Ah, fact checking. The media love their 'fact checks', because they think it gives them some gravitas and credibility. What fact checking really is is the media playing semantics so they can label factual things 'mostly false' and smear Republicans.
Most people know fact checks are steaming piles of bull dung, but the media keep pushing them.
Like this, from CBS News:
Trump's "border czar" claims Mexican cartels killed a quarter-million Americans with fentanyl. Here's a fact check. https://t.co/hDktnv1Vk4
— CBS News (@CBSNews) December 7, 2024
President-elect Donald Trump has said halting fentanyl trafficking across the southern border is a top priority for his administration, vowing to impose 25% tariffs on all imports from Mexico until the flow of "drugs, particularly fentanyl, and illegal immigrants" into the United States is stopped to his liking.
Trump has claimed fentanyl overdoses kill 300,000 people annually, a toll he said is "probably much more," while incoming "border czar" Tom Homan alleged in a Fox News interview this week that Mexican cartels have "killed a quarter of a million Americans with fentanyl."
Synthetic opioids such as fentanyl have become the leading cause of overdose deaths since 2016, devastating communities across the U.S. and causing a major public health challenge, according to the National Institutes of Health. Mexican cartels are the main source of finished fentanyl in the U.S., officials say.
You'll be (not) shocked to learn CBS sucks at math as much as it sucks at fact checking:
Homan: Fentanyl has killed 250k people
— Nuclear Herbs (@NuclearHerbs) December 7, 2024
CBS: Fact check - he's inflating figures.
Also CBS: It was really over 334k.
Bang up job, journalists. pic.twitter.com/TWST3781kh
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And they'll say Homan was still 'technically' wrong.
As someone who lost a family member to an accidental fentanyl death, I really do not want to hear any more lies from the likes of @CBSNews
— Ginny (@ginkates) December 7, 2024
What CBS is doing is a slap in the face to all the families who have lost a loved one to fentanyl.
We are truly sorry for your loss.
“Fact check” from CBS. My sides….
— The Dank Knight 🦇 (@capeandcowell) December 7, 2024
It's laughable, no?
Your story confirms that over 300,000 Americans have died from fentanyl.
— Blue State Snooze (@BlueSnoozeBlue) December 7, 2024
With each passing day you become even more pathetic. As if that was even possible.
Just when you think the media have hit rock bottom, they pull out the jackhammers.
The number of fentanyl deaths in the US that are linked to the cartels is probably much higher than a quarter million.
— Phil Holloway ✈️ (@PhilHollowayEsq) December 7, 2024
Thats your fact check
Also - CBS doctored the Harris interview video so you have no credibility
You are propaganda
They are nothing but propaganda.
CBS out here with the "Just a handful of Dead Americans" defense for the Drug Dealers. These f**king people are disgusting and should be run out of town on a rail. https://t.co/CjUBz9Apnt
— WyldesideWithEricClark (@WyldeSide615) December 7, 2024
Much like Martha Raddatz and her 'just a few apartment buildings' defense.
Come for the propaganda. Stay for the ratio. https://t.co/A7LK4gV2iD pic.twitter.com/HGwb1iXiXu
— Jon Bowne (@NewsBowne) December 7, 2024
And what a ratio it's turning out to be.
This "fact check" appears to rest primarily on CBS News misreading the claim they're checking.
— Jared Walczak (@JaredWalczak) December 7, 2024
Homan claims that Mexican cartels are responsible for the fentanyl deaths of more than a quarter million Americans.
CBS News tries to correct the record by noting that (1) the cartels… https://t.co/LhY3ZJJ8jf
This is a thoughtful post, and it reads:
CBS News tries to correct the record by noting that (1) the cartels often use American citizens to actually smuggle the drugs and (2) there were "only" 74,000 fentanyl deaths last year.
Two problems:
(1) Homan's claim wasn't "annual." The fentanyl crisis is about a decade old, and in that time, CDC figures say fentanyl has killed 291,000 Americans. As CBS News notes, Mexican cartels control this trade, so cartel responsibility for a quarter million American deaths appears to be justified by the data.
(2) Homan did not say that fentanyl was trafficked by undocumented immigrants. He blamed Mexican cartels. This too is perfectly accurate.
Now, when Trump speaks about the issue, he gets virtually all the facts wrong, which is nothing new. But the primary fact check here is of Homan, whose statement was correct. CBS News had to reinterpret him as saying two things he didn't say in order to subject him to this fact check.
I have very real concerns about some of the border policies Homan would like to implement. But his statements about cartels and fentanyl are correct, and this attempted fact check is an embarrassment.
It's an embarrassment.
Solid fact checking here. Only 73,000 Americans died from fentanyl last year. That's basically just a small city wiped off the map. No biggie! https://t.co/rw1D1ccOf7
— .💀.Badaisè (@_A_Badaise) December 7, 2024
Amazing how they'd dismiss 73K deaths because they hate Trump so much.
Imagine waking up to the mainstream media defending Mexican Drug Cartels?
— Alan Jacoby (@AlanJacobyJr) December 7, 2024
You don't hate the media enough. https://t.co/nl2Z913rYE
We really don't.
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