Earlier, we told you about PolitiFact’s “fact-check” of a totally accurate statement about Colorado’s radical abortion law. It’s just one in a seemingly endless series of examples of alleged fact-checkers not doing their jobs and choosing instead to act as mouthpieces for the Democratic Party.
And that makes it even more remarkable when a liberally-inclined outlet actually fact-checks the Democratic Party. That’s what happened after the White House sent out this tweet:
If you can’t shake the nagging feeling that the White House left some pretty important information out of that tweet, you’re right. You might even be one of the readers who, according to Twitter, wanted to “[add] context they thought people might want to know”:
holy shit that fact check 😂 pic.twitter.com/YMlY7lWfm8
— Mike Solana (@micsolana) November 2, 2022
Whoa. That’s a pretty good fact-check. Pretty brutal, too.
https://twitter.com/AaronBlake/status/1587844125310816258
What’s going on?
Did Musk do something to open up Birdwatch to more people? I've always seen those, but people are acting like they're new. https://t.co/J8CIgLUlY0
— jimtreacher.substack.com (@jtLOL) November 2, 2022
They’re not new … but Twitter allowing and posting fact-checks of Democratic lies is definitely a pretty recent development.
Finally a real fact check! 🤣😂🤣😂 https://t.co/82A3LI6emp
— Maxwell (@govfools) November 2, 2022
Wow, fact checks are…getting factual now! https://t.co/82l0KW1O6N
— Grummz (@Grummz) November 2, 2022
Imagine!
a new sheriff in town pic.twitter.com/z4rhNZXwwm
— Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) November 2, 2022
Elon Musk hasn’t been in charge for very long but we’ve already seen some pretty major changes to the status quo. This one would fall into the “Positive Changes” category.
The community notes feature is awesome.
Our goal is to make Twitter the most accurate source of information on Earth, without regard to political affiliation.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 2, 2022
Is it wrong to kinda like where this is going?
I don’t want to live in a country where just anyone can fact check the President.
Fascism is here. https://t.co/9qQWOSfE7p
— 🫃🏼💉🇺🇦Hollaria Briden, Esq. (@HollyBriden) November 2, 2022
Snort.
In all seriousness, though, there is an element of this that’s genuinely disturbing: the fact-checkers just keep dropping the ball when it’s more important than ever that they do their jobs.
Hey, fact-checkers, what would you say you do here? Because holding the White House and the President of the United States accountable doesn’t seem to be on the to-do list. And Lord knows there’s a whole lot to hold them accountable for.
Hey @WhiteHouse, did you lose this? pic.twitter.com/zmSUpQ4kbG
— Doug Powers (@ThePowersThatBe) November 2, 2022
They did, in fact, lose it. On purpose, if you can believe it:
WOAH – The White House *deleted* its tweet after Twitter placed a fact-check disclaimer on it. pic.twitter.com/1XJKnjRG5V
— Joseph A. Wulfsohn (@JosephWulfsohn) November 2, 2022
Dang.
The fact that Americans pushing back on the Biden admin's self-owning tweet about Social Security made the White House delete their post is just… *chef's kiss*
— Spencer Brown (@itsSpencerBrown) November 2, 2022
What a time to be alive.
True! – No correction just deletedhttps://t.co/lUsJKLp9cN
— Charlie Spiering (@charliespiering) November 2, 2022
Taking a cue from the New York Times et al. and stealth editing and removing stuff?
If they start deleting false tweets we'll never have to read another one again! 😎
— Jeanne 😎🌴🇺🇲 (@JeanneRae49) November 2, 2022
That’s true … but if they do delete false tweets, it looks like it won’t be because the fact-checkers fact-checked them.
I guess it's up to Twitter users to do that when the fact checkers are busy just posting his schedule. pic.twitter.com/ou9n5vBFzA
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) November 2, 2022
We supposedly have an entire industry of fact checkers and it took random twitter users to fact check the WH. https://t.co/MsZFtwtWJB
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) November 2, 2022
That "context" message at the bottom is as big of an "oooof" as the blow to Lyin' Biden and his handlers. "Reporters" and professional "fact checkers" had nothing to do with this – it was a crowdsourced takedown. Good thing DNC Media has no capacity for shame left. https://t.co/FOnPLH6moz
— John Hayward (@Doc_0) November 2, 2022
***
Update:
Karine Jean-Pierre defends WH deleting wildly misleading tweet by … trying to mislead us some more https://t.co/Xd8PdZxdxA
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) November 2, 2022
***
Join the conversation as a VIP Member