The Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency seems to spend a fair amount of resources on fact checking — in an era of lies and mega-lies (or is that MAGA-lies), quality fact checking is more important than ever.
Still, you can't fact-check everything from the firehose of nonsense that is the internet — every organization has finite resources and has to employ them judiciously.
That's why I'd love to know the decision-making process that led to a fact-check with this headline:
"Biden did not die in 2020, as posts online claim"
… and with this opening graf:
Joe Biden is alive and well, despite a conspiracy theory that the US president died in 2020 and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
There is so much world-changing misinformation out there and AFP wants to clear up whether Biden died four years ago? Did this fact checker just say "OK, boss, I'll look into it?" Or did he curse the gods that he ever agreed to take this job?
He goes on to at least pretend to take this seriously and helpfully explain:
If Biden had been laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery, there would be a public record of his burial.
Thank you for clearing that up, AFP. I feel much better informed.
