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Trump fires yet another salvo at New York Times

February 28, 2017 10:29 IST

Continuing his tirade against the media, United States President Donald Trump has alleged that The New York Times "writes lies" and has an "evil intent".

"If you read The New York Times, the intent is so evil and so bad. The stories are wrong in many cases, but it's the overall intent," Trump told Breitbart News in an interview.

"Look at that paper over the last two years. In fact, they had to write a letter of essentially apology to their subscribers because they got the election so wrong," he said as he continued with his harsh criticism of his home town newspaper.

The US President said his fight is against the "fake media" and not the media itself.

"There's a difference. The fake media is the opposition party. The fake media is the enemy of the American people. There's tremendous fake media out there. Tremendous fake stories.

"The problem is the people that aren't involved in the story don't know that," he said in response to a question according to the excerpts of the interview posted on Breitbart News website.

"They take 'fake' media off. They say 'the media' is the enemy of -- well, they didn't say the 'fake media'. I didn't say the media is the enemy -- I said the 'fake media'. They take the word fake out and all of a sudden it's like I'm against -- there are some great reporters like you," he said.

"I know some great honourable reporters who do a great job like Steve [Holland] from Reuters, others, many others. I wasn't talking about that. I was talking about the fake media, where they make up everything there is to make up," Trump said.

Trump said The New York Times did a front page article on women talking about him, and the women went absolutely wild because they said that was not what they said.

"It was a big front-page article, and the Times wouldn't even apologise and yet they were wrong. You probably saw the women. They went on television shows and everything," he said.

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#Oscarsfail: 'Blame it on the show's political tone'

President Trump said the chaos that erupted at the end of the Oscars was due to Hollywood obsessing about him rather than concentrating on running a smooth show.

Trump said Oscars organizers had taken their eyes off the ball because they "were focused so hard on politics."

"It was a little sad. It took away from the glamour of the Oscars," he told the site, which was previously managed by Steve Bannon, who now serves as Trump's chief White House strategist.

"It didn't feel like a very glamorous evening. I've been to the Oscars. There was something very special missing, and then to end that way was sad."

Trump's comments came after Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty mistakenly presented the best picture statuette at the climax of the ceremony to La La Land, when Moonlight was the real winner. The mixup, which made for a chaotic end to ABC's telecast of the show, has been described as one of the most embarrassing moments in Oscars history.