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Facebook fact-checkers USA Today remove 23 stories from its own website

June 17, 2022 | | Print Article

USA Today, which has been accused of using its power to silence dissenting but 100 percent accurate reporting, just found that it has published blatantly fake news that was zero percent accurate.

The finding came after a reader submitted a “correction request” to USA Today. The request prompted the outlet to conduct an audit, and the audit in turn uncovered that now-resigned reporter Gabriela Miranda had been writing fake news.

“The audit revealed that some individuals quoted were not affiliated with the organizations claimed and appeared to be fabricated. The existence of other individuals quoted could not be independently verified. In addition, some stories included quotes that should have been credited to others,” USA Today admitted Thursday.

“As a result, USA TODAY removed 23 articles from its website and other platforms for not meeting our editorial standards. The headlines of the articles are listed below. Miranda has resigned as a reporter for USA TODAY and the USA TODAY Network.”

In response to the controversy, USA Today has vowed to implement certain quality-control measures:

(Source: USA Today)

Critics were unimpressed.

“After 40 years you’re now instituting these quality control measures? Most likely you ignored your own policies to intentionally spit out inaccurate [bullschiff],” one critic opined on Twitter.

Some were outright angry and quick to accuse USA Today of being “fake news.”

Look:

But there was also exasperation over USA Today’s habit of using its “fact-checker” power to silence reporting that’s accurate but doesn’t fit with the Democrat Party’s preferred narrative.

Look:

USA Today’s method is to claim that otherwise factually accurate reporting is “missing context.”

In late 2020, for instance, USA Today “fact-checked” the accurate claim that then-incoming White House press secretary Jen Psaki could be seen in a photo wearing a hammer and sickle hat while posing with Russian officials.

USA Today admitted that the claim itself was true but then turned around and labeled it “misleading” anyway by completely twisting the claim.

“Jen Psaki, recently named White House press secretary for President-elect Joe Biden, is seen in a 2014 photo posing with the Russian foreign minister and his spokesperson, along with then-Secretary of State John Kerry. She is wearing a pink hat with a hammer and sickle emblem, which was a gift from the Russians that she returned,” the “fact-check” reads.

“At the time, Psaki was spokesperson for the U.S. State Department. The image is real, but claims that the hat was anything more a gift or that Psaki was with Russian officials in any capacity beyond her official role are MISSING CONTEXT.”

But that wasn’t the claim.

That same year, USA Today pulled the same stunt again by questioning the 100 percent valid claim that “[s]everal Democratic politicians are urging social distancing and issuing stay-at-home advisories while hosting or attending gatherings themselves.”

“It’s true that some politicians have acted contrary to the social distancing and stay-at-home practices they are preaching. … Ultimately, however, it’s not just some Democratic politicians flouting COVID-19 policies and guidance – such behavior has been seen on both sides of the aisle, including behavior resulting in a coronavirus outbreak at the White House,” the bogus “fact-check” read.

The following year, USA Today ruled that it was “partly false” for Gold Star families to say that President Joe Biden had looked at his watch during a ceremony honoring the American service members who were killed in the Kabul bombing.

However, thanks to backlash, USA Today eventually relented and issued a correction.

The problem was that the correction was no better, as it ruled that what the Gold Star families had said was “missing context”

Was it really, though?

Vivek Saxena
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