Should billionaire showman and GOP front-runner re-read or re-watch Pinocchio because his nose will soon start to grow? The Better Business Bureau says so.
The Better Business Bureau has shot down some assertions Trump made about Trump University, in reality not a real university that sparked lawsuits in court that will require Trump to testify:
The Better Business Bureau on Tuesday briskly refuted a number of statements that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has made about Trump University, the now-defunct real estate seminar provider that many students allege was a scam.
In last Thursday’s Republican debate, the candidate defended Trump University despite the multiple lawsuits brought by former students and the state of New York.
Challenged by Fox News moderator Megyn Kelly about Trump University’s D-minus rating from the Better Business Bureau, Trump said that “right now it is an A.”
During a commercial break, Trump was caught on camera presenting the debate hosts with a piece of paper that he said showed that rating. “The Better Business Bureau just sent it,” Trump can be heard telling Fox News moderator Bret Baier. “This just came in, we just got it.”
What follows is seeming proof that Trump told an outright lie (unless the BBB is lying, which is what Trump supporters are bound to argue):
But according to the Better Business Bureau, very little of what Trump said is true.
“The BBB did not send a document of any kind to the Republican debate site last Thursday evening,” the nonprofit organization said on Tuesday. “The document presented to debate moderators did not come from BBB that night.”
As to Trump’s basic claim, the watchdog group said, “Trump University does not currently have an A rating with BBB. The BBB Business Review for this company has continually been ‘No Rating’ since September 2015. Prior to that, it fluctuated between D- and A+.”
Following the debate on Thursday, Trump tweeted what he said was the official A rating for the Trump Entrepreneur Initiative, a later name for Trump University.
AND:
On Tuesday, the Better Business Bureau said, “The document posted on social media on Thursday night was not a current BBB Business Review of Trump University. It appeared to be part of a Business Review from 2014.”
Furthermore, the nonprofit stated, “Trump University has never been a BBB Accredited Business. The document handed to the debate moderators on Thursday night could not have been an actual ‘Better Business Bureau accreditation notice’ for this business.”
But truth increasingly matters little in 21st century politics or, by reason of surrender, much of the media:
1. All a candidate has to do is to move his lips and assert something and his followers will believe it, no matter how inaccurate or false it is. It’s politics now more than ever imitating talk radio and political talk cable shows on ideological networks.
2. The media is now weaker due to staff cutbacks so some things are left to slide with little follow ups. How many lead stories are about this key defense of Trump turning out to be false?
3. Partisans and supporters of candidates will cherry pick, demonize another candidate, and ignore a fact or insist a fact isn’t a fact (because their favorite blog, or talk show host, or politician says it isn’t a fact).
4. Our media suffers from ADDH: it covers one story, scrambles to another, and then another but lets a lot of things slide. Part of this is due to the overwhelming amount of news coming out in a world with social media, competing cable channels, and the explosion in digital news.
A lot falls through the cracks so when it comes to serious follow up and holding politicians’ feet to the fire due to inaccuracies, the media often behaves as if it is on crack.
graphic via shutterstock.com
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.