February 19, 2021

It will be hard for the WaPo "fact checker" to give 4 Pinocchios to Joe Biden. He has to back off one Pinocchio because... well, why exactly?

Here's Biden repeatedly asserting that "he's traveled 17,000 miles with Xi Jingping": 

 

Biden is making a lot of misstatements of fact. The WaPo fact checker, Glenn Kessler, writes:

During his recent town hall on CNN, President Biden made a number of mistaken claims and assertions. He suggested racehorse owners receive tax breaks worth $9 billion, almost enough to pay for free attendance at community college — a claim that left tax experts scratching their heads. He said that the $7.25 minimum wage set in 2009 would be worth $20 if indexed for inflation, a statement that only makes sense if you are measuring from 1968. He wrongly stated that “vast majority” of undocumented immigrants were not Hispanic.

No Pinocchios assigned for any of that. It's all so obviously wrong that maybe it's not worth bothering to investigate. But Kessler's approach in these columns is, I think, to isolate one thing and figure out where it stands on the continuum from utter truth to bald-faced lie. Here, he's chosen the 17,000 with Xi Jingping assertion. 

The first time Kessler heard it, he says, it "seemed like a typical Biden malaprop." See? Biden gets graded on a curve. Unlike Trump, whose misstatements were judged against a stereotype that he's a huge liar, Biden gets the benefit of a presumption that he's always getting words wrong — as though it's some sort of disability, like his stuttering, and we ought to be charitable.

But Biden has repeated the assertion, as you see in the video clip, so the standard charitable allowance for the idiosyncrasies of the Biden brain was hard to use, and the fact checker has to fact-check at least some of the new President's statements. The feast on Trump is over, and the fact-checking enterprise must go on or at least seem to go on.

Here's Kessler:

[Biden has had] certainly an impressive amount of face time with Xi. But Biden’s mileage number has kept us puzzling till our puzzler was sore....

Notice the interposition of a phrase from a children's book. ("And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before."

Were Kessler's fact checks of Trump's misstatements ever leavened with cutesy phrases like that? 

Kessler figures out that Biden is saying he's traveled "with Xi Jingping" when he was traveling without Xi Jingping but on his way to or from visits with Xi:

A White House official conceded that Biden’s line of “traveling with” Xi is not accurate. “This was a reference to the total travel back and forth — both internally in the U.S. and China, and as well as internationally — for meetings they held together,” he said. “Some travel was in parallel, some was separately to joint destinations.” 

But even using that ridiculous way of counting the traveling together, Kessler "still could not get the travel to add up to 17,000 miles." There are a few different ways to put the numbers together, but Kessler arrives at the options 3,300, 5,600, and 28,000. It's never 17,000. Kessler talked to a White House official and sought help with puzzling out some way to get to the magic number of 17,000, but he came up empty. And Biden repeats this number that's just obviously wrong. He must know it is wrong! So how many Pinocchios?

[Biden's] broader point is undisputed — that he’s already spent an unusually large amount of time with Xi for someone who is just now taking office. So Biden’s claim is not completely from whole cloth. He did meet Xi in various cities in China and United States, in some cases traveling substantial distances. But numbers are numbers. Biden is using a figure that cannot be verified in a misleading way. He correctly notes he spent hours in private talks with Xi, including outside the capital cities, on different occasions. Those are substantial bragging rights — which makes his apparent need to gild the lily with an invented figure so puzzling. 
The president earns Three Pinocchios.

So Kessler's puzzler is still sore. Me, I'm trying to puzzle out why that gets 3 and not 4. According to WaPo's explanation of its Pinocchio rating, 3 is supposed to mean "Significant factual error and/or obvious contradictions.... 'mostly false'... [or] statements which are technically correct... but are so taken out of context as to be very misleading." The number is just plain wrong, not partly wrong. There's no explanation and the White House was asked for an explanation. It's a number. Nothing adds up even close to it, even when you use a ludicrous definition of what it means to travel "with" somebody!

Stop babying Biden! He's the damned President. If he needs to be babied, get him out of the presidency.

***

A footnote about malapropisms, from the Wikipedia article, "Malapropism"

[P]hilosopher Donald Davidson suggests that malapropisms reveal something about how people process the meanings of words. He argues that language competence must not simply involve learning a set meaning for each word, and then rigidly applying those semantic rules to decode other people's utterances. Rather, he says, people must also be continually making use of other contextual information to interpret the meaning of utterances, and then modifying their understanding of each word's meaning based on those interpretations.

IN THE COMMENTS: Bob Boyd said:

Biden having already spent a lot of time with Xi is a good thing, but Trump having any communication at all with Putin, or even mentioning Putin, was portrayed as evidence Putin owned and controlled Trump. And this in spite of the fact that Biden has been credibly accused of having been paid off by Xi whereas Trump's ties to Putin were exhaustively investigated and nothing improper was found. They aren't babying Biden. They're publishing propaganda.

I don't know about those accusations, but even assuming they're untrue, I would think that Biden's extensive time with Xi puts Xi at an advantage. Which man do you think is more able to gather useful knowledge of the weaknesses of the other? It's got to be Xi.

ADDED: I asked "Were Kessler's fact checks of Trump's misstatements ever leavened with cutesy phrases like that?" Glenn Kessler emails and points to an August 4, 2016 fact check of Trump that began "We have puzzled and puzzled over these remarks until our puzzler was sore" — the very same literary reference (to Dr. Seuss). 

Here: "Trump’s absurd charge that Clinton raised $60 million in July from just 20 people." By the way, Trump got 4 Pinocchios for that. The explanation for the rating is: 

There’s a huge difference between 900,000 and 20. In an effort to spin a narrative that Clinton is controlled by a small group of donors, Trump relies on innuendo and fantasy math. In reality, Clinton raised her campaign cash in July from a substantial base of small donors.

As with Biden's 17,000 miles, you've got a specific number and it's just wrong, but there's a rather absurd effort to explain it — "innuendo and fantasy math." If Trump deserved 4 Pinocchios for that, then why not Biden?

