Fake News: Media Lies About State Dept Officials "Fleeing" Trump

There are a bunch of media pieces like this. I picked this one because its headline and opening push a narrative that is completely discredited by its closing paragraphs. The narrative is that State Department officials are "fleeing" Trump. The reality is that political appointees were asked to resign.

Here we go.

There's an 'ongoing mass exodus' at the State Department of people who don't want to work for Trump

Senior officials are fleeing the State Department in the first days of President Donald Trump's administration, according to The Washington Post.

Patrick Kennedy, the State Department's undersecretary for management, and three of his top officials resigned abruptly recently, The Post reported. All are career diplomats who have served under presidents from both parties.

Two other senior leaders in the State Department left earlier this month. Post columnist Josh Rogin characterized it as an "ongoing mass exodus of senior foreign service officers who don't want to stick around for the Trump era."

David Wade, who was the State Department's chief of staff under Secretary of State John Kerry, told The Post that it's "the single biggest simultaneous departure of institutional memory that anyone can remember."

...cut to the ending

State Department spokesman Mark Toner responded to the Post story with a statement characterizing resignations during a transition in administration as normal.

"As is standard with every transition, the outgoing administration, in coordination with the incoming one, requested all politically appointed officers submit letters of resignation," he said in the stateme

"While this appears to be a large turnover in a short period of time, a change of administration always brings personnel changes, and there is nothing unusual about rotations or retirements in the Foreign Service," the statement said. "Indeed, both are essential to the development of a steady stream of experienced leaders ready to assume critical roles at State."

Here's Matt Lee trying his best to educate the media

A little perspective: Only 1 Under Secretary of State (Alan Larson) stayed through the transition from Bill Clinton to George W. Bush.

— Matt Lee (@APDiploWriter) January 26, 2017

There are 13 offices under the "Management" umbrella, the offices mentioned here do not composed the "entire" senior management. https://t.co/izurXWFsXS

— Diplopundit (@Diplopundit) January 26, 2017

They are presidential appointees who submit resignations during every transition. Their resignations were accepted. We wrote about it y'day. https://t.co/Uvx0YywH00

— Matt Lee (@APDiploWriter) January 26, 2017

@Liberal_Rags Entire leadership not leaving on same day. And those leaving have competent deputies to step in the interim.

— Matt Lee (@APDiploWriter) January 26, 2017

@Liberal_Rags Many have been asked to stay on.

— Matt Lee (@APDiploWriter) January 26, 2017

@shebacrocker Not everyone is leaving at once. And there are competent subordinates to take their places in the interim.

— Matt Lee (@APDiploWriter) January 26, 2017

@RadioFreeTom Correct. Even if they are career diplomats, assistant secretaries are presidential appointees.

— Matt Lee (@APDiploWriter) January 26, 2017

Don't worry. FactCheck will still rate it as Mostly True. Snopes will make assorted noises that sound like they mean something. Because our media is all Fake News, all the time.

Remember all that stuff we said at the beginning. It's a bunch of fake news.

Instead of a "mass exodus" of desperate State refugees fleeing Trump, a handful of political appointees were told to resign. Patrick Kennedy, one of the more prominent of the bunch, had lobbied to keep his job.