David Cameron to Trump: Your ‘fake news’ act is ‘dangerous’

David Cameron | Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images David Cameron to Trump: Your ‘fake news’ act is ‘dangerous’ “‘Fake news’ is not broadcasters criticizing you, it’s Russian bots and trolls targeting your democracy,” says former British leader.

Former British Prime Minister David Cameron called out Donald Trump’s attacks on the media, saying his use of term “fake news” was “dangerous.”

Giving Transparency International UK’s annual lecture in London on Wednesday evening, Cameron said attacks on journalists were “bad news for the fight against corruption.”

He then turned his attention to the U.S. president, saying: “When Donald Trump uses the term ‘fake news’ to describe CNN and the BBC, that is not just a questionable political tactic. It’s actually dangerous.”

The former Conservative Party prime minister, who resigned in the wake of his failed Brexit referendum in 2016, has shunned the British public stage, making his criticism of Trump a rare forway into the fray.

“Of course broadcasters make mistakes and it’s right they correct them,” Cameron said. “But what is being attempted here goes far beyond that. It’s an attempt to question the whole legitimacy of organizations that have an important role in our democracy.

“Let me put it like this. President Trump: ‘Fake news’ is not broadcasters criticizing you, it’s Russian bots and trolls targeting your democracy … pumping out untrue stories day after day, night after night.”

Cameron also said that “Barack Obama used to challenge European leaders over how we seemed to ignore or even tolerate Russian subversion of some Eastern European business, energy, media or even political interests. He was bang on target. And my successor, Theresa May, has been quite right to put this on the EU Council agenda.”