nothing more than propaganda, and as you read earlier, the definition of propaganda is synonymous with the definition of fake news.

Seems that if the President is so against fake news, he should stop producing so much of it.