Media Research Center executive Tim Graham’s dubious war on fact-checkers continued as part of the MRC’s biased coverage of the midterm elections — mainly in the form of complaining that Republican candidates were being fact-checked. He grumbled in a Sept. 18 post:
Keep an eye on how PolitiFact uses its “Truth-O-Meter” in the congressional races this fall. It’s going to be obvious that they’ll “finesse” their so-called “independent fact-checking” in favor of the Democrats, as they typically do.
Take the Ohio Senate race: this is how Democrat [sic] congressman Tim Ryan has been rated over the years: 12 “True” or “Mostly True” ratings, two “Half Trues,” and one “Pants On Fire” rating back in 2011. That’s basically a 12-to-1 True tilt.
By contrast, PolitiFact has five evaluations of Republican J.D. Vance: one “Mostly True,” versus one “Mostly False,” two “Falses,” one “Pants on Fire.” That’s a 4-to-1 False tilt. And the Mostly True is from 2018. It’s all False this year.
As usual, Graham offered no evidence (other than picayune nitpicking) that any of the fact-checks were false, or that Ryan and Vance tell falsehoods and the same rate in a way that warrants equivalent coverage.
Graham complained some more in a Sept. 28 post, this time that right-wing attacks on President Biden were being fact-checked:
This week, the Poynter Institute and their PolitiFact website are hosting their “United Facts of America” conference to “celebrate facts” with a cast of liberal journalists, including PBS anchor Judy Woodruff, NPR TV critic Eric Deggans, CNN “misinformation” reporter Donie O’Sullivan and CNN legal analyst Joan Biskupic.
We’ve also found the “fact checking” at PolitiFact has a liberal tilt. Earlier this year, a NewsBusters study of Biden’s first year in office – from January 20, 2021 through January 19, 2022 – found Biden was fact-checked 40 times, while Biden critics were checked on 230 occasions. In other words, they’re much more sensitive about someone mangling the truth about Biden than they are about Biden mangling the truth.
Now MRC analysts have updated the research to include another eight months to the count. The pattern continues. From January 20 to September 19, 2022, we counted 18 PolitiFact checks on Joe Biden, compared to 108 “fact checks” of Biden critics. That’s exactly a six-to-one ratio.
Put it all together, and over his first 20 months in office, Biden had 58 fact-checks, while Biden critics were checked 338 times. Overall, there were 5.8 fact checks of Biden critics for every one of the president.
Why shouldn’t false claims about Biden be fact-checked, as Graham suggests? He doesn’t explain — even though that’s the clear implication of his complaint.
Graham spent a Nov. 28 post complaining that fact-checkers keep finding that Republican Herschel Walker — whom the MRC has repeatedly defended throughout his failed Georgia Senate campaign — says things that aren’t true:
On a daily or on a yearly basis, it’s not hard to find those “independent” critics at PolitiFact telling the public that Democrats are factual and Republicans are liars.
Take the Georgia Senate race: Sen. Raphael Warnock’s ratings in 2022 are three “Mostly True” checks and one “Half True.” Not a single rating in the False category:
[…]Then look at Warnock’s challenger, Herschel Walker, and you get the exact opposite. In 2022, Walker drew two “False” ratings, two “Mostly False” ratings, and one “Half True.” There was no rating on the “True” side.
Rather than, you know, find a false statement by Warnock that PolitiFact missed, Graham instead spouted his cynical talking point that fact-checking Republicans too much is evidence of bias:
Graham then gave away the game:
As we often point out, these “Fact Checkers” don’t have to be wrong about the facts to be biased. It’s obvious in their “target selection” that they’re helping out the Democrats, defending their records and blatantly attacking Republican talking points. PolitiFact is often Exhibit A.
But that’s a classic, dishonest heads-I-win-tails-you-lose argument. if Walker lies much more than Warnock, as appears to be the case — and which Graham makes no effort to disprove — there’s no reason to enforce artificial parity on fact-checking.
Graham doesn’t want Republicans to be held accountable for making false and misleading claims — period. To do that, he must try to discredit fact-checkers. He hates journalism and accountability, and all who stand for that must be targeted by his MRC through the sowing of microaggressions designed to engender mistrust and portray the mere act of fact-checking a Republican is insidious “bias.” That’s all he’s doing here — he’s certainly not acting in good faith.