06.19.23
Body Checking the Fact-Checkers – POLITIFACT
What is so amusing is that the fact-checkers still pretend their unquestionable bias is not blatantly obvious. From avoiding probing too deeply into President Jose Biden to how Republicans are covered more extensively is one thing, but when fact-checking those on the right, the standards shift. Provable statements get reclassified as half-truths because "context," "nuance," or other unaffiliated facts are added in. Or, as we covered recently when conservative outlets were found to be accurate in reporting Target stores donated to select left-wing radical groups, they just bypass placing a rating on the fact-check.
At PolitiFact, they actually got around to performing a rare fact-check on President Biden, and the lengths they went to support his claim as Mostly True was amusingly desperate. First, here was the claim:
/When a person can be married in the morning and thrown out of a restaurant for being gay in the afternoon, something is still very wrong in America,' he said June 10 at an annual Pride celebration on the White House's South Lawn.
PolitiFact runs into immediate trouble as it strains to find examples of this very thing taking place:
It's not clear how often people are 'thrown out' of restaurants for their sexual orientation. Incidents like this are difficult to track, but news reports and testimony from legal advocacy groups show that it does happen, including in states that have legal protections.
They came up with no more than a handful of examples over a decade, and many of those do not even fit the criteria of being "kicked out for being gay." In one instance, a lesbian couple had an event declined by a business. A gay couple in New York City was insulted by a lone employee. A couple of other examples involved trans individuals using the bathroom of their preferred sex, a completely separate issue.
The paucity of evidence would normally see this claim given a mark along the lines of "insufficient evidence to support or deny," as they might with a conservative name. However, here it could possibly happen (though rarely, if ever, does it take place). That 22 states represent less than 50% of the union means that had they even applied the Half True label on this claim, it would have been a stretch.
Without federal protection, LGBTQ+ people rely on state laws to protect from discrimination in restaurants and businesses. But in 22 states, it's possible that someone could be married in the morning and kicked out of a restaurant that afternoon. https://t.co/zkEHryTAR3
— PolitiFact (@PolitiFact) June 17, 2023
Democratic Custodial Services – NUMEROUS OUTLETS
- Recognizing a problem but addressing it with a shrug.
Kicking off the weekend, President Biden gave a speech on Friday where he discussed gun control and fentanyl. At the conclusion of things, he gave a bizarre comment when he wrapped up his speech with, "God save the Queen, man."
That the British monarch has passed away is a given, but the comment also had absolutely nothing to do with anything he had previously said. It was enough of a completely obtuse non sequitur to have the pool reporters shaking their heads.
President Biden’s “God save the Queen, man” remark after his speech is befuddling many.
— Joey Garrison (@joeygarrison) June 16, 2023
The latest dispatch from pool reporter @toddgillman sums it up. pic.twitter.com/oaFyoF8sfj
Possibly the most explanatory detail is how the correspondents are relatively unbothered by what they are witnessing firsthand. Although they did manage to press White House officials for an explanation of things, after receiving a nonsensical response that did nothing to address the witnessed departure from clear-minded thinking by the president, by all appearances, the reporters were content with what they had been told.
The White House has provided an explanation for Biden’s confounding “God save the Queen, man” comment.
— Joey Garrison (@joeygarrison) June 16, 2023
“He couldn’t do the full ropeline due to weather, and was commenting to someone in the crowd," the WH’s @ODalton46 said in an email, per @toddgillman.
In his piece at The Dallas Morning News about the Biden speech, Todd Gillman made no mention of Biden's odd remark nor the obtuse explanation given by officials.
DNC PR Firm – CNN
There is no better way to display how identity politics reigns as a top topic for Democrats and the press than when they see the need to report on the historic nature of things with even the most trivial events. Last week, the annual Congressional Baseball Game was held, and you would have thought a detail on par with the passage of the 19th Amendment had taken place:
Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett broke new ground Wednesday night as the first Black woman Democrat to play in the Congressional Baseball Game’s 114-year history. 'I’m playing today for all the little Black girls with big dreams – whether those dreams are on the baseball field or in the halls of Congress,' Crockett said in a statement to CNN prior to the game.
