INQUISITR.COM / News & Politics

Newsweek Accused Of Painting Melania Trump A ‘Tree-Hating-Villain’ Spawning ‘FakeNewsweek’ Mocking Today

By Roz Zurko
Published on: 07:29 PST, Dec 27, 2017

Newsweek is accused of publishing a “misleading headline” that started the whirlwind about Melania Trump “ordering” a tree to be taken down on the White House lawn. It was verified that Newsweek tweeted this headline from their Twitter account and from there it took on a life of its own across the various media outlets.

The original Newsweek headline said “Melania Trump orders removal of the near-200-year-old tree from the White House.” The Fox News report on Newsweek started with a “Bias Alert” over the “misleading” headline in question today.

Newsweek’s report on the demise of the tree at the White House sounded as if this was an event spearheaded by Melania Trump. The Magnolia tree planted by President Jackson some 200 years ago has decomposed to a stage that renders the wobbly but still standing tree a danger.

Much has been done over the years in attempts to save the tree, like strengthening it with cables and pouring cement into its hollow center, but time has taken its toll on the tree and it cannot be saved. This was not Melania Trump’s decision, this was what the National Parks Service experts have decided — the tree goes. As you can see by the tweet below other folks clung to what Newsweek reported and passed along this report.

Not only did some famous names call Newsweek out for this headline, regular folks chimed in as well. People who are affiliated with both political parties saw this headline as a “biased” story and an attempt at gathering readers.

Melania Trump is not the “tree-hating villain” as Fox News suggests she made out to be with the report from Newsweek. Melania did not want to see the demise of this tree. She read the reports to see if there was anything that could be done to save it. Newsmax reports that it was actually the U.S. National Arboretum that recommended the Jackson Magnolia tree be “quickly” removed as it was too decayed to be safe.

The experts, who Melania trusts immensely, could not find a way to let the tree stand without it being a danger to the people who happened to walk near it. Ironically it is the members of the media who happen to be in that area quite often as the tree hangs over the location where they wait for Trump to come in and out of the White House.

Melania gave the final O.K. for the tree’s removal, but not without the research that the experts provided to back this up. Melania Trump’s Communications Director Stephanie Grisham told Fox News the following.

“Newsweek’s bias and disdain for the First Lady and our administration was on full display when they actively chose to use a false headline instead of practicing responsible journalism.”

This was not the only backlash that Newsweek received for the headline. Media Research Center Vice President Dan Gainor “mocked” Newsweek for their part on the “usual war on Trump.” He also said that this has become “a hobby of the mainstream media.” Gainer told Fox News that “They either find something to attack him on or they just make it up.”

Huffington Post writer Yashar Ali wrote, “Another BS Newsweek tweet. With 280 characters, there’s no excuse for this.” Tom Winter from NBC News reminded the masses that “Newsweek has issued at least 20 corrections in 2017″ and they even have an entire “page on their website dedicated to mistakes.”

Fox & Friends mentioned the headlines about the Jackson Magnolia tree on their Wednesday morning show and the co-hosts described just how misleading Melania Trump’s reported “order” to take down the tree seemed to be. They talked among themselves saying it gives you visions of Melania with a chainsaw going around and picking off trees to take down. Another pictured her walking around pointing to trees saying “that tree goes.” This is not the case at all, Melania was the last link in the chain when it came to the decision to take down the magnolia tree.

Newsweek is not faring well today with the hashtag #FakeNewsweek created by the White House Director of Social Media, Dan Scavino Jr. He called the headline from Newsweek “100% misleading.” Many Twitter users weren’t happy with the “fake headlines” as seen on Twitter under the search “Melania Trump Newsweek” today.

Share this article: Newsweek Accused Of Painting Melania Trump A ‘Tree-Hating-Villain’ Spawning ‘FakeNewsweek’ Mocking Today
White House Andrew Jackson melania trump
More from Inquisitr