162 comments:

Fandor said...

For Slow Joe, a journey of 1,000 miles starts with one single lie.

David Begley said...

Too late to get Biden out. He will cling to the throne for a long time. Even after Kamala executes her 25th Amendment coup, he won’t leave. The FBI will have to evict Joe and Dr. Jill from the WH.

Of course Biden is wrong about the face time with China’s dictator, but why? Joe wants to show how subservient he is to our new master. And to give good value for the CCP’s bribe money.

The Dems and Fake News gave us China Joe. Never Forget.

Wince said...

Here's Biden repeatedly asserting that "he's traveled 17,000 miles with Xi Jingping."

Once you remember the earth is rotating at something like 1,000 mph at the equator, it all makes sense. Did they spend something like 17+ hours together?

Breezy said...

Word salads from Dr Seuss and Joe. Only one of which makes any sense.

rehajm said...

How long before they just say 'Biden repeated the lie often enough that it became true...so mostly true'...

Butkus51 said...

just figuring things out, huh?

wendybar said...

Which is why we point and laugh at the supposed fake checkers. They suck, they are biased, and we all know it.

Todd said...

It will be hard for the WaPo "fact checker" to give 4 Pinocchios to Joe Biden. He has to back off one Pinocchio because... well, why exactly?

Because "Democrat". Does the question really need asking? Look out, the asker is risking getting cancelled!

Unless... They have been told by those in charge that Biden is now on the menu. Need to make the slide into #KneesHarris as smooth as possible. Is it time to end #BadTouchBiden?

Fritz said...

My system for interpreting Kessler (and the rest of his crew) is if the fact check reflects badly on Republicans, subtract two noses. If it reflects poorly on Democrats, add two. Sure, occasionally you get a 5 or a -1 but kind of like Who's Line Is It Anyway; the points don't really matter.

Gusty Winds said...

Ahhhh yes...bullshit bias, bending, and twisting to protect and installed senile crook. But it's from one of two of Americas most significant newspapers, so that makes it worth while.

Fernandinande said...

But, you know, that old Biden was so smart and so slick
He thought up a lie, and he thought it up quick!

"Why, my sweet little baby," the fake President lied,
"It's not likely mommy and daddy are able to spread it to you either."

rehajm said...

To those of us who never believed the lie that the WaPo fact checker is interested in checking facts this article suggests they're having trouble spinning Joe's dementia into positive propaganda.

wendybar said...

When WAPO's conservative opinion person is a rabid Progressive, you stop reading bull shit that they print because you know it will be all spin and biased against the right....It wouldn't be hard for them to find a REAL conservative, but I don't think they want one...they want somebody who will agree with the left's crazy.

Todd said...

David Begley said...

Too late to get Biden out. He will cling to the throne for a long time. Even after Kamala executes her 25th Amendment coup, he won’t leave. The FBI will have to evict Joe and Dr. Jill from the WH.

2/19/21, 7:16 AM


Would that be Dr. "not an actual physician but instead of only Education" Jill of which you speak?

Curious George said...

"wendybar said...
Which is why we point and laugh at the supposed fake checkers. They suck, they are biased, and we all know it."

We all? No. Our resident dullard doesn't.

Bob Boyd said...

Biden having already spent a lot of time with Xi is a good thing, but Trump having any communication at all with Putin, or even mentioning Putin, was portrayed as evidence Putin owned and controlled Trump.
And this in spite of the fact that Biden has been credibly accused of having been paid off by Xi whereas Trump's ties to Putin were exhaustively investigated and nothing improper was found.
They aren't babying Biden. They're publishing propaganda.

Gusty Winds said...

I instead of using Pinocchios at the Washington Post to rank Biden’s lies and idiocy, they should use boners like some sites do to rate porn.

The Washington Post is so excited about making excuses and covering for this corrupt idiot I’m sure they could find four boners without any effort.

That’s what really makes them a significant American newspaper.

Curious George said...

Biden reminds me of this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7RgN9ijwE4

stlcdr said...

Are there no 'tags' for this? Shouldn't there be a 'factchecking' tag?

Gusty Winds said...

How many boners of significance do we give the Wash Post and NYTs here at the Althouse blog? Seems to be a lot more than four.

DanTheMan said...

"Fact checking" will be declared a tool of white supremacy.
Glenn Kessler will be issuing his ritual self-denunciation for being a racist shortly.

Leland said...

I understand this is a post about the obvious bias of the WaPo and how its "fact" checker shouldn't be trusted with determining facts. That said, Biden is proud of his strong relations with the genocidal leader of China, and that's not even the lede.

Temujin said...

I once worked for a guy who did not like doing presentations, so whenever he was called on to present to a group, he'd have me travel with him to do the actual presentation. He paid me. I was his employee. I traveled with him to do what he asked.

Joe Biden is a paid employee of China. Sure...kind of an overstatement. Kind of. Joe Biden and his family have taken payments of millions of dollars from the Chinese. That is in the record. It's out there, though our failed media censored any talk of it, it doesn't deny Tony Bobulinski's confirmation and witness of it. When Xi calls, Joe will move.

And I've had to listen for years on how everything Trump said was a lie. Really? Everything he said? Trump always has been a famous exaggerator. He uses superlatives so often it's almost funny to listen to. Joe is a fabulist. Journalists love fabulists. Many of them aspire to being fabulists. Many practice it daily. They discern no difference between Joe's fabricating stories and their own fabrications. It's not just malaprops. Joe is so used to lying, that the line between fake and real has been blurred. He's gotten to believe his own stories, his own lies. So yes- he repeats them constantly, changing a few small details from utterance to utterance. And the press, for the most part, repeats his fabulist stories as if they are real. And we end up with politicians claiming that they can pay for free college, free health care, and free food. It's all good until reality comes knocking at your door.

Unknown said...

Then: the Press were watchdogs.

