Academic Journal Publishes Hoax on Conservative Takeover of Higher Ed

Man speaking in front of crowd

A prestigious academic journal has egg on its face for publishing a hoax paper that claimed to find widespread concerns about “undue” conservative influence in higher education.

“Right-wing money strongly appears to induce faculty and administrators … to believe that they are pressured to hire and promote people they regard as inferior candidates, to promote ideas they regard as poor, and to suppress people and ideas they regard as superior,” according to the abstract in Higher Education Quarterly.

Peer reviewers failed to perform basic due diligence on the paper submitted in April and approved in October, neglecting, for example, to verify that authors “Sage Owens” and “Kal Alvers-Lynde III” were UCLA professors as they claimed. Owens even used an encrypted email service for correspondence with the journal.

Read the full story

McAuliffe Exposed for Selective Editing in Campaign Attack Ad

Former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D), once again a candidate for the state’s highest office, was caught selectively editing statements made years ago by his Republican opponent for a campaign ad. 

McAuliffe, according to a Washington Post fact-checker, purposefully took quotes from his Republican opponent Glenn Youngkin out of context in order to make it appear that Youngkin had praised McAuliffe during the latter’s first stint as governor. 

Read the full story

Commentary: The Washington Post Fact-Checker and Holding Biden Accountable

After four years of relentless fact checks of statements by President Trump, many wondered whether fact-checkers would apply similar scrutiny to President Biden.

Responding to right-leaning critics who “have been urging fact checks of ‘Biden lies,’” Glenn Kessler, editor and chief writer of the Washington Post’s Fact Checker, tweeted, “We have no plans to start a Biden false or misleading claims tracker, just as we had no plans at this point to start a Trump tracker. The constant tweeting of falsehoods forced our hand. But we have an open mind and if the need arises we will consider one.”

Some remained skeptical. “We have no plans to hold Biden accountable the way we did the previous administration,” tweeted journalist Stephen Miller, mockingly interpreting Kessler’s statement. “Glenn, I for one thank you for this refreshing bit of honesty.”

Read the full story

FAKE NEWS: Viral ‘What Actually Happened’ Meme Misconstrues Facts Surrounding Mexican Soldiers’ Detainment of U.S. Troops

by Brad Sylvester   A meme posted by the Facebook page Sick of the Slant claimed to portray what “actually happened” when two Americans were detained by Mexican soldiers at the southern border.   Verdict: False The version of events alleged in the meme are contradicted by news reporting and statements from U.S. Northern Command. The meme erroneously states that there were only two Mexican personnel involved in the incident, that the Americans were members of the National Guard and that no weapons were pointed at anyone. Fact Check: On April 13, two American soldiers were sitting in an unmarked vehicle on the American side of the U.S.-Mexico border when a group of Mexican soldiers approached and detained them at gunpoint, according to U.S. officials. The Mexicans may have erroneously believed that the Americans had inadvertently strayed into Mexican territory. The story was first reported by Newsweek on April 19 after it obtained a copy of the incident report. President Donald Trump tweeted about the incident April 24, stating, “Mexico’s Soldiers recently pulled guns on our National Guard Soldiers, probably as a diversionary tactic for drug smugglers on the Border.” Mexico’s Soldiers recently pulled guns on our National Guard Soldiers, probably as a diversionary tactic for…

Read the full story