12/28/2017 / By Jayson Veley
The whole concept of fake news is extremely dangerous for a couple of different reasons. Of course, when real fake news is spread via the Internet and the mainstream media (like the idea that Donald Trump and his team colluded with the Russians during the 2016 presidential campaign), it puts misinformation into the minds of the public and thus damages our society as a whole. However, on the flipside, fake news is also dangerous in that it is quickly becoming a tool used by the left to silence their political enemies. Like waving a magic wand, the liberals have learned that all they have to do is label conservative content as “fake news” and then make the case that its “fakeness” justifies censorship and anti-free speech regulations.
A perfect example of how the left is using the “fake news” card as a tool to suppress conservative news is Facebook’s recent handling of a post by Breitbart regarding statements made by Roy Moore accuser Beverly Nelson. In a recent interview on ABCs Good Morning America, Nelson admitted that she had tampered with the note that Roy Moore had written in her yearbook decades ago, which confirmed the suspicions of many conservatives across the country that already believed that many of these accusations against Moore were highly politicized. But when Breitbart tried to post a story of Nelson’s admission on Facebook, the social media giant labeled it as “fake news” and shut it down.
In a message that was sent to the official Facebook page of Breitbart News, Facebook warned that there was “additional reporting” on the issue courtesy of the left-leaning fact checker Politifact. “Before you share this content, you might want to know that there is additional reporting on this from Politifact,” the message said.
It’s somewhat amusing watching Facebook cite Politifact as if it were some kind of a fair, bipartisan organization. The fact of the matter is that Politifact is no more credible than CNN, the New York Times or any other liberal think tank that pretends to be a news organization, and why anyone would use it as a tool to determine what online content is reliable and what isn’t is anyone’s guess. (Related: A Washington Post fact checker has been exposed as a partisan liar whose fact checks are subjective spin.)
In an article from December of last year, The Federalist created a chart that showed just how politically biased Politifact really is against conservatives. What the chart showed is that left-wing Democrats like Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama were found to be truthful more often than conservative Republicans like Ted Cruz, Mike Pence and Donald Trump. If that’s not enough to convince you that Politifact is nothing more than a disguised liberal advocacy group, The Federalist also noted that most of the comments and remarks made by Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine throughout the 2016 presidential election were ranked true or mostly true while most of the comments that came out of the mouth of Donald Trump were considered to be dishonest and deceiving. (Related: Fact checkers don’t know the real facts about history, medicine, economics, politics or science.)
It would be in Facebook and Politifact’s best interest to understand that the conservatives in this country – the same people they so desperately want to keep quiet – are on to them. It’s not like those on the right are completely oblivious to the real motives of these so-called Internet fact-checkers, and that we buy into the argument that “it’s just in the interest of preventing hate speech or fake news.” We know that there is an effort underway to shut us up, but Facebook and Politifact should know that we’re not going anywhere.
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Tagged Under: Breitbart, Censorship, Collusion, conspiracy, Facebook, fake news, First Amendment, free speech, oppression, politics, PolitiFact, roy moore, techno tyranny