Now: the Press are lapdogs, and eager ones at that.

Humperdink said...

If Joe keeps this up he will exceed Trump's 47,295,425 lies (as documented by the WaPoo) by July.

Temujin said...

I used to say, "Who's going to protect us from our protectors?" Now I say, who's going to check the fact checkers?

tim maguire said...

That's an easy fix--when he said "traveling with Xi," he meant "traveling for Xi".

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Every time the #fakenews claims that lies told by Democrats are actually mistakes while Trump was purposely evilly misleading us all by constant lying it erodes their credibility. We know they ALL lie most of the time. Obama did but he wasn’t rhyme-slimed like “Bush lied people died” even after telling Lie of the Year for his “keep your doctor” bullshit. The Costanza Constant always applies to Dems because when they lie it’s because they believe it (global warming) and so it’s worth fewer Pinocchio’s. When you live in the sunny side of history you never really LIE, just gaffe. Republicans aren’t allowed to gaffe. The root cause is always the evil righty heart.

Josephbleau said...

Poor China. After paying off Joe and Hunter for so long they finally seek a return on the investment. But when they take him out of the wrapper they find he has grown rotten and moldy.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Biden has been a Blowhard his entire life. Professional Blowhard.

Exaggerating and making big false statements while puffing up his puny chest and challenging people to do pushup contests or threatening to beat someone up behind the school bleachers. Typical chest beating from an insecure, inadequate, man (or woman) who secretly knows he is in over his head.

Now that he is unchecked by anyone and demented, we are supposed to be surprised by this?

You people who voted for this buffoon and his puppet masters deserve everything you are going to get.

The sad part is the rest of us who could see this train wreck coming a mile away are chained to the tracks.

Iman said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Bob Boyd said...

It's the theater of fact checking. It's the WaPo doing their part to create the illusion that there is a media holding Biden to some standard. But they're Progs. They have no objection to lies told by their side to accomplish their goals.

Jersey Fled said...

I developed the Kessler Rule back when Obama was in office.

If a Democrat said it, subtract one Pinocchio.

If a Republican said it, add one Pinocchio.

This was later revised to:

If Trump said it, add 4 Pinocchios

Josephbleau said...

Joe says let China destroy the Uighurs, that’s just China being China. That’s American foreign policy!

Achilles said...

How much of this is Joe malapropism?

Joe talking about Xi just doing what he has to do:

“If you know anything about Chinese history, it has always been, the time when China has been victimized by the outer world is when they haven’t been unified at home,” Biden began. “So the central — well, vastly overstated — the central principle of Xi Jinping is that there must be a united, tightly controlled China. And he uses his rationale for the things he does based on that.”

“I point out to him no American president can be sustained as a president, if he doesn’t reflect the values of the United States,” the US president continued. “And so the idea that I am not going to speak out against what he’s doing in Hong Kong, what he’s doing with the Uighurs in western mountains of China and Taiwan — trying to end the one China policy by making it forceful … [Xi] gets it.”

“Culturally there are different norms that each country and their leaders are expected to follow,” he continued.

Gusty Winds said...

Biden can just toss around bullshit because his voters won't question it. Imagine the IQ level and idiocy of people that actually tuned in to watch Biden and Cooper soil the Pabst Theater.

"$7.25 sounds like $20 to me". "Yep - most undocumented immigrants aren't Mexican, I knew it!!" "China's genocide is just a cultural norm...fine with me!! We could use a few camps around here too!"

Four boners for Joe. We're all so excited.

Jersey Fled said...

Biden still claims, without evidence, that a drunk driver killed his first wife.

Achilles said...

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Biden has been a Blowhard his entire life. Professional Blowhard.

Joe Biden is also a classic sexual predator.

Iman said...

How about a “fuck me to tears” tag, or maybe a “fuck me running” tag? Either one sounds wholly appropriate, as they best describe the fucking we’re getting for the fucking we got by this clownish, bankrupt media.

MeMySelf said...

His Fraudulency lies. He's lied for 47 years. Why would he change now?

Curious George said...

"BADuBois said...
Then: the Press were watchdogs."

When exactly was then?

Matt Sablan said...

Biden's stutter, that only earned any mention in the last few months, will be forever an explanation for things like we inherited zero vaccine processes, the treatment of the Uighurs is just a cultural difference, or Psaki is competent.

MadTownGuy said...

I'm in favor of fortuitous malapropisms:

Tour de farce
Pollutician
Crass roots rebellion
Preporting
Quip pro quo
Clique bait
...and so on.

Paul Zrimsek said...

Incidentally, this is the same number of Pinocchios they gave to Carly Fiorina for saying she'd started out as a secretary, when in fact she... started out as a secretary.

Lucien said...

Biden’s lie about how much he has traveled with Xi is not a malapropism — Kessler is lying when he says it is. (Or maybe he doesn’t really know what a malapropism is.)

BillieBob Thorton said...

Biden has always been a liar. He's still a liar. Just go with that.

Jupiter said...

Don't be so hard on Biden. All he meant is that he is a Fellow Traveler. Of course, he's actually a Useful Idiot, but close enough.

Jersey Fled said...

Biden still claims, without evidence, that a drunk driver killed his first wife.

BTW you should read the laughable Snopes take on this issue.

WARNING: Do not do so with coffee in your mouth.

gilbar said...

i'd rate the WaPo "fact checker" at One Pinocchio for this
I'd rate it as FOUR Pinocchios if the New York Post did the same for President Trump
THIS is their definition of unbiased journalism

howdydoody said...

This is amusing, one month into his term, Ann is calling for getting rid of him, even though he is exactly who we thought he would be. How's that "cruel neutrality" working out?

john burger said...

The Press covered for Biden during the run up to the election. Why is it surprising the Press is covering for him now?

jvb

Bob Boyd said...

This is what they fact check Biden on? Seriously?

Josephbleau said...

