Claim: "Cutting fact checkers from social platforms is like disbanding your fire department."
Who said it: Alan Duke, the former CNN journalist who cofounded Lead Stories, one of the professional fact-checking outlets Meta (formerly Facebook) pays to combat the spread of so-called misinformation on social media. Duke said this in an interview with CNN for an article about how professional fact-checkers are currently battling a "blaze" of "conspiracy theories" about the wildfires burning through Los Angeles.
Context: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced last week he intends to stop paying "politically biased" fact-checkers to moderate content in an effort to promote freedom of expression on social media. "What started as a movement to be more inclusive has increasingly been used to shut down opinions and shut out people with different ideas," he said. "And it's gone too far."
RIP, Meta Fact-Checkers. Don’t Let the Door Hit You on the Way Out.
More context: Duke's statement is somewhat amusing given that Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass (D.) cut her fire department's budget by $17 million last year, and recently scrubbed from the internet a memo from the city's fire chief requesting more firefighters.
Even more context: Duke cofounded Lead Stories with Perry Sanders, a personal injury lawyer who has donated thousands of dollars to Democratic candidates. Duke was also the "independent fact-checker" who assigned a "partially false" label to a Washington Free Beacon story about a Biden administration program to advance "racial equity" by distributing free "smoking kits" to drug users.
"Fact Check: Biden Administration Is NOT Funding 'Crack Pipes, Heroin' For Drug Use," read the headline at Lead Stories. Duke's assessment was based entirely on a statement from Biden's incompetent health secretary, Xavier Becerra, days after the story was published. Prior to publication, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services declined to dispute the story and told the Free Beacon the smoking kits would allow for the safe use of "any illicit substance."
Yes, Safe Smoking Kits Include Free Crack Pipes. We Know Because We Got Them.
"Is the Biden administration funding the distribution of 'crack pipes' and heroin for drug use?" the Lead Stories article read. "No, that's not true: The Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) declared none of the federal funds for harm reduction programs for drug addicts can be used to provide crack pipes. While a description of the HHS grants stated that the grantees would be required to buy materials like safe smoking kits and supplies to 'enhance harm reduction efforts,' such kits and supplies are just a few of the many materials that grantees can utilize."
As a result of this dubious "fact-check," Facebook significantly reduced the Free Beacon story's visibility and ability to be shared on the platform. Contacted by the Free Beacon, Duke insisted that the story was "highly false" and demanded to known "when you have updated it with the correct information, as shared in our article."
How Facebook Crushes Conservative News
Verdict: Firefighting is a noble profession for real men. Fact-checking is a clown profession for obnoxious libs who want to police people's opinions and think "the truth" is whatever a Democratic politician says on a given day. The two should never be equated. Shut up, you insufferable nerds.
Rating: We rate this claim "partially false," or 3.5 Clintons.
