The Memey for “Worst Fact Check” goes to PolitiFact!
Some of you probably thought this award would go to the “debunking” of the CNN racist baby chyron, but that was too obvious, so instead I’m giving it to this March PolitiFact fact check that drinking fish-tank cleaner won't prevent COVID-19. A claim that virtually no one made. The only example they could find was an obscure local news headline from North Dakota, which didn't clarify the rather obvious fact that while chloroquine is an ingredient in fish tank cleaner, that doesn't mean you should ingest it. But no one was seriously suggesting substituting fish tank cleaner for prescription drugs.
And the cautionary tale of the man who died ingesting the fish tank cleaner was a...very fishy story. While police ultimately ruled the death an accident, friends reported the man as level headed and not prone to impulsivity, being a retired mechanical engineer with an extensive science background.
His wife, meanwhile, was described as "not well" by friends, and the marriage rocky and one-sided. She reportedly berated him in public constantly, destroyed his model airplane collection when he returned late for a meal, and was arrested for domestic assault when she swung a mounted birdhouse at him. The charges were later dropped when the husband testified on her behalf.
The wife had other red flags, like being on long-term disability from debilitating mental and physical health problems she claimed came from gender and age discrimination at her job at John Deere (she was in her 40s at the time). This followed another lawsuit against Cedar Valley Medical Clinic, when she was younger and claimed discrimination then for being a young girl. Her psychologist in the Deere trial claimed she had PTSD and was often angry and full of adrenaline.
This is the context to which the man, who was given the fish tank cleaner by his wife which contained 20X the treatment dose of chloroquine, should be viewed. At best, a questionable tragedy, and one that conveniently blamed Trump as the culprit for touting chloroquine. Which, of course, was the real reason for the fact check, like so many others. Not to debunk a real claim, but to dunk on Trump.
Runners-up in the comments.
https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/mar/24/blog-posting/drinking-chloroquine-fish-tank-cleaner-wont-stop-c/
https://freebeacon.com/latest-news/death-of-arizona-man-from-chloroquine-ruled-an-accident/
Stay tuned for more Memey Awards, they run until the end of the year. For a complete list of the 2020 Memeys (updated in real time):
http://memepoliceman.com/the-2020-memeys/
It’s bizarre to see them seesaw back and forth that Trump is totally clueless and aloof, just golfing all day, then all of a sudden he’s a dangerous king/dictator who’s diligently plotting to seize absolute power.
▪️This one is frustrating because, while it’s nice to see the vigor and speed that DOGE is acting with, they’re also sloppy with some of their findings. This is not some bombshell, millions of dead people’s SS numbers aren’t being paid out to fraudsters.
▪️This problem has been known for some time, you can read an inspector general’s report from 2015 about millions of names on the SS “numident” not being correctly annotated for deaths, even though they were older than 112 (the oldest known American at the time).
https://oig-files.ssa.gov/audits/full/A-06-14-34030_0.pdf
▪️There are innocent explanations for some of these. Expatriates that died outside the country, for example. Or immigrants given temporary work permit who returned to their country, people issued new numbers for various reasons, etc. However, most are simply due to the govt not diligently keeping track of deaths.
▪️It’s embarrassing that the govt has millions of numbers on the numident that are ...
