Free Republic

A few days ago, I got an email from a fact-checker at PolitiFact. His name is Bill McCarthy. He said he was checking a quotation from me taken from my appearance on the “Ingraham Angle” on Fox News. We had an exchange of emails that gives a very interesting window into the otherwise obscure world of fact-checking. So I’d like to track our correspondence, because, after all, these are the kinds of checks that get people tagged, restricted, and even banned on social media. Here’s what I said on Fox: “If you follow Jan. 6 at the granular level with...

Trump paints false picture of Kyle Rittenhouse shootings ahead of Kenosha visit If Your Time is short Kyle Rittenhouse tripped and fell as a group of people pursued him on the night he allegedly killed two protesters and injured a third.But Trump’s claim leaves out vital context: that Rittenhouse ran away from protesters after prosecutors say he had already shot and killed someone.See the sources for this fact-checkEditor's note: This item was updated to make clear that we are rating whether Trump described what happened accurately, not the separate question of whether what happened amounted to self-defense or, as...

PolitiFact doubled down on Tuesday after being roasted for a poorly aged "fact-check" claiming Kyle Rittenhouse's firearm possession was illegal by adding a long-winded explanation declaring the much-criticized piece remains unchanged. Judge Bruce Schroeder, who is overseeing the Rittenhouse murder trial, made headlines on Monday over his decision to throw out the sixth charge against the 18-year-old for having a dangerous weapon as a minor. Rittenhouse was 17 at the time of the deadly shootings.

PolitiFact and Facebook have been slammed for an August 2020 'fact check' that claimed it was false to say it was 'perfectly legal' for Kyle Rittenhouse to carry his AR-15 rifle at the Kenosha riot, after a judge tossed out his firearms possession charge on Monday. The judge in the Rittenhouse case yesterday threw out the gun possession charge, ruling that the law is written in such a confusing way that it allows for the interpretation that 17-year-olds can carry guns if those gun barrels are shorter than 16 inches. 'I‘m still trying to figure out what it says, what...

Facebook posted a "correction" which essentially said, Because we say so.Well, I responded;

In a shocking turn of events, PolitiFact rated something a Republican said “Mostly True.” Not just any Republican, either. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said something about recovered immunity from COVID-19 that PoilitFact did not completely debunk. There is a highly coordinated narrative on COVID-19 in the corporate media, and most outlets will only parrot what Dr. Anthony Fauci says. PolitiFact just broke the mold!PolitiFact gave this statement a “mostly true” rating. In its bulleted response, the fact-checker said:A large study out of Israel found that natural immunity gives longer-lasting and stronger protection than the Pfizer vaccine.The same study said natural...

Politifact is to be about as trusted as an anonymous Twitter user with no photo and five followers when it comes to claims about what is and isn’t factual in any given situation. It’s proven time and again that its out-of-control bias leans so far to the left that it sometimes falls over and embarrassed itself.It just did so again, but this time it tried to step into the ring with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz on Texas law. Highly unwise. Old women would have better luck in an actual ring with Ali in his prime.But Politifact knew that when it...

If Your Time is short Researchers say there is no conclusive evidence that the anti-parasite drug is an effective COVID-19 treatment.Ivermectin is not approved for COVID-19 prevention or treatment by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The FDA has also gone a step further, recommending against its use for COVID-19.See the sources for this fact-checkA widely shared Facebook post claims that ivermectin, which has emerged as a controversial drug during the coronavirus pandemic, is effective in treating COVID-19."How long after the last day of fever with the Rona should I wait to return to work? I feel fine now...

As we previously reported, Joe Biden’s CNN town hall was an acid bath.He was completely incoherent in clips like this one."And the question is whether or not we should be in a position where, you, uh, um, are why can't the, the, the experts say we know that this virus is, in fact, uh, um, is going to be, or, excuse me, we know why all the drugs approved are not temporarily approved…" https://t.co/I9IQvhH9i8— Zach Parkinson (@AZachParkinson) July 22, 2021He also ended up talking about aliens and lying his head off, including even saying that you couldn’t catch the Wuhan...

At their recent "United Facts of America Festival," PolitiFact interviewed Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va. Their executive director Aaron Sharockman began with some light humor, telling Warner he was one of the more accurate members of Congress. Sharockman complimented Warner for having zero "Pants on Fire" rated claims. Warner joked: "That feels like it should be a low bar. Unfortunately, I don't think it is." It's not exactly a tough bar. In fact, my review of all PolitiFact pages for current U.S. Senate Democrats finds that almost (SET ITAL)every(END ITAL) Democratic senator has zero "Pants on Fire" ratings. Four Democratic senators...

The Arizona Senate held a hearing last Thursday on latest developments in the Arizona Senate Audit of the 2020 Maricopa County election ballots.This hearing was held after Arizona Senate President Karen Fann sent a letter to the Maricopa County election officials alleging the Maricopa Officials deleted an entire database directory from voting machines.During the hearing the Cyber Ninja auditor Ben Cotton announced their team had recovered the deleted files from the voting machines.This is exactly what Joe Hoft at The Gateway Pundit reported in a Gateway Pundit exclusive earlier in the week.Data Files Reportedly Deleted in Arizona Before Providing Machines...

