Where Trump gets his news
Our analysis revealed a media ecosystem that appears to largely reinforce and affirm the views publicly expressed by Trump and his closest advisers. The news stories Trump tweets share several characteristics: 1) They often favor sensationalism over facts and reporting; 2) They frequently echo direct quotes from Trump himself or his closest advisers; and 3) They routinely malign his enemies and vindicate his most controversial opinions.
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When it comes to news sources, the stories tweeted by Trump (and the staffers who sometimes manage his Twitter account) suggest that he is unfazed by news of questionable accuracy, likely to rely on hyper-partisan news, and apt to promote mainstream news only when it validates his opinions. While politicians from both sides of the aisle use their Twitter accounts to share content that furthers their agendas, Trump’s reliance on sources and stories of questionable accuracy stands out both in frequency and in engagement. The stories shared by Trump’s account throughout his campaign suggest the president-elect has constructed a powerful online filter bubble that largely flatters and confirms that which he claims to be true…
BuzzFeed News’ analysis of Trump’s media universe shows the president-elect isn’t immune from sharing more blatant misinformation. Throughout the campaign Trump’s Twitter account shared two separate stories from prntly.com, a site that used to sell business cards and postcards and now calls itself “America’s Top News Site.” Prntly has been described by the Washington Post as “fake news” and is run by a former ecstasy dealer from Albany. According to the Post, Prntly has allegedly made up its own sources, lifted copy from other sites and pawned it off as “exclusive,” and allows users to sign up and write their own news stories without any vetting.
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