Topic: Media Research Center
In a July 7 Media Research Center post, John Hirachauer cheered President Trump's "rousing defense of Western civilization" in a speech in Poland, asserting that the only people who didn't like it were the "perpetually outraged." Hirschauer went on to attack CNN's Don Lemon for asking whether Trump should have been "defending America and the press" during his speech:
One wonders- does Lemon’s unabashed patriotism extend to berating a President who literally went on an international tour, denying the uniqueness of the American experiment and apologizing to despots and thug-ocracies the world over for incidents of American intolerance? The answer is no, of course, because he works for CNN, who carried water on this subject (among others) for President Obama.
Hirschauer's evidence of this is a YouTube compilation of outy-of-context quotes in which Obama never actually apologizes for anything. Indeed, the whole idea that Obama went on an "apology tour" is nothing but a right-wing myth. As PolitiFact explains:
We set out to discover whether Obama really had apologized in his speeches, and what he was apologizing for. But in our review of his words, we came up short. Yes, there is criticism in some of his speeches, but it's typically leavened by praise for the United States and its ideals, and often he mentions other countries and how they have erred as well. There's not a full-throated, sincere apology in the bunch.
Hirschauer's further attack on CNN for having "carried water" for Obama on this subject is simply the website pointing out the same thing PolitiFact found: Obama never apologized.
When we tweeted Hirschauer to inform him of his factual error, he responded (in a tweet that was deleted shortly afterward):
No wonder the MRC is pretending truth doesn't actually exist in the age of Trump.
