The people in charge of defining the English language want to remind Kellyanne Conway what the word “fact” means.
Merriam-Webster‘s online dictionary posted a blog on Sunday in response to President Donald Trump’s senior aide defending White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer’s use of “alternative facts” during his first press briefing.
While the dictionary isn’t sure what an “alternative fact” is, it did clarify what a fact is: “A piece of information presented as having objective reality.” According to Merriam-Webster, searches for the word “spiked dramatically” on Sunday.
Among the “alternative facts” in question was Spicer’s claim that Trump attracted “the largest audience ever to witness an inauguration, period. Both in person and around the globe.” Nielsen ratings and ridership estimates from Washington D.C. public transit officials proved Spicer wrong.
“You’re saying it’s a falsehood, and they’re giving — Sean Spicer, our press secretary, gave alternative facts to that,” Conway said on “Meet The Press”. Host Chuck Todd responded by saying, “Alternative facts are not facts. They are falsehoods.”
Soon, the hashtag #AlternativeFacts was trending on Twitter, and Merriam-Webster contributed to the discussion by posting the dictionary definition of “fact.”
??”?A fact is a piece of information presented as having objective reality. https://t.co/gCKRZZm23c
In other dictionary news, Dictionary.com reported that “carnage” became the most searched word on their website on Friday after Trump promised to bring an end to “American carnage.” Trump’s speech, which clocked in at 1,433 words, was the shortest inauguration speech since Jimmy Carter’s 1,229-word speech in 1977.
Barack Obama's Reading List: 11 Books Recommended by the President (Photos)
Obama tells the Times that the "last novel I read" was Colson Whitehead's 2016 book: "And the reminder of the ways in which the pain of slavery transmits itself across generations, not just in overt ways, but how it changes minds and hearts."
"Gilead"
Obama said he started reading Marilynne Robinson's novels while campaigning in Iowa. "I loved her writing in part because I saw those people every day. And the interior life she was describing that connected them -- the people I was shaking hands with and making speeches to -- it connected them with my grandparents, who were from Kansas and ended up journeying all the way to Hawaii, but whose foundation had been set in a very similar setting."
"The Three-Body Problem"
Obama cited Chinese writer Liu Cixin's sci-fi trilogy as "the stuff I read just to escape." "The scope of it was immense. So that was fun to read, partly because my day-to-day problems with Congress seem fairly petty -- not something to worry about. Aliens are about to invade."
"Song of Solomon"
"I think Toni Morrison’s writings -- particularly 'Song of Solomon' is a book I think of when I imagine people going through hardship. That it’s not just pain, but there’s joy and glory and mystery," Obama told the Times.
"A Bend in the River"
Obama recalled the opening line of V.S. Naipaul's novel ("The world is what it is...") and noted, "I think about his novels when I’m thinking about the hardness of the world sometimes, particularly in foreign policy, and I resist and fight against sometimes that very cynical, more realistic view of the world."
"The Naked and the Dead"
Norman Mailer's 1948 novel, partly inspired by his experience in World War II, was one of several books Barack Obama told the New York Times that he gave to his daughter Malia. "Or 'One Hundred Years of Solitude,' I think she hadn’t read yet. Then there were some books I think that are not on everybody’s reading list these days, but I remembered as being interesting, like 'The Golden Notebook' by Doris Lessing, for example. Or 'The Woman Warrior,' by Maxine [Hong Kingston]."
"One Hundred Years of Solitude"
As we just mentioned, Gabriel García Marquez's 1970 novel was another one that he gifted to Malia.
"The Golden Notebook"
Doris Lessing has described her anti-war, anti-Stalinist 1962 novel as a work of "inner space fiction." It's another one of the titles Obama gave to Malia.
"The Woman Warrior”
Maxine Hong Kingston's 1977 novel, subtitled "Memoirs of a girl among ghosts," was another pick for Malia.
"Gone Girl"
Obama praised Gillian Flynn's twisty thriller as "a well-constructed, well-written book."
"Fates and Furies"
The president called Lauren Groff's book "a really powerful novel."
During challenging moments like the financial crisis, Obama said he turned to "Lincoln’s writings, King’s writings, Gandhi’s writings, Mandela’s writings -- I found those particularly helpful, because what you wanted was a sense of solidarity."
1 of 13
Before leaving the White House, the president shared his favorite books with New York Times critic Michiko Kakutani
