President Donald Trump's administration is facing new allegations of being biased against the media after releasing a list of 78 terror attacks it claims were "under reported" by the media. One of those attacks happened in Boston.
The president released the list Monday but didn’t give any specifics as to what qualified as fair coverage.
Trump, however, may have been making up some news of his own. On Monday, he told a group of soldiers at the U.S. Central Command in Tampa the media wasn’t reporting enough about terror attacks.
"It's gotten to point where it's not even being reported, and in many cases the very, very dishonest press doesn't want to report it," Trump said.
When Press Secretary Sean Spicer was pressed for details, a list of 78 terror attacks was released which included the Orlando night club shooting and the fatal police shooting of Usaamah Rahim who allegedly wanted to kill officers in Boston in 2015.
"There's a lot of instances that have occurred where they haven't gotten the coverage they deserve," Spicer said.
Northeastern University Professor Max Abrahms believes the Trump’s criticism is all for political gain and that it's the latest chapter in the his crusade against "fake news".
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"There was an attack in Baga, Nigeria, which killed many hundreds of people. an entire village was basically decimated and that got almost no media attention," Abrahms said.
Abrahms says part of the reason why some attacks are under reported is because for many Americans there may not be any local connections to them. But he says many of the recent terrorist attacks may have helped Trump get elected.
"It’s a really a hard thing to argue that the attacks in San Bernandino and Orlando didn’t get much media attention. When citizens of any country are afraid of terrorism, they tend to move to the political right," said Abrahms.
He believes Trump's latest critique may be a way for him to garner support for his controversial executive orders.
"I think the timing isn’t coincidental. I think it is impact instrumental to serve his political agenda," Abrahms said.