What I find hilarious is that Joe Biden was the only democrat in the nation who was considered normal enough to beat Trump. Biden and then Kamala’s rein will cement Democrat power for ever, but only if they pass the enabling legislation.

Matt Sablan said...

"This is what they fact check Biden on? Seriously?"

-- I bet they haven't even checked the Mario Kart scoreboard to see if he really won or not.

Rusty said...

Maybe Xi pays him by the mile.

gilbar said...

the REAL Surprise is:
WHY didn't the WaPo treat this the way Snopes.com does?

Your search did not yield any results. Your search terms may need to be revised, or we have not written an article on that topic.

Krumhorn said...

B-b-b-but B-b-b-biden m-m-means so well. Whereas, T-t-t-trump was a b-b-big m-m-meanie.

- Krumhorn

Lyle said...

He's traveled 17,000 miles with the new Hitler?

Gusty Winds said...

A group of Uighurs who were hog tied and ball gagged in a Chinese re-education camp were quite relieved to hear Biden claim that their suffering was just a Chi Comm cultural norm.

They mistakenly thought it was oppression and genocide.

Four boners for Joe!!

MikeR said...

Cool. He will never be branded with a lie because the fact checkers assume that he is an idiot.
Puts Trump's "thousands of lies" into context.
I especially like the one about cancelling student debt. He probably forgot the difference between billion and trillion. Whatever!

Mary Beth said...

Why are the papers still bothering fact checkers? They have become irrelevant. Time to learn to code.

Birches said...

I still can't believe the Obama people settled on him as their pick for the President. I guess they really just wanted to show all of us how stupid they think we are.

Lurker21 said...

Maybe he travelled 17,000 miles with his wife, Dr. She.

Mr. Forward said...

You get to subtract one Pinocchio if you believe your own BS.

Paul said...

As we all know... Biden is senile... and sooner or later he will have to be 'retired' by his own staff.. but until then Slow Joe will just babble on...

And not one Democrat will care.

Bob Boyd said...

Kessler's knuckles must have been sore when he went home after that day of hard-hitting journalism.

Paul said...

howdydoody said...

"This is amusing, one month into his term, Ann is calling for getting rid of him, even though he is exactly who we thought he would be. How's that "cruel neutrality" working out?"

She said she would not vote this time... but not voting is still, in a way, voting. And now Biden is HER president.

Paul said...

Do ya miss Trump yet?

narciso said...

Kessler took the first term of obama off, he learned his craft (redacting) arafat for the middle east bureau, he thought he would be the posts friedman thats prince ignatius gig.

Tommy Duncan said...

Joe has trouble with numbers.

It is clear that he doesn't understand the significance of decimal places. So $15.00 becomes $15,000.00 or famously $15,000,000.00.

A corollary to his problem with decimal places is that he does not comprehend the scale of numbers. That allows him to claim guns kill 150 million Americans every year.

Finally, he can't remember numbers. That causes him to just make stuff up to fill the gaps in his memory. That where "17,000 miles with Xi" comes from.

Inspiring traits in a US President, no?

GDI said...

Corrupt politicians fact checked by corrupt fact checkers ... bank robbers guarding the bank.

tcrosse said...

Costanza's Law: It's not a lie if you believe it.

iowan2 said...

Wow! I did not see that comming.

Stephen said...

“Fact-checkers” are like teachers who give high grades only to students who agree with their politics.

Levi Starks said...

Once you’ve seen the upstairs of the Whitehouse...

narciso said...

Actually id like a followup with nicolson bakers investigation into the wuhan institure after cigar store indian gave them 400 million dollars, for ajob well done?

Amexpat said...

Biden is an embarrassment. He sort of reminds me of Brian Williams. Both are affable, good looking guys with a regard for themselves that is much higher than their middling intellects justify. They both puff themselves up with false embellishments that they come to believe as the truth.

I had thought that Biden was suffering from serious cognitive decline. But he performed better in the debates than expected and has been able to give some OK speeches that show he can operate at an passable level for a political hack when he needs to.

His rambling and odd digressions now seem to me to be a personality issue rather than a cognitive one. Unbound from the pressures of the campaign, we're seeing Biden revert to his true self. He might even start sniffing female hair again.

Immanuel Rant said...

Democrats, for these fact checkers: misspeak, were mistaken, made a gaffe, need their statement put into context, were not as clear as possible, were only partially accurate, made a statistical mistake, were erroneous in part, failed to fully explain the context, were only partially accurate, were taken out of context, were not meant to be taken literally, were imprecise, were too vague, or -- most likely -- never mentioned by the fact checker.

Republicans: flip a coin - "mostly false" or "a lie on the level of Nazi propaganda."

Francisco D said...

Dust Bunny Queen said...Exaggerating and making big false statements while puffing up his puny chest and challenging people to do pushup contests or threatening to beat someone up behind the school bleachers. Typical chest beating from an insecure, inadequate, man (or woman) who secretly knows he is in over his head.

Wait a minute!

Isn't that how the Democrat media portrayed Trump?

PHenry said...

Fact checking Republicans means combing every word for a 'gotcha' moment.
Fact checking Democrats means spinning any blatant lies as mistakes or that people misunderstood.
And I have no reason to doubt Biden covered that many, and more, miles travelling with his fellow traveler Xi, he has a large family to support after all.

Whiskeybum said...

If he needs to be babied, get him out of the presidency.

Who is supposed to do this, the WaPo?

The only legitimate way* to have Biden out of the presidency is to use the power of your vote and not let him into the presidency.

*of course, there's the fake-controversy/impeachment way to attempt removal, but let's just put that by the side for the moment...

Kate said...

I don't know if the press write this kind of nonsense because they don't see their own bias or because they don't care. All I know is that our outrage doesn't open their eyes and it doesn't shame them to do better. We need a new tactic.

narciso said...

https://justthenews.com/government/federal-agencies/fbi-launched-urgent-investigation-nancy-pelosis-father-behest-jfk?amp&__twitter_impression=true

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

“To Save Time, The Babylon Bee Will Now Just Republish Everything Biden Says Verbatim“ - The Babylon Bee

Sebastian said...

