Most mothers have told their children at some point that just because they don't like something, it does not mean it is not true. But this point may be lost on President Donald Trump, who, on May 9, tweeted: "91% of the Network News about me is negative (Fake)." The tweet, which also threatened to withhold press credentials from the offending media outlets, seems to allude to the fact that President Trump sees all negative coverage of him as being "fake," regardless of the actual facts. This is only the latest instance of the president inspiring unrest through Twitter.

The president's definition of fake is at odds with the definitions found in the Merriam-Webster and Oxford dictionaries, which define fake as an untruth, not something that is negative.

Conservative group's study appears to be the basis of 91 percent claim

In September 2017, the conservative Media Research Center released a study that said that for June, July and August 2017, 91 percent of the media coverage of President Trump was negative. The study compared that number to the first three months of the Trump Administration, with 89 percent of media coverage being negative. This appears to be the only place where 91 percent of the media coverage of the president has been called negative.

WHCA balks at president's threat

The White House Correspondents' Association (WHCA), which is made up of members of the media with press credentials for the White House press room, quickly responded to the president's threat, calling it "unconscionable."

WHCA President Margaret Talev quickly responded with a statement that called out the president’s inflammatory rhetoric concerning the media and likewise scolded him, saying that his dislike of what the media is saying "does not make it fake.

" Talev went on to state that it is the responsibility of a free press to report on everything that is happening, whether good or bad, from the important to the mundane. She then called any possible action by the president to prevent the press from doing its job an "unconscionable assault on the First Amendment."

The restricting of credentials or other control of media access by President Trump would not be without personal precedent for him, as during his presidential campaign he blacklisted several prominent outlets, including The Washington Post, the Huffington Post, BuzzFeed, Univision and the Des Moines Register.

But those actions did not appear to stall coverage of his campaign, as these media outlets continued to attend events and get information from insiders. Likewise, if the Trump Administration revokes press credentials again, it may only increase the amount of negative coverage he receives.
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