[ad_1]

Trump speaking to troops Monday in Tampa, Florida.

Susan Walsh / AP

President Donald Trump on Monday falsely claimed the “dishonest press” has failed to report on terrorist attacks, asserting the media deliberately ignores attacks for unspecified “reasons.”

“All across Europe you’ve seen what happened in Paris and Nice,” Trump said in a speech to troops at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida. “All over Europe it’s happening. It’s gotten to a point where it’s not even being reported. And in many cases the very, very dishonest press doesn’t want to report it.”

“They have their reasons, and you understand that,” he said without elaborating.

After questions were raised about his unsubstantiated claim, the White House released a long list of attacks — the majority of which have been extensively covered by major US news organizations.

The list was distributed to news outlets Monday evening and includes 78 attacks it described as “executed or inspired by” ISIS. The White House said most of the incidents didn't get adequate media coverage, though it did not specify which ones. But contrary to Trump's claim, the majority of the incidents on the White House list were in fact reported by western media.

The attacks on the list fall into two general categories:

1. High profile attacks that received massive amounts of media coverage.

The White House list includes incidents such as the 2015 San Bernardino attack that left 22 people dead. BuzzFeed News produced dozens of stories about that attack, many of which were updated scores of times by teams of journalists. Most other major US news organizations — CNN, the New York Times, etc. — adopted a similar strategy, resulting in hundreds of US news stories about the incident. The Los Angeles Times even won a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage.

Many of the other attacks on the list follow a similar pattern. For example, the list includes attacks in Paris against the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, in January of 2015, and against multiple targets, in November of 2015. The later attack killed nearly 200 people at multiple locations.

Security forces secure the area near the Bataclan theater in Paris on Nov. 13, 2015.

Christian Hartmann / Reuters

Other major incidents on the list include an attack in Nice, France, the downing of a Russian plane over Egypt, a suicide bombing in Istanbul, Turkey, and bombings in Brussels, Belgium.

Western news organizations mobilized entire teams after these incidents and collectively wrote thousands of news stories.

2. Smaller attacks — that also received coverage.

Not every incident on the list resulted in scores of injuries and deaths. The list includes, for example, a 2015 incident during which four people at the University of California, Merced were wounded by a man with a knife.

Also on the list: a 2016 machete attack by a teenager against a Jewish teacher in Marseille, France; a 2016 bombing of a Sikh temple in Essen, Germany; and a 2015 shooting in Garland, Texas.

Investigators collect evidence in Garland, Texas, after a May 4, 2015, attack.

Brandon Wade / AP

Other incidents — including two shootings in Bangladesh in 2015 that each left one person dead — were even more obscure but also received news media attention.

The White House did not point to any attacks on the list that supported Trump's contention that terrorism is “not even being reported.” BuzzFeed News researched all 78 incidents on the list and found western news coverage for all but seven of them. The other seven were likely covered as well, but the White House provide too little information to narrow them down.

The abundant, easily accessible news coverage about the attacks on the list leaves many unanswered questions about what Trump was talking about and why the White House indicated most events on the list deserved even more attention.

[ad_2]