"No Pinocchios assigned for any of that."

It's the pro-prog bigotry of low expectations.

"Biden gets graded on a curve."

And still he ended up, what, 76th out of 80 something at Syracuse?

"But Biden has repeated the assertion"

Right. If you are prog, you can shovel BS repeatedly.

"he spent hours in private talks with Xi, including outside the capital cities, on different occasions. Those are substantial bragging rights"

Bragging rights? WTF? Would it be too much to ask what Joe achieved in all those hours, besides cushy bribes for his son?

"Me, I'm trying to puzzle out why that gets 3 and not 4."

You are still so nice after all these years.

"Stop babying Biden!"

Why? It worked during the campaign, when even the most skeptical of the nice women could only bring herself to abstain, and it still works. Poor Joe, gotta cut him some slack, he's a recovering stutterer you know -- as one prog recently told me to my face.

"people must also be continually making use of other contextual information to interpret the meaning of utterances, and then modifying their understanding of each word's meaning based on those interpretations."

Right. So, how often did progs use such information accurately to make sense of Trumpisms? And how often do they dismiss it to protect Joe against perceptions of the absurdity of every obviously, contextually, utterly stupid thing he says?

I mean, what do you expect from the man who introduced his granddaughter as his dead son?

Big Mike said...

Stop babying Biden! He's the damned President. If he needs to be babied, get him out of the presidency.

Get him out of the presidency so ... what? Have you not noticed that Ms. Harris is every bit as allergic to the truth as Slow Joe? Ah, but at least then the presidency will be held by a woman — any woman! — so feminism!

I must admit that I was happier when Kessler was looking at statements from Trump that were perfectly true and giving them two Pinocchios because Trump! That was better for the country than when we have a President who tells obvious bullshit lies but gets only two or three Pinocchios because Democrat.

Ray - SoCal said...

Related:

Media trust hits new low - Axios

https://www.axios.com/media-trust-crisis-2bf0ec1c-00c0-4901-9069-e26b21c283a9.html?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=organic&utm_content=1100

narciso said...


Lol

https://babylonbee.com/news/biden-releases-skin-color-chart-to-determine-who-gets-federal-aid

Ralph L said...

All I know is that our outrage doesn't open their eyes and it doesn't shame them to do better. We need a new tactic.

Hard to believe it was only 33 years ago that they shamed Biden out of the race. Then Clinton proved shamelessness would win.

JAORE said...

I give Kessler a 4 Pinocchio rating.
Every f'ing day.

narciso said...

https://legalinsurrection.com/2021/02/prof-marc-lamont-hill-goal-of-black-lives-matter-is-to-dismantle-the-zionist-project/

farmgirl said...

Stop babying Biden! He's the damned President. If he needs to be babied, get him out of the presidency.

Why do u say things that u really don’t mean?

Joe Smith said...

Joe's marbles are not all present and accounted for.

You don't even have to call it a lie if it offends your liberal sensibilities.

Just call it 'wrong.' He made wrong statements.

Or go the George Costanza route, 'It's not a lie if you believe it.'

Charlie said...

Little known fact: Hunter got all of Joe's frequent flier miles!

wildswan said...

How many facts would a fact checker chuck if a fact checker would chuck facts. A fact checker would chuck as many facts as the Democrats need chucked.

narciso said...

Cover them, with a pillow, until it stops moving.

Meade said...

I'm giving Dr. Seuss a Pinocchio for having never earned his EdD.

Joe Smith said...

"Imagine the IQ level and idiocy of people that actually tuned in to watch Biden and Cooper soil the Pabst Theater."

I know some very smart (intellectually) people who voted for this drooling idiot.

It is shocking that anyone so smart can be so dumb.

Matt Sablan said...

"Or go the George Costanza route, 'It's not a lie if you believe it.'"

-- That and "Was that wrong?" are some of the best Seinfeld moments.

Sam L. said...

A WaPoo "fact checker" who told the truth would be consigned to the deeeeeeeeeeeepest dungeon in Hell.

John Althouse Cohen said...

I agree that it's hard to see why this didn't get 4 instead of 3. But to play devil's advocate, the definition of 3 starts with "Significant factual error." So they can give a 3 to a numerically inaccurate statement, even if the number is way off. 4 is reserved for "whoppers," and there's no further explanation of 4. They might want to be selective and err on the side of giving 3 rather than 4, to save 4 for statements that not only are inaccurate but also fundamentally misrepresent the basic nature of what happened. Kessler's saying you could loosely interpret the number of miles "traveled ... with" someone to include all of your travel spent traveling to or from that person ... and by that measure it should be 28,000 instead of 17,000, so that makes Biden seem like he was being too modest! That isn't how I would've interpreted or rated Biden's false statement, and I agree we should watch out for the Washington Post to go easier on fact-checks of Biden than of Trump. And Biden's weaknesses in public speaking shouldn't be used as an excuse. But I can at least understand Kessler's approach in this case (it isn't keeping my puzzler sore).

henge2243 said...

Does anyone really consider Slow Joe to be President? dr. Jill called a lid yesterday at 8 am. Probably the same for today. Browsing Memeorandum.com and there are no stores about Slow Joe or the White House. I guess he can’t even be bothered to make that long walk from his residence to his office due to the inclement weather.

Imagine being anyone of the politicians who lost to this dullard, it must really sting to see the coverage of him by the media.

Ken B said...

“ get him out of the presidency.”

1 Be careful what you wish for
2 They seem to have already started. Viz, Harris doing some of his phone calls to foreign leaders like Trudeau or Macron (and who knows who else).
3 They will coddle Harris ten times more. The charade is going to get worse.

Ken B said...

Kessler takes the time to respond, but not to the substantive point, just to point out he recycles his cliches. Gotcha.

MayBee said...

What does it say about Biden that absolutely nobody treats him like a man with his full mental capacities.

