Outstanding post. As many other former journalists, I was excited when my former friend and CNN political correspondent Brooks Jackson helped launched Politifact thorugh the Tampa Bay Times a couple of decades ago. Sadly, the left quickly dominated the "industry" and promptly ruined it for propaganda purposes. It is unsurprising that Politifact has been awarded a Pulitzer Prize, as was the Washington Post and New York Times for their now-discredited Russian Collusian hoax coverage.
Politifact is clearly the worst among a smarmy crew in this corrupt craft, but the Post's Glenn Kessler seems eager to wrest that title from them.
You hit on one of my pet peeves--the idea that people that thought about it much believed the earth was flat. We have known not only that it was NOT flat, but had an amazingly good estimate of its circumference since Hellenist times. All it takes is watching a ship's sail drop below the horizon. Or any expanse of relatively flat land.
Yes, there are some people that have a lot of fun and no doubt make a living from various flat earth theories, but it hasn't been mainstream thinking for at least a couple thousand years. Likely longer--just not recorded.
My real peeve is our predilection for thinking that people that came before us were stupid. They weren't.
Couldn't agree more. It was common knowledge well before the common era and the first known circumference estimate done was only about 3% off.
The assumption that people from the long long ago were stupid is terribly present-o-centric and says more about the people making the assumption.
One of my favorite odd little facts is that of the oldest known name we are for certain we know now is Kushim, circa 3,000 BC, mesopotamia - it's on a clay tablet barley receipt - he was an accountant.
When I would do something wrong when I was a child (quite often!), my father would ask me if I did it. I would always deny any involvement and my brother would assure my father that I had done nothing wrong. My father would look at us and say: 'One lies, the other swears to it'. Sounds like fact checking today...
Now a Substack author is fighting for the rights of drunk drivers!! I can’t believe RealClearPolitics went from a Bush/Cheney cockholster to linking to the steaming pile of manure that is Substack!?!
Outstanding post. As many other former journalists, I was excited when my former friend and CNN political correspondent Brooks Jackson helped launched Politifact thorugh the Tampa Bay Times a couple of decades ago. Sadly, the left quickly dominated the "industry" and promptly ruined it for propaganda purposes. It is unsurprising that Politifact has been awarded a Pulitzer Prize, as was the Washington Post and New York Times for their now-discredited Russian Collusian hoax coverage.
Politifact is clearly the worst among a smarmy crew in this corrupt craft, but the Post's Glenn Kessler seems eager to wrest that title from them.
Thanks for the comment and agree but the one problem with that is that Kessler doesn't rhyme.
You hit on one of my pet peeves--the idea that people that thought about it much believed the earth was flat. We have known not only that it was NOT flat, but had an amazingly good estimate of its circumference since Hellenist times. All it takes is watching a ship's sail drop below the horizon. Or any expanse of relatively flat land.
Yes, there are some people that have a lot of fun and no doubt make a living from various flat earth theories, but it hasn't been mainstream thinking for at least a couple thousand years. Likely longer--just not recorded.
My real peeve is our predilection for thinking that people that came before us were stupid. They weren't.
Couldn't agree more. It was common knowledge well before the common era and the first known circumference estimate done was only about 3% off.
The assumption that people from the long long ago were stupid is terribly present-o-centric and says more about the people making the assumption.
One of my favorite odd little facts is that of the oldest known name we are for certain we know now is Kushim, circa 3,000 BC, mesopotamia - it's on a clay tablet barley receipt - he was an accountant.
When I would do something wrong when I was a child (quite often!), my father would ask me if I did it. I would always deny any involvement and my brother would assure my father that I had done nothing wrong. My father would look at us and say: 'One lies, the other swears to it'. Sounds like fact checking today...
I skip reading anything by Politifact, especially any, so called,"fact checking".
Loved this: "Helpful hint – do not invite PolitiFact to your kid’s middle school graduation."
Thank you. Now please do the Trusted News Initiative (TNI), major purveyor of COVID-related disinformation and bogus fact checks.
Wow, somebody needs to fact check this article, BIG TIME.
Now a Substack author is fighting for the rights of drunk drivers!! I can’t believe RealClearPolitics went from a Bush/Cheney cockholster to linking to the steaming pile of manure that is Substack!?!