The point of the Media Research Center’s “fact-checking the fact-checkers” campaign, as we’ve documented, is nothing more than a politically motivated attack on fact-checkers for pointing the falsehoods and outright lies of President Trump and his administration.
The MRC’s Tim Graham demonstrates that grudge once again in a June 5 post, which begins by huffing that “Washington Post ‘Fact Checker’ Glenn Kessler has concentrated most of his firepower on Donald Trump. A June 1 blog post touted ‘President Trump has made 3,251 false or misleading claims in 497 days.'” Graham doesn’t dispute this; he’s simply complaining that this particular truth has been made public.
Graham then changed his tune, cheering “a tiny nod toward balance” because the Post fact-checked Bill Clinton about his claims of deep debt upon leaving the presidency and finding them wanting. For no other apparently reason than that it engages in some right-wing-friendly Clinton-bashing, Graham proclaims that “We have rated this Washington Post ‘fact check’ as The Real Deal.”
Which further exposes the agenda of Graham’s fact-check-bashing enterprise. Only facts that support the MRC’s right-wing, pro-Trump agenda are accepted; any media outlet who writes something negative about Trump — no matter how true it is — cannot be trusted.
As we’ve said before: Real journalists check facts; partisan activists attack the fact-checkers.