If you’re a die-hard Hillary Clinton supporter still hurt over her 2016 loss, please direct yourself to Veritt.com. It’s a website created by Clintonite Peter Daou that reads more like North Korean propaganda. In this space, 2+2=5. In fact, it’s so off the wall that even liberal outlets, like The New Republic, Gizmodo, and The Washington Post, have lobbed criticism at it. The Post cited Verrit’s introductory post:
With the essence of American democracy at stake, 65.8 million people saw through the lies and smears and made a wise, patriotic choice. But they continue to be marginalized and harassed. Verrit’s purpose is to become their trusted source of political information and analysis; to provide them (and anyone like-minded) sanctuary in a chaotic media environment; to center their shared principles; and to do so with an unwavering commitment to truth and facts.
Sanders and the Mainstream Media Helped Put Trump in the White House https://t.co/sPpa3x8i4S
— Verrit (@verrit) September 7, 2017
Hillary Democrats Are the Heart and Conscience of America https://t.co/JGogUqttcI
— Verrit (@verrit) September 6, 2017
The Trump Presidency Was Made Possible by the Mainstream Media https://t.co/9o6Eq80mBb pic.twitter.com/9KdxcuQY4w
— Verrit (@verrit) August 22, 2017
Politico’s Jack Shafer touched upon this and other things about this “goofy” site:
If you don’t possess the courage to visit it right now, here’s a description: Imagine if Matt Drudge created a Hillary fan site, only instead of listing news stories in a text-heavy fashion, he arranged them on the Web equivalent of 3x5 cards, and in addition to typing headlines onto the cards, he pulled out salient facts and stats from the stories (called “verrits”). Each card carries a unique serial number that you can plug into the Verrit database to prove … well, I don’t know exactly what it proves other than Verrit drew its facts and stats from the news source cited.
As Daou’s Verrit manifesto puts it, the site hopes to become the trusted sourced for the 65.8 million voters who cast their ballots last November for Clinton and who seek verified “facts” they can use to argue politics. In theory, everybody needs a cheat sheet. In practice, the Verrit method is cringe-worthy. The headline to one early Verrit borrows from the literary methods of Kim Jong Un’s North Korea to assert, “Hillary Democrats Are the Heart and Conscience of America.” Does anybody outside of the Daou re-education camp really think this way?
When it comes to criticism, Daou isn’t a just snowflake. He’s a snow squall, equating most criticism of Clinton (or criticism of Daou) with the desire to erase Clinton and Clintonites.
[…]
His is a reductionist world where evidence of misogyny and sexism can be deduced from almost any political discussion of Madame Secretary. When Verrit launched, it inspired not only a mudslide of negative reviews but an ugly denial-of-service attack on his servers. From this rocky reception, Daou didn’t extract the perennial lesson that politics ain’t beanbag. He didn’t cinch up and concede that political passions will cause folks to overheat. Instead, he flew to Twitter and raged in all caps, “PEOPLE ARE STILL TERRIFIED OF HILLARY. PEOPLE STILL WANT TO DESTROY HILLARY. PEOPLE WANT TO SILENCE ANYONE WHO SUPPORTS HER.”
Terrified? Destroy? Silence? I'd love to see the serial numbers on those “facts.”
As the New Republic’s Sarah Jones pointed out, Verrit’s early shilling for Clinton easily veers into propaganda when it posts headlines like “Sanders and the Mainstream Media Helped Put Trump in the White House.”
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Shafer says he doesn’t mind partisan outlets, given their power to motivate people, though he asks what is the purpose of this site? He notes that Hillary Clinton is now just good for fundraisers and nothing more. She’s a two-time presidential loser, with the last attempt ending with one of the most stunning upsets in American political history. This is all part of the brewing tension between the Clinton and Bernie Sanders wings of the progressive movement. Only Hillary Clinton supporters are the heart and conscience of America? Yes, that’s a swipe at the GOP, but even more so to those on the Left who worked against her last year. I think Daou misses all the areas where Hillary tripped up on her own accord and how Sanders would have been remiss to not use them on the stump. She was a severely flawed candidate—everyone knows this. And no one is trying to erase Clinton voters, it’s just that some of us are trying to tell them that they’re wrong.
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