Just the Facts
WHO’S CHECKING THE “FACT-CHECKERS”? …
In recent days, pictures and memes have circulated frequently, which highlight President Biden checking his watch as the bodies of service members were returned home.
Just now, a Facebook post with one such picture had the familiar WARNING — “Missing Context.” If you were curious enough to follow the “context” link, it identifies a USA TODAY “fact checking” source, and the link still has the summary, “Biden … checked his watch only after ceremony.”
However, if you follow the link to the actual article, you learn that the fact checkers were fact-checked, and their alleged facts were erroneous … in fact, clearly erroneous. The article begins with the following “Correction and Clarification:”
This story was updated Sept. 2 to note that Biden checked his watch multiple times at the dignified transfer event, including during the ceremony itself. The rating on this claim has been changed from partly false to missing context.
The “missing context” seems to be that the media outlet didn’t like the reality. They couldn’t “handle the truth.” They made an erroneous determination of “fact” before they knew what the facts were. Professional “journalists” should not “pick a side” and then pad the adopted narrative with cherry-picked facts.
Similarly, the role of “journalists” is not to publish equally outlandish but opposing sides of a story for the sake of sensationalism without first determining the “facts.” It has been said that, instead of simply reporting that person “A” said that it is raining but person “B” argued that is not, the job of the reporter is to go outside (of his bubble) and to see whether or not it is actually raining before reporting the “facts.”
Saying that someone said something does not make that certain something a “fact.” That is hearsay, rumor, speculation, gossip, and innuendo. It is many things, but “fact” it is not.
Misstatements of fact, whether innocent or intentional, are commonplace within the marketplace of ideas. There too, the adage, “Buyer Beware,” applies. However, those, who are supposedly tasked (or who take it upon themselves) to grade the quality of the wares, are often shown to be biased, self-serving, or incompetent in their assessments and determinations. Once their bias is exposed or their determinations are called into question, such revelations are more damaging to the process of discerning veracity and truth than if they had never intervened or interfered at all.
Of course, this is not the first unfactual fact-check, and it is reminiscent of the so-called “conspiracy theory” about the release of Covid-19 from a substandard Wuhan Lab, an allegation which is now acknowledge to be plausible, possible, or probable (depending upon whom you ask).
Personally, I am less concerned about whether President Biden checked his watch than I am about the media machinery, which has developed for the express purpose of actively controlling political, economic, and social discourse. A narrative is put forth, and the expectation (or demand) is that all reported “facts” remain consistent with that approved narrative.
I’m capable of understanding “context.” I’m capable of filtering fact from fiction. However, it is increasingly hard to separate news from propaganda.
