“Fact Checking” Must Die

Conservatives are always behind in the information wars because they don’t understand how the culture works, and it’s about to get worse because they are missing something big. The left has created a new weapon which conservatives need to learn to counter: the fact check.

The “Fact Check” is the name given to a type of article now run by most MSM news organizations after all events. What these articles are, in theory, are unbiased journalists examining something like a speech and comparing what was said to the facts. These are particularly catchy articles because of the promise of delivering truth to the reader instead of spin. Basically, the reader “knows” that by reading this article, rather than listening to the speech, the debate or the press conference, they will get both a synopsis of the important points made during the event and an analysis that cuts through the lies and spin and tells them what to really believe.

That’s a pretty powerful promise. . . but it’s a lie.

In reality, these fact check articles are written by leftist journalists with an agenda. They spin and distort what was said and then they label things as true or false to fit their agenda. To back up their assertions, they cite garbage studies or analysis performed by leftist groups as if those things were unbiased and uncontroversially proven true. Sometimes, they even cite directly to organizations like Fact Check as unbiased sources who have researched various claims. Fact Check, however, is left leaning and I can tell you that (1) they almost never accuse a leftist/Democrat of being untruthful and they almost never admit a conservative is being truthful, (2) I have found many examples of lies and distortions within their data, (3) they resolve all policy disputes in favor of the left’s position as being truthful and the conservative position as being merely an unfounded assertion, and (4) their research relies on leftist think tanks or newspapers and is woefully incomplete and biased.

. . . but the public doesn’t know this.

So when they hear “an unbiased research organization has declared this a lie,” they believe it. This is a serious problem in the making. DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE THIS!

At first, these fact check articles were only used in debates, where the lies and distortions come fast and furiously. But now I’m seeing them everywhere. They fact check Obama’s speeches and find them almost entirely truthful. They fact check Republican speeches and find them to be packed with lies. Before Christmas, they fact checked a speech by the NRA and tore it apart even though I could actually cite proof to refute the fact check article.

Unfortunately, this is where conservative blindness kicks. Most conservatives will dismiss that as “well, it’s the MSM, we expect that from them so who cares?” The public cares. . . that's the problem.

This is critical. The left, through the MSM, is staking out ground as the arbiters of what is true and what is not, and the public doesn’t have the tools or inclination to know that they are being spun. If we let this go unchallenged, you will find the public being slowly pulled into believing that leftist analysis and spin is truth. Conservatives cannot let that happen.

So how do we fight this? The conservative instinct, as always, will be to point out the bias. But that’s hopeless, that will come across as someone with a bias attacking an unbiased organization because they don’t like their side being exposed. Instead, there is only one way to fight this and that is to destroy of the idea of the “fact check.” To do this, conservatives need to create “unbiased organizations” to watch every single speech, debate or announcement (liberal or conservative) and they need to start running “fact checks” on those. And those fact checks need to be heavily partisan -- partisan that they get mocked by the left. That will get the left to do our work for us by discrediting the idea of the “fact check.” At the same time, conservatives need to start referring to all other fact checks a “liberal” or “leftist” and never admit they are right, even when they are. That is the only way to put the idea of the fact check into such ill repute that the public stops paying attention. If conservatives don’t do this, they can forget winning the info-wars because the left will be in charge of telling people what is true and what is not. This is a problem.