Discussion about this post

User's avatar
littlegreen🌻🇺🇦's avatar

William Saletan at Slate claims this conflict is solely about the headline. Because Kavanaugh did not literally "say" he'd kill Roe v. Wade, Saletan agrees with TWS that the headline is false.

He goes on to say TWS offered to withdraw its false rating if Think Progress changed the headline.

I love Wonkette. I love Vox. After reading articles from both sources, I was convinced TWS was guilty of “placing right-wing ideology before accurate reporting" and appalled that Facebook was letting it happen. I hadn't realized the issue boils down to a single word; but now that I have, I must admit the word is false.

Wouldn't have taken but a second to change "Kavanaugh said he'll kill Roe v. Wade" to "Did Kavanaugh say he'd kill Roe v. Wade?"

I totally, totally, totally know how rightwing media distorts facts. That's so huge an issue it should be called out at every opportunity.

But this isn't a case of rightwing distortion. "Saying" is directly stating. "Implying" is pussyfooting around. Any fact checker would have flagged that headline as misleading.

And I think it matters. I think it's incredibly important to save outrage for real outrages. We don't want to be as knee jerk as the wingnuts, do we? Or as blinded by fear/hate and determined to prove "they're always wrong" "we're always right." It's not so bad to occasionally see the other guy has a point.

I get that there's a bigger picture. I get that TWS publishes so much trash, it's reasonable to argue they're too biased to fact check. Great point! But it deserves to be backed up by a good example, as do accusations of censorship. This isn't an example of either.

https://slate.com/news-and-...

Expand full comment
Dianna Deem's avatar

People have this crazy notion that rich people can't be bought. Like White Supremacy, or Male Supremacy, it's entirely counter-factual!

Expand full comment
237 more comments...

No posts