{"id":1023150,"date":"2021-11-17T11:29:20","date_gmt":"2021-11-17T16:29:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1023150"},"modified":"2021-11-17T11:29:23","modified_gmt":"2021-11-17T16:29:23","slug":"at-cnn-we-start-with-facts-first-how-media-fact-checkers-mislead-about-facts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/at-cnn-we-start-with-facts-first-how-media-fact-checkers-mislead-about-facts\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018At CNN, We Start With Facts First\u2019: How Media Fact-Checkers Mislead About Facts"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fat-cnn-we-start-with-facts-first-how-media-fact-checkers-mislead-about-facts%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1023150&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>While legacy news outlets continue to pride themselves on their reputation as \u201cthe most trusted name in news,\u201d they have often fallen short of the facts in the one department most pivotal to maintaining journalistic credibility: their fact-checkers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFacts are facts. They aren\u2019t colored by emotion or bias. They are indisputable. There is no alternative to a fact,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnncreativemarketing.com\/project\/cnn_factsfirst\/\">wrote<\/a> CNN\u2019s Creative Marketing department. \u201cThat\u2019s why, at CNN, we start with the facts first.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>CNN\u2019s purported commitment to truth goes so far that prime time host Don Lemon said that U.S. internet users should only be able to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/all-social-media-users-should-be-doxxed-opinions-verified-as-true-don-lemon\">express their opinion if it is \u201ctrue,\u201d<\/a> because social media outlets should only print \u201copinions based in fact.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The use of \u201cfact-checking\u201d to silence others long ago escaped CNN and metastasized throughout all media, traditional and online.<\/p>\n<p>As Mark Hemingway recently <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/the-myth-of-fact-checking-how-facebook-created-the-worlds-largest-censorship-operation\">wrote<\/a> in a Reader\u2019s Pass article for The Daily Wire, the great social media purge of all things conservative began with its decision to ban Infowars founder Alex Jones. Jones\u2019 ouster \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/oliverdarcy\/status\/1017242469308788741\">came shortly after a pressure campaign launched by CNN<\/a>, a network that, ironically enough, had spent the last few years indulging in nonstop Trump-Russia reporting that wasn\u2019t any less conspiratorial than many of Jones\u2019 rantings,\u201d Hemingway writes.<\/p>\n<p>Hemingway worked at The Weekly Standard, which hired a fact-checker in cooperation with Facebook. This person would issue official proclamations about stories\u2019 truth or falsehood, which would influence whether social media suppressed shares of certain stories on that basis.<\/p>\n<p>The Weekly Standard <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/report-weekly-standard-be-shut-down-hank-berrien\">announced<\/a> it would close in December 2018.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[A]fter we all lost our jobs, The Weekly Standard\u2019s former fact-checker, the one who dared to express concern about Facebook becoming an engine of global censorship, got a job as a fact checker for CNN \u2013 the very news outlet that instigated Facebook\u2019s Alex Jones ban,\u201d Hemingway wrote. More from Hemingway:<\/p>\n<p><em>The editor-in-chief of The Weekly Standard who signed off on our Facebook partnership has since gone on to start a new publication called The Dispatch that still participates in Facebook\u2019s fact checking program. Last year, just before the election, a fact check from The Dispatch got a pro-life group\u2019s ads banned from Facebook. Their fact check said it was unfair to claim Joe Biden supports late-term abortion. The Dispatch would later admit their fact check was \u201cpublished in error.\u201d&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>As Hemingway\u2019s article shows, fact-checkers often walk through the revolving door between traditional journalism and social media, with each influencing the other.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps the most<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While legacy news outlets continue to pride themselves on their reputation as \u201cthe most trusted name in news,\u201d they have often fallen short of the facts in the one department most pivotal to maintaining journalistic credibility: their fact-checkers.\u201cFacts are facts. They aren\u2019t colored by emotion or bias. They are indisputable. There is no alternative to a fact,\u201d wrote CNN\u2019s Creative Marketing department. \u201cThat\u2019s why, at CNN, we start with the facts first.\u201dCNN\u2019s purported commitment to truth goes so far that prime time host Don Lemon said that U.S. internet users should only be able to express their opinion if it is \u201ctrue,\u201d because social media outlets should only print \u201copinions based in fact.