You all know that good old proverb, “there is no worse blind than the one who does not want to see”. Impossible to make listen to reason to those who persist in not wanting to know anything.
This year again, we have presented the facts, linked them together, put them into context, but some continue to show stubborn resistance, to convey unfounded claims.
NPR, the American public radio, had made “misinformation” the word of the year 2019. Three years later, the same observation could be made: in this respect, the more things change, the more they are the same.
“TO BE LYING…”
The balance sheets for the year have always seemed to me to wander between the necessary and the superfluous. Necessary to refresh our memory and allow us, in good faith, to learn from the good and bad news.
Superfluous and repetitive, because you rarely learn anything new. From time to time, however, reminders are worth it. For fifteen years, the Washington Post has offered its list of the “biggest lies” of the year, as noted, week by week, by Glenn Kessler, the Fact Checker of the major daily newspaper in the American capital.
Kessler uses a system of one to four “Pinocchios”, only one involving having somewhat fiddled with the truth; four “Pinocchios” meaning having lied purely and simply. We find, this year again, embarrassing, even infamous pearls, especially from public figures that millions of Americans follow with reverence.
QUATRE « PINOCCHIOS » !
Absolute record, Donald Trump occupies a place in this unworthy list for an eighth consecutive year. No wonder when we remember that the Post’s Fact Checker counted 30,573 false or misleading allegations during the four years of his presidential mandate, an average of 21 per day!
The presidency, in fact, seems to encourage fabrication and, ultimately, to deceive citizens. Thus, Joe Biden does not give his place with two spectacular entries in the list of “Four Pinocchios”, including an exaggeration exceeding reality by 160 times.
On the right, conspiracy theories continue to wreak havoc, with conservative politicians and commentators drawing on gossip and gossip to construct aberrant alternative realities.
A naivety – or a bad faith – that Russian propaganda has been able to use very well.
Fox News host Tucker Carlson has fallen into this trap more than once. In March, for example, shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, Carlson unabashedly relayed a surge of Russian indoctrination that Hunter Biden, the president’s son, had funded a biological weapons program in Ukraine.
A complete falsity! That Carlson ended up correcting? No way. Moreover, this is what unites these great liars, according to the Washington Post: on the right as on the left, from one White House to another, we let the lie run wild. All badly placed to give lessons!
Donald Trump (for an 8th consecutive year, a record!)
A never-ending string of misleading allegations about alleged 2020 presidential election fraud and conspiracy theories regarding its supporters who attacked the Capitol in January 2021.
Joe BidenMore
Atlanta, January 11, 2022
The president likes to claim that he was arrested at different times in his life, when he sought to defend civil rights: as a teenager when he stood alongside a black couple or in Soweto, South Africa. South, after seeking to meet Nelson Mandela in prison. Baseless allegations according to the Washington Post Fact Checker.
Washington, August 10, 2022
The Chips and Science Act frees up $53 billion for research, development and manufacturing of semiconductors in the United States.
Joe Biden repeats that a million jobs will, by extension, be created. In fact, according to an industry report, the law will only create 6,200 jobs. The White House has never made any corrections to the president’s remarks.
J.D. Vance – April 29, 2022
The Republican senator-elect from Ohio went to claim that Biden intentionally authorized the distribution of drugs such as fentanyl “for the purpose of killing Trump supporters” in the heartland of the United States.
An assertion supported by no facts or precise data. As the Washington Post mentions, “Fentanyl seizures have increased, not decreased, under Biden; overdose deaths have risen sharply under Trump; African Americans and Latinos lost their lives to opioids at a higher rate than whites.”
Vladimir Putin – Moscow, February 21, 2022
To justify the Russian invasion, the head of the Kremlin launched into a long and devious description of Ukraine as only a recent creation, drawn from a conflict between Lenin and Stalin.
In fact, the Ukrainian language and culture have existed for centuries and already in the middle of the 19th century, a Ukrainian nationalist movement was opposing the hegemony of Russia.
