by Brian C. Joondeph
Why wasn't fact-checking popular when past presidents claimed, "Saddam Hussein has WMDs"? Or "I did not have sexual relations with that woman"? Or "If you like your health insurance, you can keep your health insurance"?
Corporate media is obsessed with former President Donald Trump and his so-called "lies." Fact-checking is a new media pastime, popularized during the first Trump presidency.
After Trump's first term, the Washington Post published an article titled "Trump’s false or misleading claims total 30,573 over 4 years." Wow! How many reporters diligently fact-checked every exaggerated statement made by Trump, such as when he theatrically claimed that his golf courses, clubs, or deals were the "biggest" or the "best"?
CNN weighed in, “Fact check: 12 completely fictional stories Trump has told in the last month.” Have they run any similar articles on Harris or Biden? Including Vice President Kamala Harris’s standard answer for every policy question, “I grew up a middle-class kid”, which fact-checkers would find false.
Why wasn't fact-checking popular when past presidents claimed, "Saddam Hussein has WMDs"? Or "I did not have sexual relations with that woman"? Or "If you like your health insurance, you can keep your health insurance"?
Given how Donald Trump receives most of the fact-checking scrutiny, this appears to be a partisan activity. Let’s fact-check that.
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The Harvard Kennedy School of Misinformation Review, published this, “A survey of expert views on misinformation: Definitions, determinants, solutions, and future of the field.”
From the article, “Experts leaned strongly toward the left of the political spectrum: very right-wing (0), fairly right-wing (0), slightly right-of-center (7), center (15), slightly left-of-center (43), fairly left-wing (62), very left-wing (21).”
In other words, the "misinformation experts" are almost exclusively left-wing partisans. This explains a lot, especially since fact-checking and the new censorship tools of "misinformation" and "disinformation" are being used by the left to silence and bully the right.
The COVID-19 pandemic led to a surge in fact-checkers and misinformation experts. Anyone who questioned the established dogma was shunned and faced potential consequences such as losing their professional licenses, jobs, or even their freedom.
The decisions regarding "safe and effective" vaccines, vaccine mandates, masks, distancing, and lockdowns were mostly based on flawed science or arbitrary judgments. Those who questioned the canon faced a huge backlash. Even now, few are willing to acknowledge any mistakes in our pandemic response, or that the actions taken may have caused more harm than good.
After the Trump-Harris debates, fact-checkers scrutinized every syllable from Donald Trump but did not provide the same oversight to Kamala Harris. ABC News moderators fact-checked only one candidate, which was possibly by design as an ABC whistleblower alleged.
One so-called Trump lie was, "Crime in this country is through the roof." To which moderator David Muir responded, "President Trump, as you know, the FBI says overall violent crime is coming down in this country.”
Post-debate, Trump doubled down, "I lost a lot of respect for David Muir. He came at me with things... I was right about the crime stats going way up.”
Trump was correct, as an ABC News affiliate begrudgingly confirms,
The DOJ numbers come from a massive annual government survey of crime victims. The report found 22.5 out of every 1,000 residents reported being the victim of a violent crime in 2023 and 102 of every 1,000 reported being the victim of a property crime. Both of these numbers are statistically unchanged from the year before. Both are also higher than 2020, the final year of Donald Trump’s first presidential term. This appears to back up claims crime remains higher under the Biden-Harris administration than under Trump.
The debate moderators played gotcha with Trump and ended up with egg on their faces.
Also, in the debate, Trump said, "In Springfield, they are eating the dogs. The people that came in, they are eating the cats. They’re eating – they are eating the pets of the people that live there."
The media went overboard attempting to fact-check this one. Google search results uniformly say Trump’s assertion is false. I found one Springfield, OH resident claiming otherwise. And another Springfield man reporting Haitian migrants “snatching geese” out of a park.
Are there others? Is the media looking? Or only bellowing about lies and racism?
Who in their right mind would come forward at this point? The media will dox and pile on, just as they did with anyone challenging the “official COVID narrative”. The media groupthink is that Trump was lying and anything to the contrary will be buried.
Will Springfield officials come clean on any of this? Or are they financially benefiting from the Haitian influx, and unlikely to blow the whistle?
Political analyst Andrea Tantaros tweeted,
The Mayor of Springfield, OH has made multiple trips to Haiti.
He, and the entire City Council, received financial kickbacks for importing $20,000+ illegal aliens.
It’s why they ignore the pleas of residents.
Nationwide, politicians are profiting from mass illegal migration.
Forget Trump’s tax returns, clean as the wind-driven snow. Look instead at government officials benefiting from illegal immigration and follow the money.
Definitive proof or not, Trump’s claim led to a week’s worth of memes and attention to Border Czar Harris’s wide open border and resulting problems from illegal immigration. One of many examples is a Haitian immigrant without a valid US driver’s license, killing an 11-year-old Ohio boy.
Also, remember that it took the media 3 years to admit that Hunter Biden’s laptop was real so don’t expect any media honesty regarding Trump’s other claims.
Another supposed Trump lie from the debate, “Do you know that crime in Venezuela and crime in countries all over the world is way down. You know why? Because they’ve taken their criminals off the street, and they’ve given them to (Harris) to put into our country.”
Once again, media “fact checkers” are quick to scream, “no proof” and “another Trump lie”. The New York Times claims there is “little evidence” of this. “Little” evidence logically means there is “some” evidence. Will the NY Times share the “little evidence” they are aware of? Or will they bury it?
Why would either the Venezuelan or U.S. government admit to this? After all, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas assures that the U.S. border is “as secure as it can be,” whatever that means.
Is there circumstantial evidence backing up Trump’s claim?
Venezuela reports a 25% drop in crime this year compared to last year. Fewer criminals, less crime. In America, it’s the opposite. More criminals on the street due to open borders and non-prosecution of crime means more crime in the US.
NBC News reports,
U.S. law enforcement and immigration officials have launched more than 100 investigations of crimes tied to suspected members of a violent Venezuelan gang.
The cases involving the Tren de Aragua gang show how hard it is for U.S. border agents to vet the criminal backgrounds of migrants from countries like Venezuela that won’t give the U.S. any help.
Tren de Aragua is not the Jets or Sharks from West Side Story, but instead “a significant transnational criminal organization”, according to the US Treasury Department. They describe it as “a prison gang”, meaning they are criminals, or else they wouldn’t be in “prison” to join a “prison” gang. That’s the pesky logic that the left is allergic to.
If this Venezuelan criminal prison gang is present in the US, they either escaped or were released from prison. It’s not that difficult to connect the dots, supporting Trump’s assertion.
In addition, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) data provided to lawmakers last week showed that for illegal aliens in America, “Among those not in detention, there are 425,431 convicted criminals and 222,141 with pending criminal charges.”
Once again, Trump was right. Many countries are taking their criminals and sending them to America.
Are any journalists willing to research and write about this? Or just screech “lies” and “disinformation” as they did with Hunter’s laptop or his father’s obvious dementia?
Once upon a time, journalists asked who, what, where, when, and why. They investigated and sought the truth. Now they serve as propagandists for America’s ruling class.
They blather about “lies”, “mis/disinformation”, “fact-checking”, and “threats to democracy” in a manner reminiscent of totalitarian dictatorships.
To quote George Orwell, “Whatever the Party holds to be the truth, is truth. It is impossible to see reality except by looking through the eyes of the Party.” It’s 1984 again in America.
Brian C. Joondeph, M.D., is a physician and writer. Follow him on Twitter @retinaldoctor, Substack Dr. Brian’s Substack, Truth Social @BrianJoondeph LinkedIn @Brian Joondeph.
Source: https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2024/09/who_fact_checks_the_fact_checkers.html
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