\u201dThe use of \u201cfact-checking\u201d to silence others long ago escaped CNN and metastasized throughout all media, traditional and online.As Mark Hemingway recently wrote in a Reader\u2019s Pass article for The Daily Wire, the great social media purge of all things conservative began with its decision to ban Infowars founder Alex Jones. Jones\u2019 ouster \u201ccame shortly after a pressure campaign launched by CNN, a network that, ironically enough, had spent the last few years indulging in nonstop Trump-Russia reporting that wasn\u2019t any less conspiratorial than many of Jones\u2019 rantings,\u201d Hemingway writes.Hemingway worked at The Weekly Standard, which hired a fact-checker in cooperation with Facebook. This person would issue official proclamations about stories\u2019 truth or falsehood, which would influence whether social media suppressed shares of certain stories on that basis.The Weekly Standard announced it would close in December 2018.\u201c[A]fter we all lost our jobs, The Weekly Standard\u2019s former fact-checker, the one who dared to express concern about Facebook becoming an engine of global censorship, got a job as a fact checker for CNN \u2013 the very news outlet that instigated Facebook\u2019s Alex Jones ban,\u201d Hemingway wrote. More from Hemingway:The editor-in-chief of The Weekly Standard who signed off on our Facebook partnership has since gone on to start a new publication called The Dispatch that still participates in Facebook\u2019s fact checking program. Last year, just before the election, a fact check from The Dispatch got a pro-life group\u2019s ads banned from Facebook. Their fact check said it was unfair to claim Joe Biden supports late-term abortion. The Dispatch would later admit their fact check was \u201cpublished in error.\u201d\u00a0As Hemingway\u2019s article shows, fact-checkers often walk through the revolving door between traditional journalism and social media, with each influencing the other.Perhaps the most influential fact-checker in the country, The Washington Post\u2019s fact checker Glenn Kessler, has often been caught in the net of misinformation. Last May, Kessler had\u00a0criticized\u00a0Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) for raising the possibility that the novel coronavirus that caused the global COVID-19 pandemic may have originated in a lab like the Wuhan Institute of Virology. \u201cIt is virtually impossible for this virus jump from the lab,\u201d Kessler tweeted. In May, he published a fact-check revealing that \u201cthe Wuhan lab-leak theory suddenly became credible.\u201d While he claimed \u201cnew evidence\u201d led to his conclusion, the Trump administration had released the relevant information on January 15, five months earlier.Kessler went on to fact-check the life of Tim Scott\u2019s grandfather, who lived in the South under Jim Crow, without coming to any conclusion about the veracity of Scott\u2019s statement that his family went \u201cfrom cotton to Congress in one lifetime.\u201dIn the waning days of the 2020 campaign, his fellow fact-checker, Meg Kelly, claimed Republicans were \u201cmisleading\u201d voters by sharing a video showing Joe Biden apparently confused that he was running for president against George W. Bush. Biden said, \u201cFour more years of George, uh, George, uh, he, uh, are going to find ourselves in position where if, uh, Trump gets elected, uh, we are going to be, uh, going to be in a different world.\u201dJoe Biden confuses President Trump with George W. Bush: \u201cbecause of who I\u2019m running against\u2026George, ah, George\u201d pic.twitter.com\/ujAni2Q7Gh\u2014 Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) October 26, 2020The Washington Post raised doubt about Biden\u2019s words, then asserted, \u201cBiden could have been referring to George Lopez, who had originally asked the question.\u201d It overlooked Biden\u2019s long history of muddled statements about leaders\u2019 names, including mixing up then-UK Prime Minister Theresa May as the late Margaret Thatcher.Republican National Committee rapid response director Steve Guest responded: \u201cThis isn\u2019t a \u2018fact check.\u2019 It\u2019s the Washington Post doing the Biden campaign\u2019s bidding to cover up what Biden actually said.\u201dNeither fact-checker took their publication to task when it claimed the \u201ccurrent eruption of anti-Biden signs and chants, however, is on another level, far more vulgar and widespread\u201d than anti-Republican sentiment, although figures on the Left repeatedly depicted or fantasized about the assassination of both President Donald Trumpand George W. Bush.The pattern stretches back years, if not decades. As Jemima Kelly of the Financial Times wrote:When Donald Trump said last May he was \u201cconfident\u201d that a vaccine\u2009would be ready by the end of 2020, the US president was upbraided by NBC with what has become in recent years a popular journalistic and political device: the \u201cfact check\u201d. \u201cExperts say he needs a \u2018miracle\u2019 to be right,\u201d the broadcaster declared.\u201cIt wasn\u2019t facts that were being checked,\u201d Kelly concluded. \u201cFact-checking can be a powerful tool in the fight against online falsehood. But it can be used as a means of censorship if not only facts but also opinions and narratives are checked.\u201dThe views expressed in this piece are the author\u2019s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a\u00a0member.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1023150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1023150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/76"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1023150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1023150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1023150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1023150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1023150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}