Topic: Media Research Center
The fact-check fails are piling up again for Media Research Center executive Tim Graham. He played whataboutism in a Nov. 22 post:
On November 15, Rep. Cori Bush (radical D-Mo.) tweeted that “When we marched in Ferguson, white supremacists would hide behind a hill near where Michael Brown Jr. was murdered and shoot at us.” Where were the “Fact Checkers”? FactCheck.Org? No. The Washington Post? No. PolitiFact ignored it, although they posted two “False” ratings on Kevin McCarthy on November 19.
Graham didn't dispute the accuracy of the "false" ratings on McCarthy. Instead, he complained that other fact-checkers wouldn't declare Bush's claim to be false, only "unproven" -- even though there were reports at the time of shots being fired at protesters andlocal officials would not explicitly denied any such incident took place. Graham then insisted that if it had happened, we would have heard about it: "Ferguson was one of the biggest stories of 2014 and 2015, similar to the Kyle Rittenhouse controversy. If some white nationalists were shooting at black activists, that would have hardly gone ignored by liberal reporters, like the one who wrote a book with the inflammatory title They Can't Kill Us All."
In a Dec. 13 post, Graham got mad that his fellow right-wingers got fact-checked for taking an apparent gaffe from President Biden out of context:
Over and over again, we find "independent fact checkers" come rushing to President Biden's defense when he says something that sounds wacky. Spencer Brown at Townhall complained Friday in an article titled "The White House Sicced Fact Checkers on Townhall...for Quoting Biden."
Not-so-independent PolitiFact quickly followed (and quoted) Team Biden in crying "missing context" on Biden saying they would make sure Americans are "paying their fair share for gas." What does that mean? He meant a fair price. But he bumbled it, mixed his liberal metaphors.
Conservatives had fun with the gaffe, and that is apparently not allowed. A half hour later, White House Rapid Response Director Mike Gwin accused Townhall of "lazy, deceptive editing."
The "lazy, deceptive editing" would be anyone who ignored that Townhall's video clip BEGAN with Biden "noting falling gas prices." Gwin should be fact-checked, not Townhall.
Graham ignored that the "falling gas prices" statement does not appear in the text of the Townhall tweet -- that part was indeed taken out of context. Graham also didn't fact-check the Townhall writer's claim that the Biden White House "sicced" fact-checkers on it; he merely complained that a "PolitiFact hack" also called out Townhall. He then went on another one of his rants about context that he does when his fellow right-wingers get called out on it:
PolitiFact wants to edit all conservative tweets for "context" that they can approve as "true" -- as in Biden doesn't look bad. Social-media sites then scream "Missing Context" on conservative posts.
There is no "Truth-O-Meter" rating on this, so Townhall was not "Mostly False" or something. But PolitiFact's knee-jerk Biden defending is still obvious.
The next day, Graham had another made-up fact-check outrage, this time over Biden's completely legal use of tax avoidance schemes:
In Sunday's Washington Post, "fact checker" Glenn Kessler took up Joe and Jill Biden's tax avoidance during the Trump years by channeling funds through an "S corporation." There were no "Pinocchios" awarded. It simply seemed like Kessler wanted to establish that the Bidens were totally okay to use tax loopholes that President Obama tried to close.
[...]
The target in this case was Rep. Jim Banks: "In recent weeks, Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) has touted a study by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) that he says shows “multimillionaire Joe Biden’s use of corporate loopholes to avoid paying taxes.” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the story “has been debunked.” A reader asked us to sort this out, so let’s take a look."
Kessler noted at least Biden released 23 years of tax returns, unlike Donald Trump.
Graham, of course, offered no criticism of Trump for using tax-avoidance schemes. Instead, he uniroinically whined: "Somehow, this became a 'hypocrisy check,' not a fact check. And even then, Kessler proclaimed the matter was 'in the eye of the beholder.'"
Ah, but there is hypocrisy. The MRC, Graham included, never criticized Trump for refusing to release his tax returns during his presidency, and bashing Biden for his tax returns is the height of hypocrisy. Graham is simply too much of a partisan -- and too much in need of more than a little willful blindness -- to see it.
