ThinkProgress founder Judd Legum threw a MAJOR SNIT FIT on Twitter last night after Facebook dared to pair his former publication’s article which lied about Judge Brett Kavanaugh with a fact check from the conservative Weekly Standard:
1. Facebook's "fact checking" system is a farce.
It's purpose is not to check facts — it's to appease the right wing.
That's why they made THE WEEKLY STANDARD, a partisan right-wing magazine and official fact checker
It's going very poorly
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) September 11, 2018
2. First, as a reminder, Facebook worked with an independent third party to validate their facts checkers.
They assessed the Weekly Standards and found THEY DID NOT QUALIFY
Facebook accepted them as a fact checker anywayhttps://t.co/hQjobT2Ebg
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) September 11, 2018
At issue is this piece by Ian Millhiser titled, “Brett Kavanaugh said he would kill Roe v. Wade last week and almost no one noticed”:
3. Over the weekend, @imillhiser of ThinkProgress wrote a piece about the implication of Kavanaugh embracing the Glucksberg test.
Kavanaugh said in a 2017 that Roe would fail the Glucksberg test
Ian is a lawyer and it's a sophisticated legal argumenthttps://t.co/isyM0t33gg
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) September 11, 2018
And since Kavanaugh never said such a thing, The Weekly Standard called Millhiser out:
4. The Weekly Standard "fact checked" the piece and deemed it false
BUT THE FACT CHECK DOES NOT EVEN CONSIDER IAN'S ARGUMENT. IT TOTALLY IGNORES IT AND FOCUSES ON AN EMAIL THAT WAS NOT AT ALL THE POINT OF IAN'S PIECEhttps://t.co/bqMQAw4wNo
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) September 11, 2018
It’s pretty clear when you look at the two stories next to one another:
5. Now because a hack at a right-wing magazine has decided he doesn't like this article, Facebook is telling every user who encounters it that it is "false" pic.twitter.com/LNNevLZLtc
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) September 11, 2018
Legum is pissed that Facebook hired John Kyl as well:
6. Relatedly, Facebook hired John Kyl, the former Senator who was shepherding Kavanaugh through Congress to study "political bias" on its platform.
(He has since been appointed a Senator again, replacing the late John McCain)
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) September 11, 2018
Good for TWS for calling them out:
Except the fact is that the ThinkProgress piece was a complete lie and the WS fact-check was scrupulously accurate. My word, it's like you're some kind of hack for whom standards of objective truth are irrelevant or something.
— Jeff B. (@EsotericCD) September 11, 2018
***
Related:
'SO PATHETIC'! Dem Sen. Tammy Duckworth channels Kamala Harris, straight-up SLIMES Brett Kavanaugh https://t.co/nvuhExaWro
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) September 10, 2018
People take you SERIOUSLY?! Kamala Harris makes another BASELESS accusation against Kavanaugh, TRIPS over Ginsburg https://t.co/w58WOiHCwX
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) September 10, 2018
So ADORBS: WATCH Ted Cruz DISMANTLE both Kamala Harris and Cory Booker's 'theatrics' (video) https://t.co/QhZzOGg0tx
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) September 8, 2018
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