NYT’s Haberman to Critics Who Say She’s Not Calling Out Trump Lies: I’m Not Writing ‘For People’s Twitter Pleasure’

Media Twitter spent much of Memorial Day Weekend in an uproar — as a heated debate ensued over Maggie Haberman of The New York Times using the term “demonstrable falsehood” rather than “lie” to call out President Donald Trump.

Haberman’s reluctance to use the word lie was defended by many, but there were also plenty of detractors. Monday on New Day, the Times White House correspondent fired back at critics.

She began by passing on the rationale that Times executive editor Dean Baquet has articulated for the paper’s decision to raise the bar for the use of the word lie.

“There are two reasons,” Haberman said. “One is that a lie contains intent. And you are going at someone’s intent when you say lie, number one. Number two, if you use a word a hundred times a day, feels to me like it loses its meaning.”

Haberman then added her own reason for supporting the Times‘ stance on the word lie.

“[T]he most important thing that we can do is record for history — not for people’s twitter pleasure — what [Trump] is saying, and whether it is truthful, or whether it contains truth. Whether it is the facts, or whether it is not the facts. To me, the label is much more of a semantics game. And I understand that there is a lot of anger out there. And I understand there is a feeling that this president is not being held accountable…But I think that, to me, the bigger issue is setting the historical record straight. And the label is less significant for that.”

Watch above, via CNN.

[featured image via screengrab]

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