A New York Times business correspondent in Hong Kong, a weekend editor at The Guardian who lives in New York, a British Business Insider reporter with a focus on the Saudis, and the executive editor of The Daily Beast. A 48-year-old blogger who works for Rachel Maddow, a union activist who covers “extremism, far-right politics and media disinformation” for The Huffington Post, and the 29-year editor of the Arkansas Times. A breaking news reporter at The Washington Post who wrapped up her most recent internship in May 2016, a 2016 University of Pennsylvania graduate who covers “young people doing big...

It was just last year that PolitiFact labeled Fox News host Tucker Carlson a “pants on fire” kind of liar for his report that the COVID-19 virus wasn’t just a naturally occurring virus, but one that was actually created in a lab in Wuhan. It wasn’t just a wild claim either. Carlson brought on virologist Dr. Li-Meng Yan from the University of Hong Kong who said she could actually produce scientific evidence for the claim.Yet, the “fact-checkers” at PolitiFact weren’t just dismissive, they seemed to get a bit defensive.“The claim is inaccurate and ridiculous,” wrote Daniel Funke in September. “We...

On February 26, 2021, seeking to further its liberal cause, Politifact presented a "fact check" (for which it gets checks) labeling a the Facebook statement as false but which in essence means Politifact labels as false, while also imputing a perverse contextual reason for it which the source did not express. The statement at issue was one from a Facebook poster, "‘God has no authority in the House of Representatives,’" which was a summation of what Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y. said in response to Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla. (who criticized the Equality Act during the House debate, saying it violates...

Recently I was "fact checked" by PolitiFact for a demo I did showing that masks don't stop the spread of aerosols (longer one here, shorter one here). The reporter asked for my comments and then said what his narrative required, without regard for any scientific data. The list of CDC and Medscape information in the video description escaped his attention. He also completely ignored the fact that Anthony Fauci has flip-flopped on masks more than a fresh-caught fish on deck. Scientists have been very busy. When the Wuhan Flu came to America, we were told to constantly bathe our hands...

The far-left PolitiFact, a fake fact-checking site run by the far-left Poynter Institute, waited until this week, long after former President Trump’s impeachment trial was over, to finally admit Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick was not beaten to death with a fire extinguisher by a Trump supporter. Although what I call “the fire extinguisher hoax” has been floating around since the Capitol Hill riot on January 6… Although, as far back as January 8, ProPublica reported that Sicknick texted his brother after the riot to tell him he was in “good shape…” Although far-left CNNLOL reported all the way back...

PolitiFact botched a fact-check of a fact-check in a story exposing the group’s absence of a fact-check.On Friday, PolitiFact Editor-in-Chief Angie Holan twice demanded The Federalist issue a correction to a story published Wednesday on comments the group was not very interested in fact-checking Vice President Kamala Harris.“We’ve always been more interested in fact-checking the president than the vice president,” Holan wrote in an email Wednesday, when pushed on why the group had failed to fact-check demonstrably false comments from Harris. “That was true for the past two administrations as well.”Harris claimed during an interview with Axios on HBO published...

The myth of Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York, Master of Pandemics, Destroyer of Trump, Boyfriend of America didn't create itself: It was the creation of U.S. media.The week isn’t even over and already New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has threatened a Democrat colleague, attacked nurses and nursing home staff, lashed out at the federal government, and attacked his “critics” for spreading “disinformation” and “conspiracy theories” about that time he literally conspired to hide easily avoidable deaths he caused. Things aren’t looking good for him.This, we’re told by his new enemies in corporate media, is what Democratic accountability looks like....

On Wednesday morning, November 3rd President Trump was ahead of Joe Biden in the swing state of Michigan by over 100,000 votes.This appeared to be another solid win for President Trump in a swing state he won in 2016. The ballot counting in Detroit, Michigan on election night took place at the TCF Center, formerly known as Cobo Hall.Then late at night, a string of suspicious events changed the momentum for the Trump Team. GOP observers later testified that at 3:30 AM in the morning vehicles drove into the TCF Center and delivered fraudulent ballots for Joe Biden.The Gateway Pundit...

Analysis: PolitiFact Warps Reality About Left-Wing Activist Inciting Capitol RiotA PolitiFact article written by Bill McCarthy declares “there’s no proof that” a left-wing anti-Trump activist named John Sullivan incited rioting at the U.S. Capitol. As a result of this claim, Facebook flagged and reduced distribution of a post which accused Sullivan of doing so.However, video footage indisputably proves that Sullivan encouraged people to storm and vandalize the Capitol. Moreover, Sullivan was subsequently arrested and charged with “violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds” and “interfering with law enforcement” during the riot. In the wake of these revelations, PolitiFact “updated”...