By Becket Adams
Sunday, December 22, 2024
The only thing worse than a villain is an unrepentant
one.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, for instance, is
one such case — not just because of the railroading it gave Richard Jewell when
it falsely reported he was the perpetrator behind the 1996 Olympics bombing but
also because it refuses to apologize for the role it played in ruining his life.
Similarly, what’s worse than PolitiFact’s being a
willing participant in the conspiracy to hide President Joe Biden’s mental
and physical decline is its sleazy attempt last week to absolve itself of any
wrongdoing.
I’m referring to PolitiFact’s publication of a
3,500-plus-word article last week, in which it awarded its “lie of the year” to
Donald Trump and JD Vance’s claim that migrants in Ohio were eating dogs and
cats.
What a remarkable assertion by the alleged fact-checker,
especially considering that 2024 was also the year of “Joe Biden is sharp as a
tack.”
You won’t catch me defending Trump and Vance on the pets
claim. That’s not the aim of this article. Instead, the aim is to approach this
matter seriously and objectively. Let’s consider consequences and scope, and
let’s assess qualitatively.
If we examine the significant, consequential lies of the
year, the claim that Joe Biden was “sharp as a tack” stands out as the most egregious and
serious. It ranks among the worst lies of the decade and is arguably one of the
worst falsehoods perpetrated by any White House. The assertion that “Joe Biden
is sharp as a tack” represented a widespread conspiracy of deception across the
media and government. This lie relied on dozens, if not hundreds, of willing
participants inside and outside the White House. An army of White House
staffers, activists, Biden loyalists, politicos, and legislators participated,
along with several journalists, pundits, and commentators, many of whom have
exclusive access to the president.
Casual observers recognized Biden’s frailty from the
start. Yet indignant news organizations insisted these observers were either
liars or gullible, the dupes of “cheap fakes.”
My colleague Jim Geraghty remembers the headlines and news blurbs:
·
NBC News, October 26, 2023: “Republicans float a quiet
conspiracy theory that Biden won’t be on the ballot.”
·
The Los Angeles Times, February 13, 2024: “Anyone
hoping California Gov. Gavin Newsom or some other Democrat will take Joe
Biden’s place on the 2024 presidential ballot is likely to be disappointed.
Despite renewed anxiety over the president’s age — 81 — party officials and
pollsters say swapping him out is a bad idea, and nearly impossible without his
sign-off.”
·
NPR, April 7, 2024:”Yes, Biden is really running in
November. But a lot of voters say they doubt it.”
·
The New York Times, July 12, 2024: “For years,
far-right commentators have floated a conspiracy theory that Democratic Party
elites were secretly plotting to replace President Biden on the ticket — a
switcheroo that could give the party an advantage in November.”
PolitiFact was no exception; it played a
significant role in dismissing video and photographic evidence of Biden’s
decline by repeating the White House line that such proof was merely a “cheap
fake.”
“‘Cheap fakes’: Viral videos keep clipping Biden’s words
out of context,” read a PolitiFact headline published on Feb. 14, 2022.
A separate PolitiFact “fact-check” published in
June 2024 declared, “Donald Trump’s supporters have pushed deceptively edited
videos of President Joe Biden to cast doubt on his mental and physical fitness.
Now, the two campaigns are putting their own political spin on the definition
of ‘cheap fake’ videos.”
The article reports, “These videos, called cheap fakes,
have become a common tactic to undermine Biden’s fitness for office as the
81-year-old seeks reelection. Former President Donald Trump, the presumptive
Republican nominee, is 78.”
As an example of a “cheap fake,” the article specifically
mentions a video from a 2024 fundraising event in Los Angeles featuring George
Clooney, where Biden needed assistance exiting the stage. The footage depicts
Biden freezing up, which prompted former president Barack Obama to guide the
current commander-in-chief away from the stage, leading him by the hand as one
might do with a child. But don’t worry, PolitiFact reassured readers at
the time, the video is merely a “cheap fake.”
Clooney later wrote an opinion article revealing that the
L.A. fundraising event — the “cheap fake” event — was when he realized Biden
was no longer mentally or physically capable of serving in office.
The White House and the national press tried to conceal
Biden’s decline. They failed only because Biden himself exposed the extent of
his infirmities during a disastrous June presidential debate. It’s no thanks to
our “Fourth Estate,” including PolitiFact, that the public knows what it
knows now about the Biden Potemkin presidency, in which lackeys and stooges
propped up a decrepit, frail old man to make it seem as if he were still
“sharp,” in charge, and as energetic as ever.
And though the lie fell apart, that doesn’t mean it was
trivial. On the contrary.
The lie led to Biden’s eventual ouster, which came too
late and resulted in a Democratic defeat in November, putting Trump back in
power. Trump’s reelection will reshape two major global conflicts and dismantle
what remains of the Clinton, Obama, and Bush political machines. Trump’s
reelection will accelerate the major political realignments in America and
abroad. The Biden lie has domestic and international repercussions. It’s a lie
that has left the United States effectively leaderless. The leading global
nuclear superpower is experiencing something akin to a power vacuum, and world
leaders are acutely aware of it. Just ask Israel, which is currently reenacting
the Godfather baptism scene throughout the Middle East.
These are just the immediate, short-term consequences of
the Biden lie. The dogs-and-cats issue? That generated a two-week news cycle
(at best) affecting a limited group of people in an Ohio town you’d probably
never heard of. Don’t kid yourself.
Considering everything else that’s wrong with this
industry — such as its willing participation in what is easily the most
significant presidential scandal of my lifetime — it’s an insult on top of
injury that we also need fact-checkers for our fact-checkers.
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