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Introduction
Before the first Biden-Trump debate, the liberal fact-checking website Snopes.com dropped a bombshell that sparked outrage and fear among liberals. Contrary to widely-held misconceptions, the website concluded that former President Donald Trump had never indicated that neo-Nazis attending the Charlottesville protest were “very fine people”, a claim made during a combative press conference in 2017.
Snopes’ Conclusions
The Snopes checker, Taija Perry Cook, clarified that while Trump did state that there were ‘very fine people on both sides’, he specifically omitted neo-Nazis and white supremacists when saying this and stressed that these groups should be ‘condemned totally.’ The debunking of this claim may counteract one of Biden’s key angles of attack on Trump. However, the timing of this revelation has raised eyebrows, given its emergence on the eve of the debate.
Setting the Record Straight
Following a tweet from tech executive Shaun Maguire, who posted a video of Trump’s press conference, Perry Cook has urged the public to look at this as an example of media manipulation. This topic is highly significant as the left-leaning media and Democrat partisans have tirelessly perpetuated the myth that Trump supported neo-Nazis by claiming there were “very fine people” on both sides in the debate concerning Confederate statues.
Media Misrepresentation
Various examples exist of distorted accounts of Trump’s words, often resulting in misinformation. President Biden’s presidential campaign announcement video, which featured footage of neo-Nazis, portrayed Trump as equating hate-spreaders with those fighting against them. While other fact-checking sites have attempted to place context around this, Snopes and PolitiFact have included a transcript for clarity, highlighting Trump’s differentiation between ‘bad people’ and ‘very fine people’.
Snopes – An Overview
Born from the efforts of David and Barbara Mikkelson in 1994, Snopes’ original mission was to debunk “urban legends” and hoaxes. However, despite the organization’s longstanding presence on the internet, it isn’t always universally trusted. Its feud with satirical website, Babylon Bee, is indicative of this.
The Babylon Bee Saga
Babylon Bee ran a satirical headline “CNN Purchases Industrial-Sized Washing Machine To Spin News Before Publication.” The story, clearly meant in jest, was flagged by Snopes as “FALSE,” supposedly after some readers appeared to interpret it literally. Snopes’ insistence on corralling satire led to a backlash, with Facebook threatening to limit Babylon Bee’s reach. They ultimately backtracked, labeling the article as satire.
Fact-Checking Bias?
Many pro-Biden media outlets firmly believe in the importance of real-time fact-checking of Donald Trump’s comments and speeches. However, this seems to suggest a biased narrative, with Democrats and their media allies often using “independent” websites like Snopes to delegitimize their counterparts. The ideal scenario for the Democrats? To assert their equivalence with democracy and facts, thereby weaponizing fact-checking against their opponents. Applications that run contrary to this narrative, like Snopes’ recent fact-check, are therefore bound to elicit anger.
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