Verifying Fact Checkers

There was a YouTube channel called “Cinema Sins” (maybe it still exists) that reviewed recent movies, nitpicking over every continuity error, anachronism, and anything else they didn’t like. It became a parody of itself, though, because the creators were locked into the paradigm of finding as many errors as possible – their whole thing was based on counting up so many sins that they had to start making them up. Shaun dissected them thoroughly. That “sin” count on their videos had to keep going up, you know!

The latest sport on Bluesky is a nod to the newspaper fact-checkers who fight so hard to justify their existence by finding something, anything, to criticize about the speeches given at the Democratic National Convention. In particular, I see a lot of criticism directed at the odious Glenn Kessler. The poor man takes his job very seriously. He is motivated to make sure he gets column inches by finding something writing about this subject, which would be a commendable occupation, except that he keeps questioning statements that are not literal quotes. “Summarizing” or “condensing” the overall message of a political group is a sin!

For example, a speech highlights the Republican Party’s family policy.

“Page 451 says that the only legitimate family is that of a married father and mother where only the father works.”

— Colorado Governor Jared Polis

It’s a matter of interpretation. Polis was one of several speakers at the convention who highlighted passages from a Heritage Foundation report called “Mandate for Leadership,” a 922-page catalog of conservative proposals known as the 2025 Project.

But page 451 of the report does not use the words Polis suggested, nor does it say that mothers should not work. On that page is a proposal that the Department of Health and Human Services promote “stable and prosperous married families.”

But here is what page 451 says. It is true that Polis was not quoting the exact literal words of Project 2025.

Goal #3: Promote stable and thriving married families. Families comprised of a married mother, a married father, and their children are the foundation of a well-organized nation and a healthy society. Unfortunately, President Biden’s HHS family policies and programs are riddled with agenda items that focus on “LGBTQ+ equity,” subsidize single mothers, discourage work, and penalize marriage. These policies should be repealed and replaced with policies that support stable married nuclear families. Working fathers are essential to the well-being and development of their children, but America is in a crisis of fatherlessness that is ruining our children’s futures. In an overwhelming number of cases, fathers are shielding their children from physical and sexual abuse, financial hardship or poverty, incarceration, teen pregnancy, poor academic performance, academic failure, and a host of behavioral and psychological problems. In contrast, homes with unrelated “boyfriends” are among the most dangerous places for a child. HHS should prioritize engaging married fathers in its messaging, health and welfare policies.

In the context of current and emerging reproductive technologies, HHS policies should never place the wishes of adults above the rights of children to be raised by the biological parents who conceive them. In cases involving biological parents who are found unfit by a court due to abuse or neglect, the adoption process should be expeditious, safe, and generously supported by HHS.

It’s only allusion to their plans, which explicitly oppose LGBT+ equal rights, the nuclear family, and the importance of working fathers. We also have all the other things Republicans have said about wanting to return to a stereotypical 1950s version. Good job, Glenn.

What is most irritating is the complaint that Tim Walz described a well-known Republican policy.

“They will repeal the Affordable Care Act. They will destroy Social Security and Medicare, and they will ban abortion nationwide, with or without Congress.”

— Tim Walz, vice presidential candidate

The problem ?

This is speculation. Trump has said he won’t touch Social Security or Medicare – and he has largely kept that promise during his presidency.

He also said he would not touch Roe v. Wade, as several Supreme Court nominees have done. Yet somehow the case was “touched,” and touched hard. Does Kessler assume Republicans never lie? Programs like Social Security, Medicare, and abortion are popularSo politicians avoid being direct in their plans, because that would make them loseGlenn Kessler plays the Republican game by pretending that circumlocutions are effective in hiding their intentions.

On abortion, Trump has said the Supreme Court has sent the issue back to the states and that each state can set its own policies. But many conservative allies are eager to further restrict abortion rights, perhaps by using old existing laws (like the Comstock Act of 1873) in new and aggressive ways. Walz hinted at this when he said Trump would act “with or without Congress.”

Let’s go back to the Project 2025 document that Kessler just cited as proof that, oh no, Republicans aren’t actually interested in restoring patriarchy. Look up the word “abortion.”

There are 199 mentions.

You will have no trouble finding quotes to support Walz’s outlandish claim.

Enough. Quibbles about Republican common sense or the slimy loopholes of some fact-checkers bore me enough and are an endless pit of evasions and lies.