The White House on Friday launched a new website feature called “Media Offender of the Week,” aimed at calling out news outlets it says spread false or misleading information about US President Donald Trump.
Under a banner reading “Misleading. Biased. Exposed.,” the page shows several media organisations, including CBS News, The Independent, and The Boston Globe.
The White House also named several “repeat offenders” that it says consistently misreport the news, including The New York Times, Axios, Politico, ABC News, The Hill, The Associated Press, and more.
The website also features an “Offender Hall of Shame,” listing CNN, MS NOW (formerly MSNBC), The Washington Post, and CBS News again.
Below this, claims from various outlets are categorised under labels such as “Bias,” “Lie,” “Malpractice,” and “Left-wing Lunacy.”
The site criticised media coverage of a viral video in which six Democratic lawmakers asked US service members to “refuse illegal orders,” claiming the outlets misrepresented Trump's response as a call for the lawmakers' “execution.”
The White House explained, “The Democrats and Fake News Media subversively implied that President Trump had issued illegal orders to service members. Every order President Trump has issued has been lawful. It is dangerous for sitting Members of Congress to incite insubordination in the United States' military, and President Trump called for them to be held accountable.”
Other points on the site include, “Democrats released a video calling for service members to disobey their chain of command, and in turn, implied President Trump had issued illegal orders,” and “Despite knowing President Donald Trump had never issued an illegal order, the Fake News decided to run the story anyway.”
Responding to being listed, a Washington Post spokesperson said, “The Washington Post is proud of its accurate, rigorous journalism.”
On Monday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt sharply criticised a New York Times article suggesting that Trump is showing signs of decline, calling the report “unequivocally false.”
The article, titled “Shorter Days, Signs of Fatigue: Trump Faces Realities of Ageing in Office” claimed Trump's schedule slowed compared to his first term.
“I will point out one fake news story from The New York Times,” Leavitt said at a press conference. “That took about one‑third of the president's daily calendar … and said that he's doing less than he did in his first term, or he might not be fit for the job,” Leavitt told reporters. “That is unequivocally false.”
Leavitt accused The NYT of double standards, saying the same reporter had previously given former President Joe Biden more favourable coverage after a 2021 stumble on Air Force One.
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