Dear Media, Claiming Nordstrom Stock Tumbled After Trump’s Tweet Makes His ‘Dishonest Media’ Case

By Justin BaragonaFeb 8th, 2017, 5:23 pm
 

donald-trump

Late this morning, President Donald Trump took to Twitter to take aim at a private sector company. Why? Because that company decided it no longer wanted to sell his daughter’s branded stuff.

Yep, days after Nordstrom made the announcement that due to poor sales they would no longer carry and sell Ivanka Trump’s clothing and accessories line, POTUS sent out the following tweet:

And not only did he send that tweet from his personal account, it was also retweeted to the official @POTUS one.

Following this deliberate targeting of a retail chain by the Leader of the Free World, it appeared that a number of media outlets and journalists already had a predetermined narrative in place: Check out Nordstrom’s stock price and hit Trump for recklessly impacting the company’s profitability. This was obviously based off of previous instances of the president criticizing businesses and it negatively affecting the companies’ shares. However, even in those cases, the losses were short-term and the stocks quickly recovered.

And, like clockwork, we had a few instances of hyperbolic declarations of Nordstrom’s stock price taking a huge beating in response to Trump’s comments.

And, to be fair, at the time of Trump’s tweet (and shortly after) the stock price did take a small hit. Small being the key word. It wasn’t “tanking” or taking a “dive.” Shares didn’t “tumble.”

No. What happened is that immediately after the Trump tweet, the stock price fell a whopping 22 cents. And, by the looks of it, this was just part of a brief volume spike and the stock recovered almost immediately. And, by the afternoon, Nordstrom shares were up 4%.

Here’s the deal. There are a lot of things to go after Trump on, even when it comes to just this single tweet. Him coming to bat for his daughter over her private business interests — even if she says she stepping away from them for the moment — obviously highlights the grave concerns many have with conflicts of interest. You also have the president just blithely tossing this tweet out on the official White House account, further blurring those lines.

With all of the blatant falsehoods that Trump doles out daily and all of the worrisome issues surrounding his administration, the last thing the press can afford to do is play directly into Donald Trump’s hands. Specifically when it comes to his description of the press as the “dishonest media” or “fake news.” And, by jumping the gun and feeding a false narrative before waiting for the facts to fully emerge, it gives him and his team all the ammunition they need.

It doesn’t matter when you are right 99% of the time — nope, not in Trump’s eyes. With his extremely loud megaphone and large platform, all Trump needs is one mistake to mold his specific version of events. He and his team are constantly on the lookout for slip-ups, regardless of how minuscule or or seemingly inconsequential. Especially when those mistakes can be used to distract from much bigger issues and topics.

In this current environment, with so much to focus on every single day, there’s no need to stray off course in hopes of making a ‘story.’ The true stories are there, trust me.

[image via screengrab]

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Follow Justin Baragona on Twitter: @justinbaragona

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.

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