Judd Legum is pretty bent out of shape that Facebook is using The Daily Caller to fact check those media stories where President Trump is accused of calling the coronavirus a hoax when he did no such thing:
1. Facebook made THE DAILY CALLER an official fact-checking partner.
That gives The Daily Caller the ability to label anything posted on Facebook as "false information" and dramatically reduce its distribution.
It's now using that power to boost Trump.https://t.co/AoMU8uhDR8
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) March 3, 2020
Well, if The Daily Caller isn’t good enough, how about Slate? Here’s Will Saletan warning libs from going there when it happened:
Trump's use of "hoax" tonight (7:45 in this video) referred to what he said a minute earlier: "The Democrats are politicizing the coronavirus. … We did one of the great jobs."
He was saying the hoax is that he's handled it badly. Not the virus itself. https://t.co/m6GG7OMLvd
— Will Saletan (@saletan) February 29, 2020
And he’s not fan of Trump:
Trump is a liar, a terrible president, and a terrible human being. The claim that he's done a bad job of preparing for and responding to this threat is not a hoax. It's true.
But it's not true that he called the virus, or the danger it poses, a hoax. That's a misinterpretation.
— Will Saletan (@saletan) February 29, 2020
This really won’t go the way Legum wants it to go:
Are you okay?
— It's still 2016 apparently (@jtLOL) March 3, 2020
It’s 100% correct:
Their fact check is correct. Keep crying, you whiny, insufferable, hack.
— Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) March 3, 2020
Just “Take the L” and move on:
They're right, Juddle. Take the L. https://t.co/oR02n2vZwC
— neontaster (@neontaster) March 3, 2020
But, nah:
lmfaooooo this made me spit my coffee out.
Conservative publications have been "fact checked" by partisan liberal outlets and organizations every since this feature was rolled out. They add ONE conservative outlet and the libs like Judd lose their minds.
It's hilarious to watch https://t.co/0wOrtXp0dt
— Jason Howerton (@jason_howerton) March 3, 2020
But he did not move on! Here’s the rest of his thread:
2. On Friday, Politico published an article headlined "Trump rallies his base to treat coronavirus as a ‘hoax.’"
The Daily Caller declared this was "false information." If you try to post the article to Facebook, this is what you see. https://t.co/AoMU8uhDR8 pic.twitter.com/aDS4Ogpo1y
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) March 3, 2020
3. The Daily Caller's fact check claims that Trump referred only to the Democrats' politicization of the coronavirus as a "hoax"
But that's not what Trump said
He said: "This is their new hoax"
The Daily Caller resolves that ambiguity in favor of Trumphttps://t.co/AoMU8uhDR8
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) March 3, 2020
4. The Daily Caller justifies its ruling by claiming: "Throughout the speech, Trump reiterates his administration is taking the threat of the coronavirus seriously"
Throughout the speech, Trump minimizes the threat of the coronavirus
Read it yourselfhttps://t.co/AoMU8uhDR8 pic.twitter.com/4aebHW0P6f
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) March 3, 2020
5. The bigger question is why Facebook allows The Daily Caller to make judgments about Politico's reporting.
The Daily Caller has a history of publishing false information.
And it published columns by a white nationalist. https://t.co/AoMU8uhDR8 pic.twitter.com/bcWxlkNw64
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) March 3, 2020
6. The Daily Caller does fact check false claims about Democrats but many of these are framed as clickbait.
For example: FACT CHECK: DOES THIS PHOTO SHOW OBAMA’S COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY ID LISTING HIM AS A ‘FOREIGN STUDENT’?https://t.co/AoMU8uhDR8 pic.twitter.com/6zxntAxGyI
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) March 3, 2020
7. The Daily Caller's fact check operation is funded by the Searle Freedom Trust, a major funder of organizations that push climate disinformation and other right-wing causes https://t.co/AoMU8uhDR8
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) March 3, 2020
8. The political narrative on Facebook is a BFD. That's why candidates spend millions on Facebook ads
That's why I spend so much time tracking how it deals w/political content
Stay informed. Check out my newsletter, Popular Information
Sign up ➡️ htttp://popular.info/subscribe
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) March 3, 2020
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