Why fake news is newsworthy

OPINION:

S

igns of what Capitol Hill and city halls aren’t doing.

Scene: A D.C. schoolhouse.

“Knock, knock.”

“Who’s there?”

“Jeff Bezos. I’m worth nearly $111 billion. Don’t tell the Democrats and the unions, though.”

Scene: A promise to the people of Flint, Michigan.

“Hello, allow me.”

“Who are you?”

“Elon Musk. You need safe drinking water, I’m going to provide water filters. Your water needs filtering, I’ll provide filtering. Five years, no water. Shameful.”

Scene: Outside the D.C. mayor’s and council’s offices.

“What’s going on?”

“We’re going to testify about the unsafe water at St. Elizabeths mental hospital.”

“When’s the hearing?”

“Vincent Gray said Nov. 20.”

“When did the water go bad?

“Dunno, but we found out a month ago. We can’t drink it, bathe in it or cook with it.”

“Lead?”

“No, Legionella bacteria.”

At this point, you can tell none of these conversations actually happened — not precisely anyway. But surely you get the gist.

In the first scenario, Mr. Bezos does what philanthropists routinely do — donate to education. Monday, he visited what used to be the District’s most academically prestigious public high school for blacks, Dunbar High. Mr. Bezos, Amazon owner and owner of The Washington Post, surprised Dunbar students and urged them toward engineering studies.

In the second scene, Mr. Musk, worth $20.9 billion, vowed to provide clean water to residents in Flint, where drinking water has been leaded down by, well, lead pipes — an unthinkable threat to young minds and compromised immune systems.

The third scenario is ongoing and truly troubling because D.C. officials promised and spent tax dollars on water projects near St. Elizabeths Hospital, but it seems mentally ill patients and their caretakers weren’t the chief beneficiaries.

There’s no doubt, however, that Democratic leaders and their political caretakers were and still are.

Democratic minions should be raising Cain. But they aren’t because it’s their fault and they can’t point fingers at Donald Trump or other Republicans.

They dare not snub Mr. Bezos, either. He owns the “Other Paper” in Washington, which supports their social causes and vice versa.

It’ll be interesting to see what D.C. officials unveil Tuesday at an important press conference on school enrollment. The sanctuary city mayor is scheduled to deliver the news at MacFarland Middle School, which has a Hispanic-majority enrollment.

Now, you get the point, eh?

Fake news doesn’t always spin on what politicians and their friends actually say. Often, it spins on what they don’t want you to know.

⦁ Deborah Simmons can be contacted at dsimmons@washingtontimes.com.