There are so many examples of ridiculous media bias that you’d need an entire site dedicated to it to try and capture it all. In fact, there are several. I prefer the Media Research Center, which is overflowing with great examples.
But I just couldn’t help myself with this one.
Yesterday, CNN had a “fact check” story about how much Donald Trump has spent playing golf versus Barack Obama at the same point in their presidencies.
Before I get into it, I always wonder, who’s fact checking the fact checkers?
I remember when fact checking became popular. It was popularized by mainstream media, with the purpose of addressing conservative complaints about their bias. Fact checking was intended to introduce fairness.
But in reality, they are really an attempt to legitimize or disguise the bias. Why look! They fact check themselves. They must be telling the truth.
And somehow, they’re always able to blur their own lying.
Which brings us back to the CNN example. In this article, they decided to fact check President Trump, who tweeted over the weekend that Obama golfed more and never got blowback from the media.
CNN addressed this by writing, “Obama played 98 rounds of golf through this point in his presidency…” while “Trump has spent all or part of 248 days at a golf course.”
Well of course he has. That’s where he lives. At a golf course!
Note the wording: Obama “played,” while “Trump spent.” “Played” is the important word because that means, on the course, in the act of playing golf. (They do concede a few paragraphs down that “…it is not possible to definitively say how many times Trump has golfed as President.”
But, that having been said, they were still able to conclude “…it is clear Trump has spent more time golfing than Obama.” Obviously…
Trump also mentioned Obama’s carbon footprint when flying to Hawaii to play golf. The “record” shows that at the same time in their presidencies, Obama took three trips to Hawaii, where he played an undisclosed number of times. Trump, meanwhile, has flown home to Mar-a-Lago 30 times.
But that’s the difference, isn’t it? Trump was going to his residence. Obama was vacationing.
They also scored this in miles, citing Obama’s 29,978 miles in Hawaii travel versus Trump’s 51,540 miles. But again, it’s 9,992 miles/trip for Obama against 1,718 miles per trip for Trump. In other words, it’s obviously an easier trip for Trump to make, so he would make it more often.
If they really want to be fair, they’d include how many trips back to Chicago Obama made up to this point in his presidency.
So, here I am, fact checking the fact checkers. The question now is, who’s going to fact check me? (Or would mine be more of a logic check… conservatives are good for that.)
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