Fact checking has made an abrupt about face on social media. Now we’re seeing new and exciting phrases, such as “missing context” when a photo of a possible press secretary of the White House is busted sporting a pink hat bearing the communist hammer and sickle logo. Obama-alum-turned-Biden-babe Jen Psaki is simply beaming in perpetuity beneath the rosy shapka.
Jen Psaki in pink hat
Well, isn’t she pretty in commie pink?
Psaki is one a of a half-dozen women tapped for a Biden White House communications team, and the photo in question is from a diplomatic visit during the reign of Obama. The vertically challenged Psaki is ensconced between her Russian counterpart, Maria Zakharova, and her old boss, Secretary of State John Kerry.
With a wet-finger check to see which way the fickle political winds were blowing, one fact checker for USA Today must have panicked and released this explanation, declaring that her verdict was final: “Our ruling: Missing context.” Further, the arbiter of facts explained:
“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.”
The all-caps let us all know how serious a fact checker she is and that people spreading the image on social media must get in lockstep with her edict. Our feckless fact checker soon became the bigger story.
Put the Hammer, Sickle, and Shovel Down
Her name is Camille Caldera, she who must be obeyed when typing in all caps. And amidst swirling Twitter call outs, she opted to pick up the shovel and continue to dig herself a comfy hole by posting this vague message:
“For anyone who hasn't been the target of Russian propaganda (cc: @MCFaul @HillaryClinton), the purpose is to discredit powerful messengers and to spread misinformation to confuse the public. Anyone who repeats it is (unwitting or not) simply a puppet of the propaganda machine.”
For reals. Do we really think this is all a Russian conspiracy to make Psaki look like a commie?
Matt Whitlock of the National Republican Senatorial Committee could not remain out of context in the shadows. He called Camille out with an original and precise tweet: “This is not a fact-check. You're fact-checking a photo saying it 'needs context.' That's honestly Orwellian.”
The Daily Caller’s associate editor, Virginia Kruta, also offered a response: “What context makes wearing communist symbolism in a photo — while representing the US — acceptable?”
Most folks wondered why the fact checker was trivializing a fact. Including Donald Trump, Jr. He also resorted to all caps and too many exclamations to make his point via Twitter:
“Why are you [fact] checking this? No one’s making a claim just showing her wearing a commie hat… [THAT'S] A FACT!!! If the media stopped running cover for Democrats as their primary mission maybe they have some credibility left.”
But as we have all witnessed with our self-appointed deliverers of facts, they will leave it all on the field – no matter the number of lies and cover-ups must be used to protect the left.
Fact Checks for Fact Checkers
Is the fourth estate's ridiculous attempt to stifle reality with “context missing” where we want to go in this nation? Or will a Democratic regime have former fact folks filling out applications at big box retail stores? According to the left, Democrats do not need checking. Frankly, most folks just want these annoying little pop-up gnat-like irritants to just go the hell away.
The image should, however, be disturbing to any American.
As other folks are tap-dancing around the image of communism, Liberty Nation has a decidedly different take: Chief Political Correspondent Graham J. Noble sums it up for all of us who love liberty:
“It's been disturbing to see people in the media say the criticism of Psaki is 'out of context' or that it should be 'fact checked.' One may as well 'fact check' someone who gets upset seeing a swastika flag. Look, there's no possible way to excuse or defend what the Nazis did but the Soviets were actually worse, if we're going by body-counts and the level of sheer misery and terror imposed upon a people. There's no context to understand here. Psaki is happily wearing the symbol of one of the most oppressive and murderous regimes in human history.”
And that is a fact.
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Read more from Sarah Cowgill.
