Slander is Spoken, Libel is written. A note for those that care about truth and defamation. Fact checkers are a Scam, my opinion. Snopes made a wrong claim, here are the facts;
This is the title of their article and their claim;
And these are the points;
The Facts of the matter;
>USAID sends ~44,000 USD to Politico – Source
>Politico has received over ~32 Million dollars from various US Govt agencies and State agencies –Source (scroll down) or alternative source
Lets go through their ‘evidence’ for their ‘fact check’ per their article.
Snopes targets X user post;
>USAID spends millions funding media like BBC, and also funds Politico -X user
>USAID did not spend millions funding Politico -Snopes
>BBC did receive millions in government grants – Snopes
And if you look at the numbers from specifically BBC, they did receive millions from USAID, so the X user was telling the truth;
So the X user Claim;
USAID has spend millions of Tax payer dollars every year. – True
USAID fund BBC and Politico. – True
USAID fund millions to BBC – True
USAID fund millions to Politico – Not true (Which is what Snopes is insinuating is being said)
It depends on how you read that statement.
Another part of the article;
Okay, someone slaps some pictures and says Politico is receiving USAID funds.
Conclusion: Politico is receiving USAID funds.
Snopes says “it was misleading” because Politico didn’t receive funds from specifically USAID only in those pictures.
Sure, I guess it could be misleading, but there was no claim in that post that Politico Received 8 Million dollars from USAID funds only and specifically. Only that they (Politico) received USAID funds, with a relevant picture of a portion of US govt money that did go to USAID.
Snopes targets another comment;
Snopes posted this, and then didn’t even say anything about the claim itself other than the user clarifying technical issues.
Politico is being funded by USAID. True.
Massively funded? That’s subjective. Picture of 8 million dollars related? Kinda. USAID is alleged to be a part of the 8 million dollars funding it.
If you give your average Snopes journalist a 44k grant from USAID, then I guess you could argue if that Snopes Journalist was ‘massively funded’. Is it massive like the majority or massive like a large amount? This is a subjective claim.
Addressing the White house claims;
Under this section of their article;
Snopes legit calls themselves out by saying the White House Press Secretary didn’t make the claim/assertion;
How are you going to fact check someone, make a title, claim a claim, and then refute your own claim yourself? Sounds dumb.
So WH Press secretary in the evidence provided by Snopes did not directly make the claim that Snopes is implying they made.
The WH Press secretary only said (in the Snopes Article) that funds from USAID is going to Politico, and that Politico has received more than $8 million USD from Tax payer money. Those two claims are separate and are true.
Anyways, Snopes goes on to target Lord President Trump;
The Claims by Lord Trump;
-Billions stollen by USAID and other agencies -True
-Much of it going to fake news – Debatable about ‘much’ as it’s a subjective term, but True
-Politico seems to have received 8 Million USD – True, (and more technically)
The President did not say directly that USAID gave 8 million USD to only Politico.
Nor did he say that Politico Received 8 million USD from USAID.
So this claim;
Is not even a claim made by either President or WH press secretary in the Snopes Article. Thus, Snopes is either lying, libelous, or non-factual (or some combination of all of the above).
So Snopes’ claim that “White House Claimed $8 million USD to Politico from specifically only USAID”
Is false
TLDR:
Snopes claims the White house made a claim, that they did not make.
Then they targeted a bunch of X user comments attacking one vector of misleading insinuations and implications. While ignoring the actual facts of the matter being that no one made that specific claim in writing under their ‘evidence’. USAID did fund Politico and Politico has received Millions from various sources of Government.
Fact Check your Fact checkers, they’re either lying or have low media literacy. Objective claims and subjective conjectures are two different things in Truth and Journalism, and I’m astounded that they are either intentionally lying or confusing to manipulate the facts, or they are legit dumb and don’t know the difference.
Don’t trust fact checkers. It’s not a safe bet.
In Closing
If you’re new here, it’s okay, I call all billionaires and Presidents ‘Lords’ as a joke and critique of society. Because that’s essentially what they are.
Fact checkers that lie about the facts or make a false parallel claim to attack are the ministry of truth of today. They just want you to read the headlines, read a part of their claim, and then repost their misinformation. They suck. I hate em. All of which are my opinions.
If you’re gonna fact check, don’t disprove yourself in your own evidence. Maybe an editor over there needs to go to media literacy bootcamp or something, they might have to do something more than get their opinions from Youtube Videos.
*Not Valid Financial, Legal, Life, or Any Advice
Here are some other relevant articles where I dunk on Fact Checkers;