A story for our times:
https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/12/politics/melissa-howard-miami-university/index.html
A conservative news outlet finds that a Republican candidate in Florida didn't graduate from a university she claims to have graduated from.
She says she did, so the conservative news outlet spikes the story.
But...The university says it has no record of her graduating, though she did attend for four years.
The candidate posts a picture of herself with her diploma, which the university then points out is an obvious forgery.
The picture is taken down.
The candidate's response to all this? "Fake news."
Liars and con-men and con-women.
An update since I know you are all on the edge of your seats on this:
Melissa Howard, in a post since taken down, posted a message to Facebook apologizing for making the false claim, while saying that she will stay in the race. Given the obvious deception, she really didn't have much choice, but some props for owning up for what she did.
But of course, being a Republican, she could not help lace her apology with bullshit. "It was not my intent to deceive or mislead anyone." It wasn't? You disputed a truthful media story as a baseless attack coming from your opponent, you took a picture next to a fake diploma and posted fake transcripts, and called (through your spokesperson) the whole issue "fake news." But your intent wasn't to deceive or mislead? What, exactly, was your intent then?
Words have meaning. Are people who use them in this way stupid, or assuming we are?
And for the record, no, she did not apologize to media outlets for calling their correctly reported story "fake news" because disparaging the media without cause has become so much the MO of Republicans its not even worth noting.