White House list of 'under-reported' terror attacks includes Orlando, San Bernardino, and Paris
Anyone who watched cable news, read a newspaper, logged onto Facebook, or blinked in the days after the terrorist attacks in San Bernardino, Brussels, and Orlando were aware of what took place, but those well-documented incidents were included on a list distributed by a White House official Monday night of attacks the administration believes did not get enough media coverage.
The official said "most" of the 78 listed terrorist attacks that happened between 2014 and 2016 "did not receive adequate attention from Western media sources," CNN says. Earlier in the day, President Trump, while speaking at U.S. Central Command in Florida, falsely accused the media of choosing not to report terrorist attacks; White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer quickly walked back the comments a bit, saying Trump meant to say the incidents were "under-reported."
CNN's Jim Acosta was taken aback by the list, which included the 2016 Pulse Nightclub attack in Orlando, the deadliest mass shooting by a single shooter in the United States, and the coordinated November 2015 attacks in Paris that killed 130 people. "It's a head-scratcher because several of these we here at CNN and other international news outlets covered extensively," he said. "It's puzzling as to why the White House would include these attacks on this list when they were covered for days on end."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The list is also riddled with errors and inaccuracies — San Bernardino is spelled wrong, as is the word "attacker" nearly a dozen times — and it does not note which of the attacks the Trump administration believes did receive adequate coverage.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
-
The 8 best sci-fi series of all timethe week recommends Imagining — and fearing — the future continues to give us compelling and thoughtful television
-
The Trump administration’s plans to dismantle the Department of EducationThe Explainer The president aims to fulfill his promise to get rid of the agency
-
‘These attacks rely on a political repurposing’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Judge halts Trump’s DC Guard deploymentSpeed Read The Trump administration has ‘infringed upon the District’s right to govern itself,’ the judge ruled
-
Trump accuses Democrats of sedition meriting ‘death’Speed Read The president called for Democratic lawmakers to be arrested for urging the military to refuse illegal orders
-
Court strikes down Texas GOP gerrymanderSpeed Read The Texas congressional map ordered by Trump is likely an illegal racial gerrymander, the court ruled
-
Trump defends Saudi prince, shrugs off Khashoggi murderSpeed Read The president rebuked an ABC News reporter for asking Mohammed bin Salman about the death of a Washington Post journalist at the Saudi Consulate in 2018
-
Congress passes bill to force release of Epstein filesSpeed Read The Justice Department will release all files from its Jeffrey Epstein sex-trafficking investigation
-
Trump says he will sell F-35 jets to Saudi ArabiaSpeed Read The president plans to make several deals with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman this week
-
Judge blasts ‘profound’ errors in Comey caseSpeed Read ‘Government misconduct’ may necessitate dismissing the charges against the former FBI director altogether
-
Ecuador rejects push to allow US military basesSpeed Read Voters rejected a repeal of a constitutional ban on US and other foreign military bases in the country
