The author of this website recently penned an editorial with the title “Facebook can be a cesspool for seekers of truth.” While this seems like a noble and innocuous claim, he goes on to cite who he and others use to check for the “truth” when confronted with stories from Facebook or other places; “Snopes”, “Politifact” and “Factcheck.” I don’t know where he and others having so much faith in these sites of “truth” think they are the “end all” of truth, but doing a little fact checking on my own brought up some interesting findings.
Snopes is made up of a small group of volunteers. Based in the Tacoma Washington, a bastion of liberalism, the volunteers have liberal viewpoints and many are of the opinion the viewpoints of the “fact-checkers” are mostly liberal. Even Wikipedia says the majority of complaints are of liberal viewpoints, which evidently agree with the author on his insistence Snopes is unbiased. As long as he agrees with it?
Politifact is a off-shoot of the Tampa Bay Times. Anyone with any experience with the Tampa Bay Times knows it is more left of the leftist Miami Tribune. They have continually lost readership because of their leftist bent, and Politifact is suffers from this link.
Factcheck is an arm of the University of Pennsylvania and primarily funded by the Annenberg Foundation. This liberal bastion of the East with the likes of Princeton, Yale, Harvard and they are going to be unbiased and not have a liberal bent?
Who is fact checking the “fact checkers”?
The author then goes on to disparage the sites such as Brietbart, Fox News and Daily Caller. They have their viewpoints with a conservative bent.
I would encourage all who view news and have questions about a subject/news item to view all sources and make up their own mind. If you have all the viewpoints, you have enough information to form your own opinion… or you can just ignore everything (as most do anyway).
Mr. Young goes on to say he doesn’t like others to disparage President Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Congresswomen Cortez, Omar, or Talib. Anyone reading my posts knows my opinion of our former president Obama, Mrs. Clinton, and Speaker Pelosi — all enemies of common-sense, balanced budgets, the Constitution, and the majority of hard working American taxpayers.
Now we have to deal with the likes of known Socialists/Communists/Marxists Cortez, Omar, and Talib. Not only are they of the political idealism contrary to freedom and liberty, they have no real life experience at anything. Have they ever run a business, made a payroll, managed people? They are political lightweights that the media has elevated to hero status (no surprise because they cheer any opposition to the Republicans and President Trump).
The author is correct in that both Ranger Rick and Army Bob differ considerably from most of his other contributors (with the exception of Mr. Parks, a kindred soul of conservative ideas). With double of liberals against the two main conservative contributors, we generate enough heat to keep them in check.
For that I, and I’m sure Army Bob, thank you for your readership and mostly positive and some negative comments.
The rotting of America from within continues…
Ranger Rick
Excellent article. Do we ever receive the facts and only the facts. Today’s media has gotten worse at editing out certain things for what they claim are valid reasons .
Today everyone with a phone camera now becomes a news reporter with video evidence. Does the media wait for facts…if they did it wouldn’t be….Breaking News..details at 6. But one of the greatest distortions to facts is posting of these amateur videos on social media.
We have become a nation of peoples where the truth is so distorted…if we were there to witness the incident….we may question what we saw or heard after media is done editing it for broadcast or print .
Is this all happening because as many have said ” you (we) can not handle the truth” …..but what really is the truth ???
With respect to RR, it must be said that somewhere along the line one needs to trust someone to be non-partisan and non-biased.. Because a source of fact checking is connected, no matter how directly or indirectly, to a liberal or conservative institution or business, does not automatically mean the fact checking source is corrupted. As I have pointed out on Townbroadcast and Facebook in response to Mr. Young’s editorial, sources such a snopes,com, Politifact, FactCheck, Hoax-Slayer, PunditFact, and TruthorFiction are all considered by the American Library Association as reliable, reputable, and responsible sources for checking the veracity of claims found in the media. Sure, one who is overly paranoid, or prone to disbelieve everyone, may claim that even the ALA, with a long-standing reputation as a purveyor of non-partisan, non-biased information in all formats, cannot be trusted. That simply is not true. Regardless of political leanings, there are, in fact, persons and sources whose intentions are still TRUTH. Truth will always be the final arbiter in any dispute, and it is not to be feared. Those who seek to spread mistrust where it is not warranted are irresponsible.
You are correct in all respects unless it involves politics or anything Trump.
It appears items Ranger Rick reads it on web sites like Breitbart, reads emails or copies of emails from Lara Trump, (Eric Trump’s wife) and Trump2020 consultant host of Real News Update, a production of Trump Productions, it has to be true. Same for the regular opinions he hears from FoxNews TV commentators like Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Jeanine Pirro are always factual. Same for the opinions of “conservative” commentators like Limbaugh, Savage and Ingram.
Everyone with whom Ranger Rick disagrees always seems to be a “socialist, communist or Marxist.” He is in a 1950s John Birch time warp or is a full-fledged member of the alternative facts brigade.
The late Daniel Patrick Moynihan said, “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.”
It appears in some circles that in 2019 we are now living in a world where yours or someone else’s opinion can be treated as fact. I hope those who agree with the new version of facts never face a judge whose interpretation of what constitutes fact isn’t variable.
And so it goes.
The Couch condemning anyone for not telling the truth is beyond absurd, A proven fabulist who makes up quotes and attributes them to others, consider the source when reading his comments. Ralph Waldo Emerson “Who you are speaks so loudly I can’t hear what you’re saying”.
Sick of the news. Since when does the news have a opinion. The guy either killed the man or not.
What more do you need to say
Instead, I watch the weather. Yes I am Spotter 427 for the National Weather Service. I watch what comes down from the sky and report. It is either raining or not. Real simple.
We have children in GR going to bed with out proper food. NE farmers loosing everything to floods. Chicago is in a war. Who cares of so and so spied on Us. We all know that Russia spies on us and we spy on them. Move on—
Enough. Just be happy and feel blessed to live in the best country in World. Be proud to be an American–start acting like an American!