RTWed, 30 Sep 2020 19:02 UTC
© REUTERS/Carlo Allegri, inset: TwitterThe New York Times has upset its subscribers by fact-checking Joe Biden.
The
New York Times is under fire from its own readership after sharing a tweet to promote its fact-check coverage of Tuesday night's presidential debate that was unfavourable to Joe Biden.
The tweet contains a screenshot of its fact-checking coverage, which includes a debunked quote from Joe Biden. "We left him a booming economy. And he caused the recession."
The so-called paper of record unceremoniously analysed this claim under the title, "This is false," much to the chagrin of its loyal readers.
The screen-grabbed fact check goes on to detail how the economy was not "booming" during the final year of the Obama administration, on Biden's watch as vice president.
The Gray Lady even went so far as to defend Trump, saying he did not "cause" the pandemic recession.The
New York Times faithful were aghast and left mouths agape as they declared they would be canceling their subscriptions for this egregious "enabling of Trump's fascism."
The overwrought outcry was met with glee on the other side of the political spectrum with many reveling in the hand-wringing. Prominent right-wing commentator Ian Miles Cheong drew his followers' attention to the "conniptions" in the replies to the tweet, while self-styled 'Trumpublican' Melissa Tate asked if there had been a "glitch" at the
Times.
"They are actually telling the truth which means the left is having a meltdown. Taking a screenshot because the mob will force the NYTimes to delete the truth & like the lap dogs they are, they will do just that," Tate tweeted.
Some did, however, call for calm and at least some semblance of objectivity, though judging by the majority of the comments from outraged (former) subscribers, their pleas fell on deaf ears.
Comment: While libtards took the
Times to task, right-wingers had CNN
in their sights:
On Tuesday night, Trump defended his coronavirus response, which included travel bans on foreign nationals who had been to China, and reminded Biden that he once called the president xenophobic and racist for doing so.
"I closed it, and you said, 'He's xenophobic. He's a racist and he's xenophobic,' because you didn't think I should have closed our country," Trump said.
In its 'fact check' (a generous use of the term), CNN claims it's unclear whether Biden knew about Trump's travel restrictions targeting China at the time he called Trump xenophobic, as he never "explicitly linked the accusation of xenophobia" to any of the president's specific policies.
CNN cites "the campaign" - presumably meaning Biden's PR team - as saying Trump has a record of "hysterical xenophobia" and "fear mongering" but that Biden's January 31 accusation had nothing to do with the travel restrictions, aimed at stopping the spread of the coronavirus, which were announced that same day.
CNN added that Biden "never took an explicit position on the restrictions until his April declaration of support."
As expected, many online blasted the "most trusted name in news" for its blatant bias and lackluster fact check, which some deemed worthy of conservative satire site the Babylon Bee.
Some also used the opportunity to ridicule Biden's alleged cognitive decline. "In fairness to CNN, Biden may have already forgotten," one commenter quipped. The so-called 'ratio' of replies compared to retweets of CNN's post quickly told its own story, as the message racked up more than 1,200 replies and a mere 165 retweets.
© CNN/Twitter
Comment: While libtards took the Times to task, right-wingers had CNN in their sights: