3 February 2021 17:47 ET
Photo:
denis charlet / Agence France-Presse / Getty Images
From “Lincoln High School and the Latest Fact-Checking Pitfalls” by Kalev Leetrau, RealClearPolitics.com, February 2:
On December 16, Not the Bee, which describes itself as a “news-based news, opinion and entertainment website”, shared on its Instagram account a photo of Abraham Lincoln titled “San Francisco named ABRAHAM LINCOLN High School” renamed because – I swear it is real – ‘He did not show that black lives ever mattered to him.’ ‘Four days later, Facebook Today, a fact-checking partner USA Today (which receives funding from Facebook), published a fact check and pronounced the verdict that it was’ Missing Context ‘, meaning that anyone who has looked at the Instagram post since then has seen a large red warning label:’ Missing context. Independent fact checkers say information in this post may deceive people. ”
In its fact-checking, USA Today confirmed that all the details of the Instagram post, including the quote, were absolutely correct. Why then did it indicate it as misleading? In the newspaper’s words, “It is true that a renaming committee has included Abraham Lincoln High School in a list of 44 schools whose namesakes meet the renaming criteria. However, the committee has not yet finalized its recommendations, and the school board has not yet voted on the name changes – it is not accurate at this time to say that the school will be renamed. ”
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In the print edition appears on February 4, 2021 as’ Remarkable and Quotable: ‘Facts’.