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Why did Hollis only focus on one 'Lie of the Year'?
To the editor:
In the latest column from Laura Hollis ("Campaign Against Misinformation Is Disinformation") she points out that statements made by former President Obama about the Affordable Care Act (e.g., "If you like your health care plan, you can keep it") were named by Politifact as the 2013 "Lie of the Year."
Given Ms. Hollis' concern for the spread of misinformation and disinformation in the media, I was heartened to see that she regards Politifact (which is a fact-checking organization) as a reliable source of information. On the other hand, I was troubled that she singled out former President Obama for his "Lie of the Year" while ignoring more recent examples.
In 2015, for example the Politifact "Lie of the Year" was the campaign misstatements of Donald Trump. Politifact said "Trump's inaccurate statements in 2015 covered a lot of ground, exhibiting a boldness and disregard for the truth that we hadn't seen before in a presidential candidate."
The "Lie of the Year" for 2017 was that Russian election interference (in the 2016 election) was a "made up story." Politifact said "Trump continually asserted that Russia's meddling in the 2016 election was fake news, a hoax or a made-up story, even though there is widespread, bipartisan evidence to the contrary. In both classified and public reports, U.S. intelligence agencies said Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered actions to interfere with the election."
In 2019 the "Lie of the Year" was Donald Trump's claim that the whistleblower got the Ukraine phone call "almost completely wrong." Politifact said "Trump worked hard to discredit a whistleblower complaint about a July 2019 phone call he had with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The whistleblower raised the concern that Trump's actions leading up to and on that phone call amounted to interference in the 2020 presidential election. Trump smeared the whistleblower as "partisan" and insisted more than 80 times that the whistleblower's account was incorrect, "total fiction" and "almost completely wrong." But despite Trump's claims, we found, the whistleblower got the call almost completely right. The whistleblower's account was validated by the very record of the call as released by the White House, plus testimony under oath from career diplomats and other officials."
The 2020 "Lie of the Year" was downplaying and denying the coronavirus. According to Politifact, "The U.S. response to the coronavirus pandemic was crippled by conspiracy theories and misinformation that said the new virus was overblown, and maybe even a hoax. Former President Donald Trump minimized the threat of COVID-19 from the earliest days of the pandemic, flouted masks and other public health measures, elevated conspiracy theories about COVID-19 deaths, and championed miracle cures. The downplay and denial of COVID-19 was also picked up by online actors, Republican lawmakers and influential TV and radio hosts. Even as hundreds of thousands of Americans died from the disease, their message was consistent: The threat to your health was overhyped to hurt the political fortunes of the president. The 2021 Lie of the Year had something previous winners did not: documented proof of intent to deceive. In early 2020, Trump told journalist Bob Woodward the virus was 'more deadly than even your strenuous flus,' but he told the public something different. 'I wanted to always play it down,' he said later. 'I still like playing it down. Because I don't want to create a panic.'"
Finally, the 2021 "Lie of the Year" was lies about the Jan. 6 Capitol attack and its significance - lies told by supporters of President Trump to either justify or minimize what had happened on that day. For example, the violence was falsely blamed on Antifa, or on an FBI false flag operation; the rioters were said to be on a "normal tourist visit" and posed "zero threat, right from the start"; and, those jailed for their offenses (including the assault of police officers) were characterized as merely "political prisoners."
Given Ms. Hollis' political leanings, it is no wonder that she chose to ignore these more recent "Lies of the Year." Politifact, to its credit, calls out lies on both sides of the political spectrum; I wish that Ms. Hollis would do the same. As it is, her rants against misinformation and disinformation from the left ring hollow when she ignores the falsehoods propagated by the right.
Philip Loewen
Lewistown