Associated Press turns heads for fact-checking Trump

DUBAI: The Associated Press (AP), a New York-based multinational newswire, turned heads Monday with a damning first line in a story about US President Donald Trump.
The story is about Trump’s response to Saturday’s terror attack in London which saw seven people killed as three extremists ran into pedestrians with a van and then went on a stabbing rampage in a popular area of the city.
The article’s opening line reads: “President Donald Trump can’t be counted on to give accurate information to Americans when violent acts are unfolding abroad.”
The declarative line has turned heads and been picked up on by international media.
“It’s a striking lead for AP who don’t usually take a political stance,” the Independent’s sister website Indy100 wrote.
In the AP article, Trump’s Twitter response to the attack in London is questioned.
“Trump suggested terrorism was at play in the London attack, sharing on Twitter an unconfirmed report to that effect, well before British authorities said so.
“It is still not known whether the attackers were British citizens or immigrants and therefore whether a Trump-style freeze on entry of people from certain nations might have prevented the violence by three knife-wielding assailants, who were killed by police,” the article reads.
The article goes on to fact check Trump’s recent statements on attacks abroad, including last week’s shooting in the Philippines which he wrongly referred to as a “terrorist attack.”
“Though the AP may take considerable abuse for the lead of this fact-check, make no mistake about it: It’s not a matter of opinion that the president cannot be counted on to provide accurate information in the clutch, nor is it a matter of perspective; it’s a matter of deduction, as the fact-check itself explains,” The Washington Post wrote.