AP gets confused about Trump and Nieto’s discussion on ‘The Wall’

The Associated Press has journalists that are struggling with some basic journalistic questions – if vs. how.

To report a story as fact, you want to have facts that establish IF a thing has happened and HOW that thing happened. When you can’t tell the difference between those two questions, you get a very sad sounding tweet like this:

Trump did hold a presser with Mexican President Nieto shortly after their discussion on a variety of topics. The wall was likely discussed (that’s the IF part), but when asked at the presser if they had decided “how Mexico would pay for the wall” Trump responded “we didn’t talk about that.” – umm, yeah.. that’s the HOW thing.

The AP disingenuously (or on purpose) chose to rephrase Trump’s words to mean that they didn’t talk about the wall at all. Trump even mentions in his part of the presser that they agreed that nations have the right to build walls on their borders.

The wall was discussed, the fact that Trump expects Mexico to pay for it was likely discussed, but HOW Mexico might pay for it was likely left for later interactions.

The AP could have done better .. had they chosen to listen instead of preach.