Michelle Malkin uses Cokie Roberts as an example of early "fake news" because her network faked a SOTU liveshot during the Clinton administration.
September 18, 2019

During Tuesday's Paley Center event on Media Bias, Michelle Malkin used a 1994 story of Cokie Roberts to smear her as being an original purveyor of "fake news," all in an effort to defend Trump's constant attacks on the free press and his narcissistic egomania and serial lying.

Cokie Roberts also died yesterday.

This coming from Malkin, one of the great misinformation conservative artists to ever have an online presence (not named Dinesh D'Souza).

During the event, Malkin claimed Trump "did not invent the concept of fake news."

No, he's only used that concept to try and cover up all his own lies, distortions, mistakes and the serious fake news that's created out of the White House.

Malkin said, "Cokie Roberts of course passed away today and God bless her for an incredible career that she had, but I distinctly remember that she was one of the first guilty culprits of fake news. In 1994, --- "

CNN's Brian Stelter interrupted, "We're doing this today?"

"Yes, we are," she said.

Brian continued, "You're attacking her today? I just want to be clear, the body is not even cold yet."

Malkin replied, "So there we go. Do you want to hear what I have to say."

She defended herself by saying "It's pertinent to the discussion of fake news."

As Newsweek observed, "Some audience members watching the panel at the Paley Center shouted for Malkin to go home."

Yes, Cokie and her boss were reprimanded in 1994 because they gave their viewers the impression that she attended Bill Clinton's SOTU address, but she did not lie to the people about what was said or make up news, invent a story to support a political view or politician.

That's a far cry from "Fake news."

After her soliloquy she said, "Fake news has existed far long before President Trump even had the idea of running for office."

Wow, what an observation.

Malkin could have cited real fake news created famously by William Randolph Hearst that resulted in the Spanish-America war.

But no, since Trump wasn't nice to Cokie upon her death, neither was Malkin.

I've seen Malkin speak at a college event in my neck of the woods and she purposefully says awful things to promote and incite a visceral reaction from the audience -- so she can then claim there was liberal bias against her.

And in the past when Haloscan was controlling our comment sections, she used to find an old article (a year old or older) I wrote or another lefty blogger wrote about her, have her minions put in abusive comments towards her and then write about how mean I was to her.

There are legitimate reasons at times to criticize the work of Cokie Roberts and many other reporters, but in this context it was ridiculous and her example was ludicrous.

Digby famously coined the term "Cokie's Law", which stated that "the village" in Washington (also Digby) determined the importance of a story, whether it was true or not. Cokie Roberts had covered up a debunking of the claim that Hillary Clinton blamed her husband's infidelity on his childhood: "At this point," said Roberts, "it doesn't much matter whether she said it or not because it's become part of the culture. I was at the beauty parlor yesterday and this was all anyone was talking about."

Malkin tried to use Cokie as an example of "fake news" at this conference, but here her efforts were so ham-handed and disgraceful that they fell flat. And she did so to "play the victim" at a conference at which she did not belong.

And let's never forget how Malkin and many other right wing provocateurs doxxed and stalked the Frost family over their support of SCHIP.

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