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Tom Davis
(Photo courtesy All Access) |
If you've found yourself wondering - as I have - what role
Cities 92.9 would play during a Trump presidency, wonder no more. Now that the election is behind us, that role - at least in part - has begun to reveal itself, and increasingly appears to be a role of re-writing history. Some might even call it peddling fake news.
A classic example of this phenomenon took place on December 29th, when morning talk show host Tom Davis took a call from Larry, a regular caller to the daytime talk show at Cities called The Morning Buzz.
During the call, Larry pointed out that students and alumni from
Southern Illinois University were putting pressure on school administrators to make SIU a place of sanctuary for immigrants, and that this action was motivated by a perception that Donald Trump had made disparaging statements about Mexicans during his presidential campaign. Larry went on to say that the belief that Trump had made these disparaging statements was simply a product of fake news.
Tom Davis agreed, saying:
"They said that they were upset about Donald Trump, the way he described Mexicans as rapists and murderers, when Trump said some of these people who are coming across the border - who are illegal - are rapists and murderers"
So, if we're to believe both Larry and Tom, Trump wasn't saying anything disparaging about Mexicans, he was simply stating the obvious, which is that some people who come here from Mexico illegally are rapists and murderers. But is that what Trump actually said? Did he only say that
some Mexicans,
who are here illegally, are rapists and murderers? Well, here's Trump in his own words:
"When Mexico sends their people, they're not sending their best. They're sending people that have lots of problems. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people."
Never mind that Trump's statement doesn't mention murderers, it also doesn't distinguish between legal and illegal, making that distinction a fiction that Tom Davis manufactured out of thin air.
More importantly, the statement doesn't say that
some Mexicans are bad people, it says that
some Mexicans are good people. And even more disturbing, is the inclusion of "I assume" in Trump's statement. When Trump says he assumes
some Mexicans are good people, it means he isn't exactly sure.
Clearly, what Trump said, and what Tom Davis would like us to believe he said are opposites. A bit ironic when the overarching topic Tom and Larry were talking about was fake news.
I expect we'll see a lot more whitewashing of the truth by the folks at Cities 92.9 over the next four years. Not surprising by any stretch of the imagination,
it's what they do.
