As many of Joe Biden’s critics have noted, the U.S. could send a very clear message to Russia by focusing on domestic energy independence. Russia has a lot less power on the global stage if countries don’t depend on them for oil.
Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo recently made a similar point on “Jesse Watters Primetime.”
During an appearance on “Jesse Watters Primetime,” Fox Business Network host Maria Bartiromo explained how brewing conflict between the U.S. and Russia could affect American consumers.
Bartiromo said that U.S. dependency on Russian oil imports would cause gasoline prices to continue rising.
The United States is “reliant on Russian oil. We have doubled our imports from Russia in the last year,” Bartiromo said on Feb. 22. “No question why President Biden is begging OPEC and others to pump more oil.”
Well, thank goodness for PolitiFact! If not for them, Bartiromo might’ve been allowed to get away with … not lying?
While a Facebook post is right in that the U.S. imports some of its oil from Russia, it wrongly claims that domestic oil production ended in the country. https://t.co/dMR28tgXHe
— PolitiFact (@PolitiFact) March 1, 2022
The most recent data from the Energy Information Administration shows that the U.S. increased its Russian oil imports by an average of 154,000 barrels per day, or 28%, in 2021. https://t.co/bESJOdpyvw
— PolitiFact (@PolitiFact) March 1, 2022
PolitiFact has ultimately determined that Maria Bartiromo’s statements are “Mostly False.” Because they’re evidently more determined to make Bartiromo and Fox look dishonest than they are to be honest about what Bartiromo said.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA pic.twitter.com/Q00pDxKr07
— Omri Ceren (@omriceren) March 1, 2022
Seriously — is fact-checking dead? pic.twitter.com/l4YTf86850
— David Martosko 🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦 (@dmartosko) March 1, 2022
One could certainly be forgiven for thinking so:
Bartiromo said the U.S. doubled its oil imports “from Russia in the last year.”
The latest data from the EIA doesn’t back her up. The U.S. increased its Russian oil imports by about 28% last year. That’s a notable increase, but it’s not double.
Bartiromo has more of a point when looking at only crude oil imported from Russia in 2021, which has more than doubled. But Russia accounted for about 3% of overall U.S. crude oil imports in 2021 — a 2 percentage point increase from 2020.
We rate this claim Mostly False.
PolitiFact is counting on readers to get too caught up in the semantics to realize what’s going on.
They aren’t even trying anymore https://t.co/4o7jczAtUm
— Jeffery (@jeffery4free) March 1, 2022
Well, this assumes @Politifact ever actually did real fact-checking to begin with.
But… the answer is yes. https://t.co/vX5LX1zRw5
— RBe (@RBPundit) March 1, 2022
They do the same thing with abortion. 'Yes, 10,000 viable babies are aborted every year, but it's only 5 percent of all abortions!' https://t.co/247cRyRQdV
— David Harsanyi (@davidharsanyi) March 1, 2022
As for the question: "Is fact-checking dead?"
The "fact-checking" genre was never real. It picked up in 2012 because the media realized they destroyed their last shreds of credibility campaigning for Obama in 2008.
So they needed a new word for their propaganda. https://t.co/kRT2jMmXXY
— The Partyman (@PartymanRandy) March 1, 2022
Hahahaha fact checking died when they had to separate it from “news” but this is on another level. https://t.co/2mVbckvm5b
— Minnesota Sports Fan (@realmnsportsfan) March 1, 2022
One hell of a fact check.
— B (@Texan__Pride) March 1, 2022
Should be called "Fact Twisting"
— James (@ortonovich) March 1, 2022
***
Update:
PolitiFact pours still more gasoline on the fire that is their credibility with utterly absurd fact-check of Virginia GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin https://t.co/NZ54xBS0Fi
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) March 1, 2022
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