They all know. They don't care. They've proven it over and over.

Ken B said...

Albert Einstein, Louis Pasteur, and Jill Biden walk into a bar.
“Call me Al.”
“Call me Louis.”
“Call me Doctor.”

Dude1394 said...

How else can you grade a cabbage, except on a curve.

Meade said...

"2 They seem to have already started. Viz, Harris doing some of his phone calls to foreign leaders like Trudeau or Macron (and who knows who else)."

Yes well Harris has already traveled, oh, (for convenience, we'll just round this off ) 17,000 miles with Trudeau and Macron.

And that's a... fact. Literally, virtually, 17,000 miles.

Meade said...

"Kessler takes the time to respond, but not to the substantive point, just to point out he recycles his cliches. Gotcha."

And what is the substantive point — the essential substantive factual point. It's that:

Addressing a CNN town hall event on Tuesday, President Biden said he would stand up for human rights in China. But, he immediately added, Americans should recognize that “culturally, there are different norms that each country, and their leaders, are expected to follow.”

These were ill-chosen words. Especially since Biden had just identified the top three human rights abuses that define Communist China as its repression of Hong Kong, its threat to use force to subjugate Taiwan, and its genocidal campaign against the Uighur people.


https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/editorials/xi-stoops-to-conquer-biden?utm_source=breaking_push&utm_medium=app&utm_campaign=push_notifications

Skeptical Voter said...

Occam's Razor; Biden was never very smart, but now he's got a head full of mush.

Sebastian said...

Upthread, we get this:

"Biden's weaknesses in public speaking"

Ah, yes, "weaknesses." Fortunately just in "public speaking."

A recovering stutterer, you see.

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

When I'm graftin', yes I know I'm gonna be
I'm gonna be the man who's gettin' graft fom Xi
And when the money, comes in for the graft I do
I'll pass almost every penny on to me

But I would walk 17,000 miles
And I would walk 17,000 more
Just to be the man who walks 34,000 miles
To fall down at Xi's door

Da da da (da da da)
Da da da (da da da)

Da Da Da Dun Diddle Un Diddle Un Diddle Uh Da Da


Apologies to The Proclaimers....

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

when biden lies - it's a gaffe.

when trump tells the truth - it's a lie.

Matt Sablan said...

“Culturally there are different norms that each country and their leaders are expected to follow,” he continued.

-- "Be it so. This [[repression of religious minorities]] is your [[norm]]; prepare the [[camps]]. But my nation has also a custom. When [[countries oppress religious minorities]] we [[enforce sanctions and worse on them]] .. Let us all act according to [[cultural norms]]."

Yancey Ward said...

I am quite sure Xi has spent considerable amounts of time traveling to and traveling with all his concubines.

Yancey Ward said...

It will be best for the country if Harris becomes the president ASAP. You cannot have a leader who can't be trusted to wipe his own ass without fucking it up.

MadisonMan said...

It's different when the lying McLyerson is a Democrat.

Earnest Prole said...

This is the same Glenn Kessler who puffed and plumped in order to be able to say “Trump’s false or misleading claims total 30,573 over 4 years,” then somehow forgot how to count once Biden took office.

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

Yancey Ward said...

It will be best for the country if Harris becomes the president ASAP. You cannot have a leader who can't be trusted to wipe his own ass without fucking it up.

And you're 100% positive that Harris is that competent?

narciso said...

no it wouldn't, I linked the whole emhoff menagerie from trevor loudon, a few days ago,

Greg The Class Traitor said...

Stop babying Biden! He's the damned President. If he needs to be babied, get him out of the presidency.

You're so cute.

Seriously?

Obama was babied for 8+ years. Cuomo was babied until Trump was gone, and some other NY Democrats decided they wanted to take him out of their way.

The Lincoln Project was babied until Trump was gone.

The NYT, WaPo, and all the rest are propaganda organizations, not news reporters. Why do you pretend otherwise?

Bob Boyd said...

I award 4 cock holsters to Biden for going above and beyond in making himself available to Xi.

Greg The Class Traitor said...

David Begley said...
Too late to get Biden out. He will cling to the throne for a long time. Even after Kamala executes her 25th Amendment coup, he won’t leave. The FBI will have to evict Joe and Dr. Jill from the WH.

1: It's not Joe who will cling, it's Jill
2: 25th Amendment takes a 2/3 vote in Congress. Why would Republicans vote to replace Joe with Kamala?

She is an amoral hard core left wing scum bag. She's certainly no better than Joe. Why shouldn't' the GOP negotiate w/ Jill, and let her stay "First Lady" so long as she reins in the worst of the Left?

By all means, let's let Genocide Joe, the demented hair sniffer, be the face of the Democrat Party for the next 4 years

Lurker21 said...

The "fact checkers" have been promoted to "what Joe really means explainers."

The new position comes with a pay raise but less job security.

The answer usually turns out to be "Joe just gets like that sometimes."

Lurker21 said...

Journalists have their hands full with the real stories: Ted Cruz's trip, Ted Cruz's poodle, Ted Cruz's potbelly.

Yancey Ward said...

Fact checkers- those who suck the cocksucker's cock.

Lurker21 said...

But I would walk 17,000 miles
And I would walk 17,000 more


From the original song:

And if I haver, hey, I know I'm gonna be
I'm gonna be the man who's havering to you


"Haver" is a Scots word meaning "to babble or talk nonsense." Some Americans use it to mean "to hem and haw" (probably from the closeness to "waver"). Either definition works for Biden (and Psaki).

P.S. Um, almost the entire Scots Wikipedia was written by someone with no idea of the language – 10,000s of articles

gahrie said...

2: 25th Amendment takes a 2/3 vote in Congress. Why would Republicans vote to replace Joe with Kamala?

She is an amoral hard core left wing scum bag. She's certainly no better than Joe. Why shouldn't' the GOP negotiate w/ Jill, and let her stay "First Lady" so long as she reins in the worst of the Left?

