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Fact-Checkers Without Evidence

As the media continues its precipitous decline in public approval and credibility, one small bastion still retains a semi-sacred status: Fact-checkers.

Even more than “journalists” fact-checkers claim to be above the fray, depicting themselves as sticking to the “cold hard facts” while leaving their opinions at the door. Of course, this is meant to cover up the fact that almost invariably they inject their opinions into various matters while projecting a false narrative that their work emanates from some higher authority that must be believed, much like a college professor who thinks he must not be questioned by mere students.

In reality, these would-be purveyors of truth are nothing more than the guardians of their friends in the mainstream media, providing cover for them and their respective employers so that their “fact-checks” can in turn receive promotion by the very same media outlets they purport to be checking. In an extremely nauseating cycle of narcissism, these players enjoy a game of perpetual grab ass.

The Dopes of Snopes
No other website has done more to make  mockery of the phrase “fact checking” than Snopes, a website originally founded for the purpose of debunking “urban legends”—subjects like UFOs or Bigfoot and wild internet rumors. That such a website is suddenly and unironically pretending to be a major political fact-checking website is about as disconcerting as seeing a paper like the National Enquirer suddenly pretend to be The New York Times. Then again, perhaps it’s not surprising at all.

We should never forget the time that Snopes actually ran a “fact-check” on an article by a satire website, The Babylon Bee, that was poking fun at left-wing bias in CNN’s coverage of the news. The Daily Caller eventually revealed that Snopes’ chief political fact-checker is actually “a failed left-wing blogger” who repeatedly has made false claims or claims without any evidence. Snopes’ antics have even led to Real Clear Politics charging that the site regularly engages in “injecting editorial language or opinions into their fact checks.”

The Kavanaugh hearings brought on one of Snopes’ most recent failures. It was actually a hilarious display that tied them in the knot of blatant lying, followed by admitting to the lie, while still insisting that the lie was true. Back when the extent of left-wing madness over Justice Kavanaugh’s confirmation was limited to the repeated outbursts of left-wing crazies during his first few days of the hearings, it was revealed that many of these protesters were actually being paid for their disruptions.

Snopes quickly jumped on this report declaring it to be false. They claimed that the photographic evidence showing the payments simply showed that the protesters were merely collecting money to cover their legal fees upon being arrested.

So, in other words . . . they were being paid. And Snopes’ response was essentially: “No, they weren’t being paid! They were just being paid.”

Caravan Craziness
Another major issue that has exposed many a flaw among the “fact-checkers” is the recent illegal alien mobs dubbed “caravans” by our left-wing media. As the traveling monstrosity numbers in the thousands and sets the country up for a looming showdown, Trump has directed his righteous anger at the stunt and is allocating the necessary resources to fight it.

At the same time, the President has not hesitated to place the blame exactly where it belongs: With the Democrats and the American Left. Naturally, CNN rushed to denounce this with just the latest of many, many uses of their new favorite phrase: “Without evidence.”

Whenever Trump or someone on the Right makes a claim, the media always throws up that phrase as a sort of disclaimer; but when the Left makes a claim, even if it is truly without evidence (like the entirety of the “Russia” conspiracy theory, or the Kavanaugh allegations), the media appears to assume that the burden of proving the charge untrue is on the accused.

Respecting the “caravan,” they assert that Trump’s blame of the Democrats is baseless, apparently going for the angle that he is implying some sort of behind-the-scenes orchestration of this caravan by the rival party.

Regardless of whether or not that turns out to be true (and we’ll get to that shortly), the fact of the matter is that Democrats absolutely are at fault for this growing mob of would be migrants, just as they are at fault for jumps in illegal immigration as a whole. Even if they are not directly organizing and planning this massive PR maneuver, it is clear that the rhetoric and the policies they deploy pushing for open borders and unfettered immigration encourage such dangerous actions as those undertaken by the caravan.

Beyond that, however, President Trump proved that there is indeed some insidious planning going on behind the scenes in this incident, tweeting out a now viral video showing Latin American civilians being paid to go join the caravan.

And right on cue, that truly upstanding arbiter of truth known as Vox came onto the scene. Vox claimed to “debunk” the idea that the caravan’s participants are being paid… but instead did nothing more than argue that there is no evidence that they are being paid by George Soros himself, while not actually arguing against the notion that they are being paid.

This was a counter-argument made just as weakly by The Washington Post during the Kavanaugh chaos. Outlets such as these love to portray Soros as some kind old man, a philanthropist and innocent victim of “right-wing conspiracy theories” who is blamed for everything wrong in the world.

Ignoring Soros’ long history of supporting far-left causes, both financially and structurally, that has rightfully earned him this ongoing criticism, it nonetheless needs to be said that hardly anyone actually believes that Soros himself is responsible for every single far-left and anti-Trump cause in existence. He has plenty of help from his fellow radical billionaires around the world, from tech giants such as Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey to other activist billionaires like Tom Steyer and Michael Bloomberg.

But here’s a radical idea: Proving that George Soros himself isn’t writing the checks doesn’t mean this activity isn’t being bought, paid for, and organized by organized and intentional left-wing individuals or outlets, perhaps even some with connections to Soros.

It is also worth noting that since Trump himself does not actually name Soros in this accusation, the media’s rush to defend Soros and name him first does seem rather, well, odd.

A Blind Eye to Their Own
Of course, it goes without saying that so-called “fact-checkers” primarily are  interested in correcting the Right while turning a blind eye to their friends on the Left.

Recently, American Greatness Assistant Editor Pedro Gonzalez uncovered a clear discrepancy with the website “Media Bias Fact Check,” between its coverage of American Greatness and Huffington Post.

In its profile of AG, the website chastises this publication for occasionally linking to such sources as Tucker Carlson’s The Daily Caller or The Gateway Pundit, and thus ranks us as having “mixed” factual reporting and a “right” bias… even though it then admits that we have never failed a fact check.

Meanwhile, in a rather glowing review of HuffPo, the same site declares that the far-left publication has a “high” factual reporting rate, despite admitting immediately afterward that the site has, in fact, failed a fact check and published an unproven claim in the past.

Don’t be fooled by the seemingly innocuous (and not to mention self-awarded) title of “fact-checker.” Fact-checkers are nothing more than glorified and self-elevated members of the mainstream media, and thus cleave to the same left-wing bias and agenda.

Photo Credit: Getty Images

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About Eric Lendrum

Eric Lendrum graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he was the Secretary of the College Republicans and the founding chairman of the school’s Young Americans for Freedom chapter. He has interned for Young America’s Foundation, the Heritage Foundation, and the White House, and has worked for numerous campaigns including the 2018 re-election of Congressman Devin Nunes (CA-22). He is currently a co-host of The Right Take podcast.