President-elect Donald J. Trump has been caught telling a falsehood of such monumental proportions that he should resign from our nation's highest office right now! Before his inauguration, so he can do our great country no further harm.
And it took an ever-vigilant media, tirelessly working around the clock to ferret out the truth behind the tall tales told by the rich and powerful, to bring Trump's bald-faced lie to the attention of us gullible folks who were otherwise inclined to take everything Trump says with the absolute literalness of small children. Thank you, Washington Post! Thank you, People magazine! Thank you, Daily Kos!
Here's what the president-elect said, commenting on Meryl Streep's turning the Golden Globes into the Golden Globs of Trump-Bashing:
“We are going to have an unbelievable, perhaps record-setting turnout for the inauguration, and there will be plenty of movie and entertainment stars,” Mr. Trump said. “All the dress shops are sold out in Washington. It’s hard to find a great dress for this inauguration.”
Well! Emily Heil of the Washington Post got right onto that whopper:
[I]s Trump actually saying that Washington’s racks are bare of formal gowns? That there are scant “great” frocks left?…
Definitely not, said Martha Slagle, vice president and general manager of the Neiman Marcus in Friendship Heights. If a ball attendee were to walk in today, “you have more than a thousand evening gowns to choose from,” she said, noting that the store stocks up every four years in anticipation of inauguration demand….
Even the city’s smaller boutiques still have plenty of stock. “We always have dresses,” said Krista Johnson, the owner of Georgetown designer-consignment shop Ella Rue. “Unless a thousand people came in today, we’d still have choices.”
Mediaite trumpeted Heil's bold shoe-leather reporting with a headline: "Trump Claims Washington Dress Shops Are Sold Out Ahead of Inauguration. This Is Not True." Mediaite also included a tweet from the Post's horrified fashion critic, Robin Givhan:
Why FALSELY state inaugural gowns sold-out in DC? Certainly not good for local biz which bring in xtra gowns for the event.
Then People's Diana Pearl wore holes into her own shoes "fact-checking" Trump's statement:
[I]t seems that Trump’s claim is quite a stretch. PEOPLE called a few D.C. area stores that carry formal dresses and evening wear, and every store said they had plenty of inventory available for those seeking an outfit to wear to the inauguration.
And then the Daily Kos uploaded this: "Now Trump's lying about dress shops, because there's nothing he doesn't lie about."
But really, the Pulitzer Prize belongs to Heil–because she also threw in a call-out on Trump's adding the insult of blatant sexism to the injury of distorting the truth: His "old-timey reference to 'dress shops' (ladies wear all manner of clothing these days, including pants)."
Thanks, Emily. We didn't know that.
This is why a full 32 percent of Americans say they trust the media. Media, you've earned that trust.