By all means, let's let Genocide Joe, the demented hair sniffer, be the face of the Democrat Party for the next 4 years


That may be politically astute, and personally satisfying, but it is irresponsible and the wrong thing to do. The safety and security of our nation are too important to fuck around with, a lesson I wish the Left would learn.

gahrie said...

It will be best for the country if Harris becomes the president ASAP. You cannot have a leader who can't be trusted to wipe his own ass without fucking it up.

And you're 100% positive that Harris is that competent?


If she's not, and personally I don't think she is, the sooner we find out about it and fix it, the better.

At this point my hope is that things get so fucked up the next two years that the Republicans take control of congress in 2022.

alfromchgo said...

Joe to China. (with an apology to Dr S)

“I meant what I said and I said what I meant.
An elephant's faithful one-hundred percent!”

gbarto said...

For those who criticize Ann's still reading the NYT and WaPo, not only is she kind enough to do it that we don't have to, but increasingly there's that Alinskyite element: Making them live up to their own book of rules.

JaimeRoberto said...

I've fact checked WaPo's fact checks in the database of Trump's lies, and in my sample well over half were not lies at all. For example, Trump stated that millions had received vaccines. It was true. WaPo rated it false because it was short of the goal of 20 million. WaPo counted this as a lie multiple times.

Skippy Tisdale said...

Joe Biden's theme song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhK7ZylXTs0

hstad said...


Blogger gbarto said...
"For those who criticize Ann's still reading the NYT and WaPo, not only is she kind enough to do it that we don't have to, but increasingly there's that Alinskyite element: Making them live up to their own book of rules." 2/19/21, 12:44 PM

True! But you forgot one important point. By Ann giving them free air time it enhances the NY Times via clicks. Sorry, I once was a proud reader of the NY Times when I lived in NYC but they have no creditability and push political lies. Funny, they fired 'Jason Blair' for making up stuff - who will fire the NY Times. AA's reporting is just a habit from her academic years - maybe as a former Liberal.

Leland said...

And that's a... fact. Literally, virtually, 17,000 miles.

Actually, that is essentially, partially, a true statement because it was literally written.

Mike of Snoqualmie said...

Trump kicked Putin's but with low oil prices, sanctions, Iran sanctions and killing 300 Russian mercenaries. Trump could speak nicely and politely to Putin. The MSM, of course, said that Trump was Putin's patsy while ignoring Trump's tough policies. Liberals always ate that commentary up.

Joe "Malvolio" Biden, on the other hand, is jacking up oil prices, cozying up to Iran and instructing the Navy to emphasize "equity" rather than preparedness. Putin's laughing his head off. Malvolio must talk tough to hide his weakness. Liberal lap this stuff up.

It doesn't matter whether Malvolio traveled 1 mile or 17,000 miles with Xi, what matters is Malvolio was able to collect Xi's payoffs on the trip. That's all that's important to Malvolio. Selling out the USA for his 30 pieces of silver.

Joe Smith said...

@AA...the Brady video preview shows up in this story.

I've mentioned it before and it probably is a minor issue...

Just weird.

Nonapod said...

idiosyncrasies of the Biden brain

I think for your typical MSM journalist the view must be put forth the "Biden brain" is a great idiosyncratic puzzle, a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma. Often times such a great brain is cluttered and clouded, but every so often the clouds part and great and good wisdom is imparted to the proles. All the blithering, stammering, half-truths, may be excused somewhat, because he's clearly so well intentioned.

tim in vermont said...

If they had any shame, it would be hard. But they don’t.

n.n said...

A WaPoo "fact checker" who told the truth would be consigned to the deeeeeeeeeeeepest dungeon in Hell.

Planned Parent/hood, where they abort life deemed unworthy of life, a "burden" to social progress h/t Obama, cannibalize profitable parts h/t #CecileTheCannibal, and sequester her carbon pollutants h/t Green. Demos-cracy dies in darkness... a black hole... whore h/t NAACP, the Twilight Fringe, underwritten by WaPo et al.

Leland said...

For those who criticize Ann's still reading the NYT and WaPo, not only is she kind enough to do it that we don't have to, but increasingly there's that Alinskyite element: Making them live up to their own book of rules.

I'll also add that she's paying to do this and help keep us informed of what they are doing. I consider that a valuable service. I wish others wouldn't conflate keeping us informed with advocacy for what the NYT and WaPo write.

Narr said...

FWIW I get videos cross-embedded from thread to thread also. It's been going on for a week or more.

Narr
But I'm a survivor

Browndog said...

Blogger gbarto said...

For those who criticize Ann's still reading the NYT and WaPo, not only is she kind enough to do it that we don't have to, but increasingly there's that Alinskyite element: Making them live up to their own book of rules.


Fine.

Why is she publishing the works of a self-described "hack" in Kessler???? (DNC eamils)

Rabel said...

It's obvious that Kessler is focusing on the relatively meaningless 17,000 mile factoid to avoid giving a rating on the multiple misstatements Biden made during the recent "townhall."

Kessler wrote this :

"During his recent town hall on CNN, President Biden made a number of mistaken claims and assertions. He suggested racehorse owners receive tax breaks worth $9 billion, almost enough to pay for free attendance at community college — a claim that left tax experts scratching their heads. He said that the $7.25 minimum wage set in 2009 would be worth $20 if indexed for inflation, a statement that only makes sense if you are measuring from 1968. He wrongly stated that “vast majority” of undocumented immigrants were not Hispanic."

None of those bizarre errors/lies drew a truth rating, but Kessler can now say that he has covered the townhall which exposed Biden's minimal mental competency and we can move on.

He focuses your attention on the meaningless to distract you from the meaningful.

He told you to turn you attention to the cute little squirrel and turn you did.

rcocean said...

Good ol' Mrs. Malaprop:

1) "We will not anticipate the past, our retrospection will now be all to the future."
2) "The pineapple of politeness" (Instead of "pinnacle of politeness.")
3) "She's as headstrong as an allegory on the banks of the Nile" (Instead of "alligator on the banks of the Nile.")

rcocean said...

