Only during a Democratic administration would a major newsroom gloss over readily available evidence to “fact-check” Gold Star families incorrectly.
This is exactly what USA Today did this week, and it is every bit as embarrassing as it sounds.
President Joe Biden embarrassed himself last weekend during the dignified transfer of the 13 U.S. troops killed in the Afghanistan withdrawal. The president checked his watch not once, not twice, but at least three times during the ceremony — because he apparently had somewhere more important to be than the event marking the return of the U.S. service members killed under his disastrous mismanagement.
Biden wasn’t even discreet about it.
There are photos of the president checking his watch during the ceremony. There are videos. Most upsetting of all is that the president’s lack of discretion and taste did not go unnoticed by grieving family members, some of whom complained to the press about the president’s behavior.
Images of the president’s lack of decorum soon filled social media feeds.
So, what does USA Today do? It publishes a fact-check claiming Biden did not repeatedly check the time during the ceremony. Apparently, those videos are simply wrong. Also, those Gold Star families who complained to the press probably don’t know what they’re talking about.
“Fact check: Biden honored service members killed in Kabul, checked watch only after ceremony,” read the original USA Today headline.
The story, which has since been heavily amended, attempts to address the claim that former President Donald Trump “saluted the caskets of fallen U.S. service members, while Biden checked his watch.”
“The full video of the dignified transfer ceremony shows Biden honored each of the fallen U.S. service members,” USA Today reported. “He appeared to check his watch after the ceremony ended.”
The fact-check initially concluded: “Based on our research, we rate PARTLY FALSE the claim that Trump saluted the caskets of fallen U.S. service members, while Biden checked his watch. The pictures are real, but they don’t accurately summarize the two events. The way Biden honored the 11 caskets presented at Dover Air Force Base, with a hand over his heart, was similar to how Trump paid respects to fallen service members during his presidency. Biden checked his watch, but he did so after the ceremony had ended.”
The wild thing about the passage is this line: “Based on our research.” What research? Speaking anecdotally, I only half-followed the watch-checking story, and even I saw the footage of the president looking at the time as the coffins were still being transferred. I wasn’t even writing about the incident, and I certainly wasn’t attempting to “fact-check” anything. So how did a USA Today fact-checker manage to miss the readily available footage of the president misbehaving during the dignified transfer?
We’re faced now with that old question when it comes to media malfeasance: stupidity or malevolence?
USA Today has since amended its fact-check to correct the record.
The headline now reads, “Biden honored service members killed in Kabul, checked watch during ceremony.”
“This story was updated Sept. 2 to note that Biden checked his watch multiple times at the dignified transfer event, including during the ceremony itself,” read an editor’s note affixed to the story.
Amazingly, it added, “The rating on this claim has been changed from partly false to missing context.”
Missing context? What missing context? The claim is that Biden checked his watch during the ceremony. USA Today itself conceded this happened. Yet it still can’t bring itself to give a harsher rating than “missing context” to its botched, since-amended fact-check?
Just incredible stuff from a member of that supposed bulwark of our democracy. Stupidity or malevolence? I’ll let you decide.
