Fact-checkers are all the rage, especially when it comes from lefty organizations masquerading as truth seekers. Any differing opinions or relevant questions are slapped down if they go against the decided-upon narrative.
It turns out that Poynter, which runs PolitiFact, one of Facebook's official fact-checkers, decided to get in on Tucker Carlson's scuffle with top Military officials. Carlson raised concerns about the Military's readiness – or lack thereof – should a war with China break out. He brought up the fact that Biden's focus isn't on if the Armed Forces are "fit" and ready to fight. Instead, Biden is worried about trivial things, like maternity jumpsuits and what women's hairstyles should be. Military leaders used official Twitter accounts to address Carlson's concerns and somehow lamented them as "sexist" even though they weren't.
Fast forward and the story is all anyone can talk about, including CNN's Brian Stelter, who chided Carlson's opinion.
“Tucker has taken Trump’s place as a right-wing leader, as an outrage generator, as a fire-starter, and it’s all taking place on Fox, just as Trump’s campaign did," Stelter said in a segment over the weekend. Every day, Carlson is throwing bombs, making online memes, offending millions of people, also delighting millions of others, tapping into white male rage and resentment, stoking distrust of big tech and the media, generally coarsening the discourse, never apologizing for anything and setting the GOP’s agenda. Sounds like a recently retired president, right?”
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Instead of attempting to remain "objective" – or at least give the impression of objectivity – Poynter ran a story cheering Stelter on for "going after" Carlson.
Look, the Fox News primetime host says outrageous things. He’s more of an entertainer than a journalist and sometimes you can’t help but wonder if it’s all one big act.
But — and let me be very clear about this — whether he’s just trolling by saying the most ridiculous things he can think of or simply trying to drum up a big audience, it doesn’t mean his words are any less irresponsible, hurtful and dangerous.
And while you can call him an entertainer or pundit or whatever word you want to use to somehow soften many of the reckless things he says, the fact is he owns one of the most prized pieces of real estate (weekdays from 8 to 9 p.m. Eastern) on a network that has the word “news” in its name. That alone gives Carlson some credibility, at least by his employers. In addition, we cannot ignore that some 4 million people a night tune into his show and see him as more than just a so-called entertainer.
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But this does not mean Stelter is wrong. Not only is Stelter widely respected as a journalist, but it also should be noted that he’s not alone in questioning Carlson.
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Carlson says so many outrageous and disturbing things that I, literally, could write an item on him every day. I choose not to, partly not to give him more oxygen to spread his propaganda.
I take absolutely no issue with people questioning Carlson's motives, whether or not his take on the Military is accurate or if they believe the Fox News host. What I take issue with is an organization that runs a fact-checking regime that essentially shuts down conservative viewpoints, running anything that is not objective. You can't sit there and tell all of America that "fact-checkers" are getting to the truth to what politicians and others are saying if they themselves are engaging in this very type of rhetoric themselves. Either report the news and provide opinions or be a "fact-checker." But you can't be both and claim to be objective. This garbage is proof you're anything but unbiased.
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