My first thought was that Mrs. Malaprop was from Dickens, but no, its Sheridan. Did Dickens have someone similar?

Anyway, I care more about that then our Thief-in-Chief. The senile mobster who stole an election. Let him resign, and let harris take over. Its not like the Democrats care. You could put "Fake Moderate Joe from WV" or AOC, and they'd approve. As long as its a "D" - they don't care.

Yancey Ward said...

Rabel explains exactly what Kessler was doing here, and Kessler was doing it intentionally. He couldn't explain away most of the "mistakes", so he picked the easiest target so that he wouldn't have to while being able to claim he did his assigned job.

I personally think these aren't lies Biden is telling- he simply doens't have a grasp on reality on any longer. He really is George Costanza- he believes all of it.

jg said...

Dementia-adjusted Pinocchios.

Yancey Ward said...

Yeah, but if you as a politician claim Biden is suffering from dementia, Kessler will be sure to assign you 4 pinocchios.

Matt Sablan said...

Honestly, we knew these fact checks weren't going to be serious when all the reports about not having a lie counter for Biden like Trump, and how we'd need to shift our focus to the minority Legislative party for fact checking, because that's what true journalism is -- afflicting the out of power while protecting the in power.

Night said...

It's important to teach about lies. What is a lie and what isn't? Are some lies ok?

The kids are watching and learning.

We see that hyperbole, confidentiality, irony, sarcasm, and exaggeration by Trump were portrayed as lies of the worst order. Dwarfing the few times he actually did lie.

Biden plays video games. All is good. Very Pollyannaish.

tomaig said...

Jim Treacher nailed it -
Modern journalism is all about deciding which facts the public shouldn't know because they might reflect badly on Democrats "

Gospace said...

Greg The Class Traitor said...
David Begley said...
Too late to get Biden out. He will cling to the throne for a long time. Even after Kamala executes her 25th Amendment coup, he won’t leave. The FBI will have to evict Joe and Dr. Jill from the WH.

1: It's not Joe who will cling, it's Jill
2: 25th Amendment takes a 2/3 vote in Congress. Why would Republicans vote to replace Joe with Kamala?


They shouldn’t. Democrats and the media, but I repeat myself, propped Biden up knowing he was incapable of performing the duties of the presidency. An enormous number of people voted for Biden knowing the same thing. Fewer people than votes counted, but that’s another issue entirely. We can live with an incompetent POTUS until he actually dies or is replaced in 2023. The only way out for Democrats should be to get him to resign, and I can’t envision Doctor Jill leaving him alone long enough for that to happen.

Watching his blunders for the next year and a half ought do wonders for Republicans in the midterm elections. Another 2 years of bumbling should bring about President Noem with both senate and house controlled by Republicans. Hopefully the Rinos will e gone, like my congresscritter Katko.

Rosalyn C. said...

Looking at the pictures of those two leaders, one looks a lot more intelligent than the other. Guess which one?

Reading Xi's bio I learned he was born into the Chinese Communist Party hierarchy, worked on a farm in a Chinese village, has a degree in Chemical Engineering, served in the military, and even lived with a family in Iowa, among other things.

Rabel said...

"We can live with an incompetent POTUS until he actually dies or is replaced in 2023."

You underestimate the damage that can be done by the most powerful man in the world, the CinC of the most powerful military in history, and a man who is followed around by another man with a small suitcase containing the means to destroy civilization with a command from that incompetent, addle-brained, prone to anger President.

Josephbleau said...

Giving Biden fewer pinocchios is an example of the soft prejudice of lower expectations.

Josephbleau said...

"You underestimate the damage that can be done by the most powerful man in the world,"

Our emperor has no clothes, and the lady Secret Service Agents have to watch, that's what makes America great. The evil of genocide is a matter of culture, what if Nazi culture approved the genocide of certain groups? We need a President who is willing to take his personal enemies out behind the gym and beat them, and let children in the pool rub his blonde hairy legs. We need a President who did not do anything to Tara Reid.

But, what me worry? This way is much more entertaining than the Kamala show. I don't want a President who strives, I want one who is befuddled into nothingness. That's what America wants.

Tinderbox said...

You're just now noticing that Biden is a liar and buffoon who mouth-farts out every random fantasy that happens to float through his head? Many of us have realized this for decades.

Greg The Class Traitor said...

Rabel said...
"We can live with an incompetent POTUS until he actually dies or is replaced in 2023."

You underestimate the damage that can be done by the most powerful man in the world, the CinC of the most powerful military in history, and a man who is followed around by another man with a small suitcase containing the means to destroy civilization with a command from that incompetent, addle-brained, prone to anger President.


You underestimate the damage that can be done by Kamala Harris

The Gipper Lives said...

"During his recent town hall on CNN, President Biden made a number of mistaken claims and assertions."

There is no "President Biden". Only China's Colonial Governor of a criminal Government of Occupation.

The mileage with Xi is actually too low--since Biden is in his pocket everywhere Xi goes.

DeepRunner said...

Ann Althouse said:
"Stop babying Biden! He's the damned President. If he needs to be babied, get him out of the presidency."

Yep, Kessler is like so many in journalism. Give Muttering Joe a pass even though he's been a lying, steaming pile of bravo sierra his whole life. As to your statement, Madame La Professeur, don't worry. Camel-uh will be "President" soon enough, just ask her. The 25th-Amendment fix is in for Old Catholic Joe from Scranton.

Tina Trent said...

WaPo relies in many ways on U. Penn Annenberg to do their fact checking: Annenberg actively concealed and openly lied about the Ayers/Obama facts in 2008 along with burying other ties Obama had with murderous terrorist such as Jeff Jones. They are a protection racket, not a fact-checking journalism clinic. They should be audited by actually neutral professionals and then disbanded as an academic department. Their behavior is that bad.