We tried to file this complaint weeks ago, but the International Fact-Checking Network’s interface for reporting complaints was broken. At last:
An Alleged Debunking Debunked, Yet No Correction
Dear IFCN folks,
A Dec. 8, 2022 fact check published by Snopes.com closed with a false statement. I sent a correction request refuting the claim, and Snopes neither acknowledged the correction request nor made any correction.
Snopes’ failure to correct the rather obvious error would violate the IFCN code calling for scrupulous observance of an open and honest corrections policy.
Summary:
The Snopes fact check evaluated an alleged line from the Ashley Biden diary. Snopes’ made a reasonable determination that the quotation lacked sufficient evidence to treat the quotation as real, if we forgive the error common to many fact checkers of using the appeal to ignorance fallacy as though it counts as proof of something. But, at the tail end of the fact check, Snopes claimed a PolitiFact fact check debunked claims that statements from the FBI confirm the authenticity of the diary:
Note: In regard to the alleged authenticity of the diary itself, some have claimed that the FBI has issued statements confirming it is real. Fact-checking website PolitiFact has debunked this claim, issuing a rating of “False.”
In fact, the PolitiFact fact check paralleled the Snopes fact check by treating another claimedpassage from the diary.
The headline and deck address the alleged contents of the diary, not the diary itself. Moreover, the fact check says nothing debunking the claim the FBI confirmed the authenticity of the diary. Rather, the PolitiFact fact check reports, accurately, that the FBI declined to name the author of the stolen diary when it brought its case against the two (now confessed) thieves.
But at the same time, PolitiFact’s story acknowledges that news reports commonly reported that Ashley Biden was the owner of the stolen diary.
How did the news services know that?
They knew because the FBI left an Ashley Biden shaped hole in its reporting of the facts about the diary. Bringing the case against the Florida pair and raiding Project Veritas confirm, albeit not in so many words, that Ashley Biden was the owner of the diary.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/pair-plead-guilty-stealing-ashley-bidens-diary-selling/story?id=88849834
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/08/25/guilty-trafficking-ashley-biden-diary-00053770
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/2-florida-residents-plead-guilty-theft-ashley-bidens-diary-rcna44840
https://www.reuters.com/legal/two-plead-guilty-theft-sale-biden-daughter-ashleys-diary-2022-08-25/
https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2022-08-25/2-plead-guilty-in-scheme-to-sell-bidens-daughters-diary
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ashley-biden-diary-scheme-two-plead-guilty/
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/05/us/politics/project-veritas-investigation-ashley-biden-diary.html
The Florida pair said it was Ashley Biden’s diary, and the FBI said it was “personal property from an immediate family member of a candidate for national political office.” So it could have been the property of any immediate family member of a candidate for national political office?
That’s confirmation enough for mainstream news journalists, but not the circumspect fact checkers?
If the FBI never brought its case, then significant doubt would have lingered as to whether the diary was authentic.
Thanks to the FBI, there’s no reasonable doubt remaining.
If the fact checkers were sincere in their conviction that the owner of the diary remains unconfirmed, then we might have expected them to fact check the (many) mainstream journalists who claimed the diary belonged to Ashley Biden.
So, the FBI’s actions implicitly confirmed the diary was Ashley Biden’s and there exists no PolitiFact fact check giving a “False” rating to the claim the FBI confirmed it was Ashley Biden’s diary. As with the Snopes fact check, PolitiFact was looking at a claim regarding alleged contents of the diary. That’s the claim that received the “False” rating. The claim at the end of the Snopes fact check is plainly false.
I sent a correction request to Snopes on July 16, 2023. To date, Snopes has not acted to correct its false statement and has not acknowledged the correction request. That violates Snopes’ commitment to the IFCN Code of Principles stipulating scrupulous adherence to an open and honest corrections policy.
Thanks for your attention to this matter.