For the purposes of this debate " Cherry - Picking " refers to deliberately publishing or broadcasting accurate , but incomplete information for public consumption. This is through picking what to report, ommiting some of the important facts , of which the overall effect is that while the news may be "true", can be wholly misleading. This has been done eg , by Donald Trump in 2020 when he claimed that the US government was doing extremely well in combating COVID 19, while ommiting the fact that thousands of people were also dying , regardless of the government's recognisable efforts. In an interview, he mentioned that "Cherry picking " had to be done to avoid "uneasiness, panick, and unnecessary unrest ".