Stop the Madness!

Fun fact: In the 90’s I was a newspaper reporter.

In those days we didn’t run stories using “an unnamed source close to the investigation.” Why? Because the source’s motives were obscured and they were unaccountable. Don’t even bother writing it, the night desk will kill it.

Also, if there was a hint of libel or slander in the story, without corroboration from multiple sources, the story was toast. If you couldn’t substantiate it, you couldn’t write it.

At least four times today, I have seen the same badly photoshopped video with ridiculous whispering and porny subtitles under video footage of Joe Biden and some kids at a public event. I won’t link it for obvious reasons.

And I’ve only seen it shared by people who identify as Christian. Hmm.

Libel is defined as the action of publishing a false statement that’s damaging to a person’s reputation or a written defamation.

At the newspaper in the pre-internet 90’s getting sued for libel was a very big deal. That’s why if you were running a story that defamed someone you got to defend it first before a big table of stone-faced editors.

So here’s the thing, either you don’t know this meme is the work of trolls (often foreign) or you do and you don’t care because to you, the ends justify the means.

If you’re in the former group, here’s help.

There’s a site called Politifact that began in 2007 at the Tampa Bay Times as a way for journalists to fact check things elected officials said. It’s a non-profit organization now that ranks the veracity of claims made in the public domain on a scale of true to pants on fire.

The Biden meme got a pants on fire rating...if you care.

BTW - The site is regularly criticized by both liberals and conservatives for bias. So there’s that. Also you can help fund them and find out their rules about who they will and won’t accept money from.

Here’s what at stake people: A distrust or abandonment of objective truth (as Christians have been saying forever) is destabilizing to a family, a church, and a Republic.

So when we deliberately or accidentally share misinformation, it sows seeds of confusion and mistrust in the very system we ALL rely on for political and economic stability.

So it might seem like nothing more than election-season swordplay to post something completely unfounded about your non-candidate of choice, but is it?

Elections are fragile things, ask countries with broken ones.

So do your Republic and your Democracy a favor and fact check yo sweet self before you post. Confusion is not our friend.

Here’s Politifact on the Biden meme which they called egregious:

“There is no credible evidence that supports this claim. In Joe Biden’s more than 40 years of public life, we could find no news reports, formal accusations, complaints, arrests or investigations that implicate him in any sort of sex crimes involving kids.”

ps. Want to watch how journalism used to be done, what checks used to be in place? All the Presidents Men is a classic that will make you cry for the 1st amendment.