PolitiFact ‘Fact-Checks’ Criticism of Its ‘Fact-Checks’
It’s a misguided attempt to gaslight the public since the proof is on the Republicans’ side.
When the fact-checkers fact-check a fact-check and are still misleading, what does that say about the fact-checkers? This new tongue twister is courtesy of PolitiFact.
In all seriousness, PolitiFact has stepped in it again. This time it was caught attempting to help failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams cover her tracks.
Recall that Abrams, through her group Fair Fight Action, was successful last year in bullying Major League Baseball into moving its All-Star Game from Atlanta to Denver. This was all done to protest Georgia’s voter integrity law. Abrams and her supporters (including President Joe Biden) said it was akin to Jim Crow.
The All-Star Game move cost Atlanta businesses $100 million in lost revenue, and all for a lie. This bit is important because it’s the impetus for the fact-check cover-up.
The original fact-check from PolitiFact asserted, “No, Stacey Abrams didn’t support the baseball All-Star game boycott of Atlanta.” It claimed the allegation was missing context.
PolitiFact based its claims on an op-ed that Abrams wrote for USA Today. In that piece, Abrams ostensibly did not openly call for a boycott … except that the article Abrams initially wrote actually did call for a boycott. The version that PolitiFact decided to use was substantially stealth-edited after the fact. We have the receipts.
It’s important for Abrams to not look like she hates Georgia since she is the Democrat candidate for governor in the upcoming November election. It is to her advantage to disavow her part in lying about the Georgia voter integrity law and encouraging the exodus of the MLB All-Star Game that hurt Georgia businesses (specifically black-owned business). Abrams is actively working to rehabilitate her image, but she is not doing a good job. She recently said that Georgia was “the worst state in the country to live.” She needs all the help she can get, and this fact-check is just another part of the cleanup.
Here’s where the irony comes in.
After the issuance of the original fact-check claiming Abrams did not encourage the boycott, conservative voices such as Townhall said the fact-check was misleading. Townhall pointed out the obvious — the fact-check was an attempt to cover for Abrams. Here’s what happened next: “After Townhall — and our sister site Twitchy — ran reports on Abrams’ flip-flop regarding boycotts of Georgia over trumped up and now-debunked fears about election integrity and how PolitiFact was exposing its partisan bias to attack Republicans, PolitiFact again chimed in … to criticize the criticism of its fact-check. You can’t make it up.”
PolitFact fact-checked its fact-check and then proceeded to use Facebook to silence any intimation that it screwed up. If any story appears on Facebook saying that Abrams was receiving cover from PolitiFact, it’s slapped with a “missing context” label.
This is, once again, proof that “fact-checkers” are biased and convoluting the truth with their own misinformation. It’s about the power of controlling the narrative — and if that doesn’t work, confusing people and gaslighting.
