CNN fact-checker ignores Biden's false claims from Georgia voting speech, continuing trend

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Media top headlines January 18

In media news today, CNN’s Paul Begala says Democrats don’t have ‘bad leaders,’ they have ‘bad followers,’ CDC Director Rochelle Walensky admits to poor messaging on COVID guidance, and Spotify remains silent after Joe Rogan critics call for change to prevent COVID ‘misinformation.’

CNN's Daniel Dale didn't fact-check false statements President Biden made last week in Georgia as he aggressively pushed Democratic voting bills, continuing a trend from the outlet's chief arbiter of truth.

Other outlets such as the Washington Post, PolitiFact, and The Dispatch noted Biden made several misleading or false statements in his speech in fact-check articles; the Post and PolitiFact specifically labeled his claim to have once been "arrested" during a civil rights protest as false, and PolitiFact and The Dispatch also said Biden's claim that former President Trump voted by mail in 2020 was too broad, since Trump voted in-person in the general election that year after voting by mail in the primary.

But Dale, who rose to prominence for fact-checking Trump, has had little to say on Biden lately except to tweet out his public daily schedule. He didn't post an article last week about Biden's fiery voting speech, where the president lambasted opponents of proposed Democratic voting overhauls as akin to segregationists.

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CNN fact checker Daniel Dale (CNN screengrab)

Dale, whom CNN hired away from the Toronto Star in 2019 because of his Trump fact-checking, hasn't authored a fact-check of Biden since Dec. 5. According to Dale's online profile, he hit Biden that day for telling an "inaccurate" story about a 1973 meeting with then-Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir.

"CNN hired this guy from a Toronto newspaper because they loved his anti-Trump energy," said Tim Graham of the conservative Media Research Center. "That's his brand, that's what excited them. He can't shift that energy to Biden. It feels like switching teams."

Since that time, Dale has posted fact-checks on Georgia Republican gubernatorial candidate David Perdue, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, the conservative Club for Growth Action PAC, right-wing figures discussing an out-of-context ABC News clip of CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky, Republican Ohio Senate candidate J.D. Vance, and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. 

Dale's Twitter bio states his job is "fact-checking the president and others."

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President Joe Biden (Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)

His most recent piece: dinging Republicans attempting to make a point about voter ID laws who said citizens of Washington, D.C., needed ID or proof of vaccination to leave their homes or buy milk. Dale conceded "the policy requires people age 18 or older to show photo ID and proof of vaccination when entering certain indoor establishments: restaurants, bars, food halls and food courts, nightclubs, breweries, entertainment venues, exercise facilities and meeting facilities," but grocery stores were exempt. 

"So glad we could devote our fact-checking resources to this important distinction," wrote Fourth Watch newsletter editor Steve Krakauer, who noted on Monday Dale's lengthy break from pressing Biden. "Fact-checks have become a fetish for many in the media, and their superfans on Twitter. But these fact-check fails undermine their very purpose - and make the audience more distrustful of the press."

Dale's only posted fact-check of a liberal figure since Dec. 5 was of Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, over her false remarks earlier this month about the hospitalizations of children from coronavirus.

On CNN's fact-check page, none of the four stories currently listed under the "Biden White House" section as of Tuesday concern statements made by Biden or his administration. Instead, they fact-check social media users wrongly claiming Betty White got a coronavirus vaccine booster shortly before she died, Republicans still not acknowledging Biden's legitimacy, "enduring lies about the Capitol insurrection," and news websites misreporting a story about former Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.  

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Dale's television exposure has decreased accordingly in the Biden era, as well. According to a Grabien Media search, since October appearances to fact-check a Biden town hall on CNN, he only appeared one day the rest of the year, on Nov. 15 to discuss a fake video about vaccination cards. He made several appearances this month around CNN's Capitol riot anniversary coverage.

In the first year of Biden's presidency, his full name has been mentioned on CNN 86 times including reruns. In the final year of Trump's presidency, it was mentioned 334 times, nearly four times more often.

Although Trump has been out of office for a year, Dale's CNN page still boasts he "was the first journalist to fact-check every false statement from President Donald Trump."

"Dale has the same disease as the media in general: fact-checking Biden energetically could create the impression that he might resemble Donald Trump in some way, so the checks should be avoided," Graham told Fox News Digital.

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Dale didn't return a request for comment.