The Media Research Center has long hated fact-checkers because they demonstrate how little right-wingers care about facts. So it’s not a surprise that one of the entries on the MRC’s space-filling year-end lists of various and sundry awards is a Dec. 29 piece by Alex Christy headlined “The 10 Most Egregious ‘Fact’ Checks of 2024,” which began by whining:
It is a common retort among those who argue in favor of an “independent” fact-checking industry that Republicans and conservatives are fact-checked more because they lie more. However, anyone who reads beyond the headlines will soon see this is nonsense. Over the past year, the fact-checkers have come out with some “fact” checks that are themselves factually challenged.
It’s not that the fact-checks are factually wrong per se; Christy is just choosing nitpicky ways to attack them to further right-wing narratives. His first example came via Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler:
In 2020, then-Sen. Kamala Harris tweeted out a link for the Minnesota Freedom Fund that sought to bail rioters out of jail. Four years later, a pro-Trump Super PAC criticized that decision, claiming, “She raised millions to help bail rioters out of jail.”
Kessler downplayed Harris’s role, giving the claim three pinocchios, “Harris herself never personally bailed out anyone or had any interaction with the fund… Justin Timberlake also tweeted his support. There’s no way to know how much money was raised because of Harris’s tweet.”
Christy did not explain how sending out a link to a bail fund equated to her having “raised millions,” But Christy doesn’t need facts; in his original post on the subject, he huffed: “Who cares? She promoted the cause; that’s all that matters.”
Another entry complained, “PolitiFact’s Joke Police Come For The Babylon Bee”:
While most of the fact-checkers have learned to treat satire as satire, PolitiFact has not, as it gave a “false” label to the Bee’s joke that Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigeg, “actually praised a cargo ship for helping to dismantle racism in American roads.”
As has happened before when the MRC made this similar complaint, the Babylon Bee is not being fact-checked — it simply called out others who were treating the Bee’s satire as fact.
That was followed by the entry “CNN’s Daniel Dale Claims George Soros Is A Victim Of ‘Anti-Semitic Conspiracy Theories’.” But not only is it indisputable that Soros has been the victim of such conspiracy theories, Christy’s employer has promoted them. So he quickly changed the subject away from his headline claim:
When Donald Trump suggested Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg was targeting him for political reasons, he cited the fact that he was supported by progressive billionaire activist George Soros. Dale was not happy, but his reasoning was not convincing, “So, Mr. Soros, who’s a liberal billionaire philanthropist, also a frequent target of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, did not make any direct contributions to Mr. Bragg’s election campaign. He also says he’s never spoken once to Mr. Bragg. What did happen was he donated to a liberal PAC that then in turn donated to Mr. Bragg’s campaign, as well as other reform-minded prosecutors. So, this is at best a one-step-removed relationship.”
Christy didn’t explain why he was complaining about Dale accurately describing the nature of those donations. He also failed to note that this labeling was part of his employer’s right-wing crusade to delegitimize prosecutors like Bragg who took on Donald Trump by baselessly dismissing them as having partisan motivation.
Another entry declared; “Snopes Defends Walz’s Anti-Religious Teacher Standards”:
Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Tim Walz, as governor of Minnesota, oversaw changes to the state’s teaching standards that required teachers to affirm beliefs about homosexuality and transgenderism that religious people would object to. This led conservatives to claim that Walz had banned Christians, Jews, and Muslims from holding teaching positions in the state, but Snopes claimed such a claim was nonsense because Minnesota didn’t explicitly pass a religious test. The article also featured many featured several unrelated personal attacks on those making the claim.
Christy maliciously insisted that this was “One Of The Worst Fact-Checks Ever Written.” As we documented, he was simply whining that the Snopes fact-checker in question accurately busted the false right-wing narrative that “Walz had banned Christians, Jews, and Muslims from holding teaching positions in the state” and exposed it as such.
In summary: Christy proved none of the fact-checks wrong, which means that his putting “fact” in scare quotes in his headline was completely unnecessary.