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Commentary: Keeping Track Of The So-Called Campaign 'News'

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump talks with reporters at a campaign event in October 2015. (Jim Cole/AP)
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump talks with reporters at a campaign event in October 2015. (Jim Cole/AP)

Are you following media coverage of the presidential contest? It’s hard to keep up with this race because, uh, it’s so absurd.

How can you separate truth from fiction? Let’s see if you can.

One of these nine news items is untrue. Do you know which one?

1. Hillary Clinton told an audience that extraterrestrial aliens may have visited our planet.

2. A Ted Cruz super PAC took a clip about fantasy football from a humorous video by Marco Rubio and put it in a TV spot about terrorism to suggest Rubio is not serious enough to be president.

3. The campaign spokeswoman for Donald Trump wore a necklace made of bullets during a TV interview. When criticized for it, she tweeted, “Maybe I’ll wear a fetus next time.”

4. A new book by Dr. Ben Carson’s wife recounts that she went into premature labor in their house and the neurosurgeon had to deliver their son in the bathroom — using a hair clip.

5. Bernie Sanders, the democratic socialist, seems like the opposite of billionaire capitalist Donald Trump — but volunteers for Sanders are instructed to target Trump voters when canvassing.

6. Gov. Chris Christie was absent from New Jersey over 200 days last year, while campaigning for president — but attacked Rubio as a “no-show” for missing votes in the U.S. Senate.

7. Appealing to evangelicals, Cruz told volunteers on a conference call that he’d win “if we awaken and energize the body of Christ,” urging them to “strap on the full armor of God.”

8. The first TV spot for Trump shows video of dozens of people supposedly crossing the U.S.-Mexican border, but the campaign manager admitted that it was actually video from Morocco.

9. Nightly TV news shows announced that for the next month they’d “reduce ratings-driven coverage of Trump, sensational and feel-good stories to report more in-depth about differences between the presidential candidates on substantive issues.”

Can you guess which of the above items is not true?

Of course it’s the last one. Haha, so absurd.

Todd Domke is a Republican political analyst and regular contributor to WBUR Politicker.

Headshot of Todd Domke

Todd Domke Republican Political Analyst
Todd Domke is a Republican political analyst for WBUR.

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