In an effort to fact check President Donald Trump, The Washington Post’s fact check team wrote an article criticizing his tweets on the stock market– not because they were incorrect, but because Trump has not addressed previously held concerns regarding inflation and the stock market overall.
WaPo’s “About The Fact Checker” section explains that it is “interested only in verifiable facts, though on occasion we may examine the roots of political rhetoric.”
On one of these seemingly frequent occasions, WaPo decided to give Trump an “Upside-Down Pinocchio” on a tweet of his from Monday.
Stock Market could hit all-time high (again) 22,000 today. Was 18,000 only 6 months ago on Election Day. Mainstream media seldom mentions!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 1, 2017
The upside-down Pinocchio rating is defined as, “A statement that represents a clear but unacknowledged ‘flip-flop’ from a previously-held position.”
In the past, Trump has voiced concerns that the stock market was bloated and if interest rates rose “even a little bit, that’s going to come crashing down.”
WaPo criticized Trump for touting the stock market’s all-time high numbers because he “has never explained his shift in position on the stock market, especially now that the Fed has raised interest rates three times since he was elected.”
So, according to WaPo, the fact that is being checked –the thing Trump said that was incorrect or misleading– is the mere fact that Trump has not recently addressed his opinion on inflation and other concerns about the stock market. That is apparently enough to warrant a negative fact-check rating.
Complaining that someone has not explained something is clearly not a fact check. The article would perhaps fit more aptly in the op-ed section of the site.
[contentcards url=”http://dailycaller.com/2017/08/02/the-washington-post-struggles-with-the-difference-between-an-op-ed-and-a-fact-check/” target=”_blank”]Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact [email protected].