I decided to go back & fact-check the fact checkers from the last presidential debate.

The results mirror last time: whopping falsehoods from Biden that get ignored & @realDonaldTrump “fact checks” that are wrong.

I break them down in the below, separated by issue.

1. Lost health insurance under ACA

We’ll start with the fact checks that didn’t happen. Biden claimed that no one lost their insurance b/c of Obamacare.

Despite this being a well-known lie, fact checkers didn’t touch it. The ACA cost millions their insurance, per @AP in 2013.

2. Biden & Fracking

Biden claimed he never said he would eliminate fracking.

I’ve had to repeat myself on this a lot, but as a reminder, Biden explicitly said “no” when asked if “there would be any place for fossil fuels, including coal and fracking, in a Biden administration” https://twitter.com/drewholden360/status/1300520241961803776

(Also, credit where due. While most fact checkers, in particular @nytimes, didn’t touch this one, @CNN did do a good job on it...and then a few days later seemed to forget but whatever)

3. Russian bounties

Again, another one I’m sick of mentioning. Biden said Trump ignored Russian bounties.

There’s no evidence that Russia has placed bounties on American servicemen. Dems keep repeating it but an investigation found no evidence. But no one ever fact checks this. https://twitter.com/drewholden360/status/1311425662801063937

4. “Russian disinformation”

Speaking of Russia, Biden alleged that reporting from @nypost purporting to expose Biden family corruption was Russian disinfo, as others in the media have claimed.

DNI, FBI, DOJ, & common sense dispute this, yet the fact checkers won’t touch it.

This one really grinds my gears. An enormous number of people keep pushing this hoax. I’ve got a thread, as you would imagine: https://twitter.com/drewholden360/status/1318281142265675779

5. “No one” made money in China

This was a doozy. Biden alleged that no one had profited off of China when Trump brought up allegations of impropriety in the Biden family.

Hunter Biden was paid up to $1.5 BILLION by China leveraging his family named, even Politifact recognizes.

6. “Good relationship with Hitler”

I couldn’t resist including this one. Biden said that the US had a good relationship with Hitler in an attempt to criticize Trump’s relations with North Korea.

That’s...well. I’m not sold.

7. “We don’t provide federal subsidies to solar & wind”

I spit out my beer. Biden alleged that the reason wind and solar don’t work is that they...don’t get federal subsidies.

They get BILLIONS of dollars a year, $158B from 1950-2016. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_subsidy#Allocation_of_subsidies_in_the_United_States

Now for the “fact checks” that didn’t live up to their billing.

As a programming note, I’ve chosen to focus on the fact checking from @nytimes, both because I think their coverage is representative of this kind of reporting more broadly, and given their reach.

Let’s get to it.

1. Fauci and masks

Claim: Trump alleged that Dr. Fauci discouraged wearing face masks in response to coronavirus.

Check: misleading

Truth: Dr. Fauci said, on the record and repeatedly, that masks wouldn’t work at the start of the pandemic. Nothing “misleading” here

(I did a thread on this one too - a lot more where that came from. Everyone was WAY wrong on masks). https://twitter.com/drewholden360/status/1282356452716433412

2. COVID mortality

Claim: Trump said 99% (& 99.9% of the young) survive COVID

Check: lacks evidence

Truth: while calculating these numbers is tough, WHO says the data shows “estimates of IFR (infection fatality ratio) converging at approximately 0.5-1%” https://www.who.int/news-room/commentaries/detail/estimating-mortality-from-covid-19

2. Cont. Coronavirus death rates

For young people, the numbers are almost vanishingly rare. As of July, the CDC had reported 121 youth deaths from coronavirus *total* nationwide. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6937e4.htm

3. Catch & release efficacy

Claim: Trump said that catch and release immigration policy let’s bad people go.

Check: exaggerated

Truth: Trump claimed rapists & murderers were let go under the policy. Both of these things have happened. I don’t get why this is even fact checked.

4. Sen. Harris as the most liberal senator

Listen, there’s a lot I could say here, but @nytimes punches a hole in their own fact check, so just feel free to read it. Same post.

5. Efficacy of wind energy

I could write a novel about this one, but it’s journalistic malpractice that, rather than focus on the meat of this claim (wind energy doesn’t work) they addressed the killing birds thing (cmon guys).

6. Joe Biden “the big man”

Claim: Joe Biden is “the big man” mentioned in emails who earned a 10% cut in Hunter‘s business dealings.

Check: misleading

Truth: Bobulinski is on the record saying that he is. While time will (hopefully) tell if that’s true, that detail is omitted.

7. Best carbon emissions numbers

Same deal as #4 - why waste words when @nytimes does the lifting to point out why they’re wrong on their own.

8. Biden’s xenophobia comment

I’m running out of space so I wanted to close with this because it’s so egregious. @nytimes claims it’s “misleading” for Trump to say that Biden called his travel ban xenophobic.

Biden quote-tweeted the announcement! How else can you read this!?

It should be obvious, if you’ve read this far or read any fact checks in the last four years or so, that all of these errors and omissions break exactly the same way: against @realDonaldTrump.

Fact checking doesn’t serve a purpose when it’s nothing more than a partisan tool.

And unfortunately, that’s precisely what it’s become. When “fact checking” becomes commentary masquerading as information, not only has it failed to serve its purpose, it’s deliberately deceived anyone who reads it.

That’s really, really bad.

These are the sorts of things that undermine what little confidence in the media still exists.

If they want to claw their way back to respectability, this has got to stop.

Also, obviously this takes time and effort, but I’m just a guy with an internet connection and I managed to do this with a full time job unrelated to any of this (and pulled off a fantasy football trade today too).

Outlets have no excuse to phone these fact checks in.