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Alternative Facts

Can someone properly define for me what the meaning of "Alternative Facts" means both technically and unspoken?

Facts Alternative

Well, I guess it's one of these two things.

First, it may be another way of interpreting what the facts are. So, when President Trump's spokesman said the audience was larger for his inauguration than anyone before in history he meant when one factors in TV and internet audiences… although he made a mistake the way he originally delivered that info. There are those who are saying this is true. I don't know.

The other definition of alternative facts is a lie.

Alternative Facts History & Civil Business Politics

For the definition its a misnomer there are facts and then there are lies. For the issue surrounding this the president was having an issue with the photo they showed while trying to include worldwide figures that cannot be fairly numbered UNLESS the same number of internet and TV viewers was also considered for Obama's inauguration. Finally this is much a do about nothing.

Facts Alternative

You are asking for both the denotation and connotation of the phrase "Alternative facts." There is no denotation as Sean Spicer more or less made it up. So we are left with only a connotation of what it means to be derived by looking at the way it was used.

Sean Spicer was trying to say that they have facts that dispute the current view held by many people. He called these facts "Alternative facts", but this would imply that there are facts and then there are alternative facts. However logically we can only have facts and lies. There is a similar parallel being drawn to "Alternative truths", which is the idea that I can have my truth for me and you can have your truth for you, and even if they are diametrically opposed, they are each our own truths. This is another logically inconsistent stance, but it is popular now-a-days.

These "Alternative facts" that Spencer wants to use to dispute the current claims aren't even facts. They are false numbers and estimates made by people who have no authority to estimate anything (Namely Trump himself and those immediately surrounding him). All objective facts (Which again is redundant, but if we are allowing "Alternative facts", then distinctions need to be made) point to Trump's turnout being dismally low (Metro ridership was way down, tv viewing was way down, and all photos from publicly accessible CCTV cameras of the area show thin crowds).

TL;DR: "Alternative facts" is just a made up phrase that Sean Spicer used to try to (Wrongly) refute data about Trump's low turnout.

Edited: Alchyrogue on 24th Jan, 2017 - 7:58pm

Facts Alternative

Wasn't the phrase "Alternative facts" made by Kellyann Conway in trying to defend how Spicer presented his version of the turnout for the inauguration?

Alternative Facts

Actually, the estimates that Spicer and President Trump used for TV rating come from the networks themselves and they show that the viewership for his inauguration was higher than for President Obama by millions. This was even reported in Fortune magazine. The way they spun it though was the thing. They didn't compare to President Obama's first inauguration, they compared to his second. Of course, there is always a huge drop-off between a first and second inauguration. So, are the "Facts" correct but the comparison is not apples to apples. Has they compared to President Obama's first inauguration then there were far few people both there and watching on TV.

Alternative Facts

Replying to: Hunter, it might have been her that first used it. I can't keep up with the ridiculousness that comes out of the Trump team fast enough. I know Spicer has used the term as well.

Replying to: Abnninja, you are correct. I didn't mean to make it seem that his numbers were too high, I was trying to say that Spicer's numbers were much lower than Obama's first inauguration. Thank you for clearing that up.