Trump calling stories he doesn't like 'fake news' is akin to 'state-run media', says director of American Press Institute

The President’s recently launched 'real news' series 'smacks of state-run news', the media expert warns

Donald Trump’s habit of calling media coverage he doesn't like “fake news” is “Orwellian, and it’s happening right now, right here”, a media scholar has said in a discussion about the President's online TV network.

Tom Rosenstiel, the executive director of the American Press Institute, said Mr Trump's recently launched “real news” series on his Facebook page – viewed by critics as another effort by the President to discredit traditional, independent news organisations – “smacks of state-run news, and we’re not supposed to have state-run news in the United States of America.”

The series, part of a broader “Trump TV” project, is produced at Trump Tower and is reportedly paid for by Mr Trump's re-election fund.

In the first segment, Lara Trump – the wife of Mr Trump’s son, Eric Trump, and a former Inside Edition producer – declared, “I bet you haven’t heard about all the accomplishments the president had this week because there’s so much fake news out there!”

“What makes Trump different is that he’s systematically trying to delegitimize the news as an institution because they won’t cover him the way he wants to be covered,” Mr Rosenstiel said in an interview with Vox. “That’s what’s different here. He’s actively provoking people to distrust the news, to distrust information that doesn’t come from him. This is what demagogues and despots do.”

The second segment of Mr Trump's series posted on Sunday featured former CNN commentator Kayleigh McEnany as the host.

In the 90-second video, Ms McEnany – who was also just hired as the spokesperson for the Republican National Committee – summarised positive news for Mr Trump, announcing he has created more than 1 million new jobs. She also noted the low unemployment rate, high consumer confidence and surging stock market and concluded, “President Trump has clearly steered the economy back in the right direction.”

“As the Washington Post article made so clear, is that even though these are only 90 seconds long, it’s riddled with errors and inaccuracies,” Mr Rosenstiel said. “That means Trump can spread media content that fact-checking independent journalists would never publish.”

While the July jobs report was “better than expected” and the unemployment rate is the lowest it's been since 2001, the Post reported, Mr Trump did not change the direction of the economy, which had already been improving under his predecessor, former President Barack Obama.

During the last six months of the Obama administration, the economy added slightly more jobs than it did during the first six months of Mr Trump’s presidency, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Others have also attacked the Trump TV online newscasts. Michael McFaul, the US’s former ambassador to Russia, tweeted, “Wow. Feels eerily like so many state-owned channels I've watched in other countries.”

George Orwell's 1984, first published in 1949, features fictional devices known as telescreens, which the government in the book uses to broadcast propaganda about its military victories, economic production figures and spirited renditions of the national anthem.

Positive-spin, week-in-review videos were also made by the Obama White House. However, they did not focus on dispelling media coverage the president or his administration didn’t like.