Yes, we are sure you black girls across the country have become inspired to create new goals in life because a politician played in a charity baseball game. The revealing detail, however, is that there is a very specific use of language there, and this is because CNN needed to ignore a central fact; five years ago, Mia Love was the first black woman to play in this game, but since she was a Republican, there was no application of a historic significance to her appearance on the roster.
CNN’s Fawning ‘Historic’ Coverage of Democrats at Congressional Baseball Game Was Not Actually Historic https://t.co/8ULpKM5QTb
— RedState (@RedState) June 17, 2023
Legalized Press-titution – NBC NEWS
For weeks, there has been controversy swirling around the Los Angeles Dodgers hosting a Pride Month night with some honors handed out to various LGBT𝜋 groups, and the inclusion of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence (SPI) has been the issue. This group, which openly ridicules Catholic principles, was called out by many community members, and the Dodgers ended up disinviting the group and then re-inviting them to attend.
The NBC Out portal delivers a lengthy glossy feature on the SPI that is light on the criticisms of the actions of the group being sacrilegious and gives ample time for the members to defend themselves from the criticism.
The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, the group invited, disinvited and then invited again to the LA Dodgers' Pride Night, have been dedicated to community service and LGBTQ rights activism for decades. https://t.co/vhSrv03uf2
— NBC News (@NBCNews) June 16, 2023
Low Octane Gas Lighting – POLITICO
At Politico's Florida Playbook, Gary Fineout wants us to believe that Governor Ron DeSantis frequently signed the new annual state budget with a grievance pen. Fineout suggests that DeSantis cut a number of items out of the budget that were pet projects for select GOP members of the state Congress but are members who are not backing him for his presidential campaign.
For starters, Gary presents all of three examples. Of those, the resentful veto efforts by DeSantis are hardly proven, and the legislators involved do not even fill out the criteria of being opponents to his bid:
- State Senator Joe Gruters is backing Trump and claims cuts to proposals for his Sarasota district were out of spite – despite over $150 million for other projects in the area getting funding.
- GOP Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson saw a number of farming initiatives vetoed. Simpson has been neutral on backing any name, and, as DeSantis spokesman Jeremy Redfern explains, the land buyback program affected is still funded from last year's budget, as are other buyback programs.
- State Sen. Ed Hooper of St. Petersburg had tens of millions cut from a program that technically fell under Simpson's buyback plan. He also is a DeSantis supporter; he simply had not endorsed DeSantis last month because DeSantis had yet to announce he was formerly running.
Gilded Reframe – CNN
The fealty our nation's media complex is paying to the LGBT𝜋 community in general, and the trans activist movement, in particular, is starting to create uncomfortable contradictions. In their desire to rush in defense of the rainbow brigade, CNN reports on a Michigan community that has banned the display of the Pride Flag in its town:
As communities across the United States celebrate June as Pride Month, a city near Detroit, Michigan, has voted to permanently ban the display of Pride flags on public property. Hamtramck’s city council members voted unanimously Tuesday to approve the controversial resolution.
You get the sense of the overhyped aspect of this vote when we come to realize this was not a decision against Pride Flags, it states that it bans ANY flags of a political, religious, or social nature on public property that are not the Stars & Stripes, or other national flags.
Also, grudgingly detailed is that the resolution was passed by the first city in the U.S. to have an all-Muslim government. Now the press finds itself sitting on a quandary of deciding on what side to choose regarding which preferred group it has long defended.
As communities across the United States celebrate June as Pride Month, a city near Detroit, Michigan, has voted to permanently ban the display of Pride flags on public property https://t.co/P8au0dX0w4
— CNN (@CNN) June 16, 2023
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