The White House Is Its Own Media Outlet

A few days ago, we searched for the latest news from Washington, DC, on behalf of visitors who had traveled to the US from abroad. They were considering canceling their trip to the nation’s capital after hearing about President Trump’s deployment of the National Guard. So we asked Google whether DC was safe. To our surprise, the first article that appeared in the “news” tab was not from a news source—it was from the US Department of Defense.

The article, titled “Guard Assisting Law Enforcement in Making DC Safe,” does not take the form of a press release or an official announcement. Instead, it is written in the style of a news piece. It says that the president has “declared a crime emergency” in DC and “vowed to make streets there safe again.” It depicts a photo of a civilian family smiling at National Guardsmen, and quotes an Air Force staff sergeant saying “we’re just here to help.” The article did not mention that, according to the statistics, crime in the city has fallen over the past two years.