Based on this article, it is clear how much global power the US has. Through just a series of tweets by President Trump the South African currency, rand, to drop more than 1.5% against the US dollar. The spread of misinformation is dangerous. I agree with Lance, in terms of the importance of transparency and focusing on the facts rather than political affiliation. Unfortunately, the true victims of this news story were the people of South Africa. The government of South Africa claimed this was an attempt to divide the nation. While the spread of misinformation is awful, it is better than the alternative which is censorship.
On Wednesday, September 18, 2019 at 5:02:47 PM UTC-5, Lance Hanse wrote:
-- On Wednesday, September 18, 2019 at 5:02:47 PM UTC-5, Lance Hanse wrote:
In this article from last August President Trump has taken to twitter and tweeted about a story produced by fox news. The news story detailed how white farmers were being killed and their land was being taken. Trump then tweeted that he asked the Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, at the time to looking into the murders. The next day after the Tweet had circulated the South African government responded with complete denial and blamed trump for trying to "divide our nation and remind[s] us of our colonial past." This event was significant because as the tweet continued to be viewed in South Africa, the rand currency dropped more than 1.5% against the US dollar. ABC news reports that Trump was acting on misinformation. Readers of this article have to understand that misinformation and different perspectives on how things happen can cause significant consequences both politically and economically. Readers can see that this article was posted by ABC to first and foremost rebuke fox news and take a shot at Trump. This being said fox news is often times doing the same exact thing. In my opinion, instead of playing the political games, the mainstream media should lock down on their facts and report the truth how it is. In this case Trump may have been in the wrong because he was misinformed, but this is just a reoccurring problem and it effects countries all over the world. The article is posted below.
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