Misinforming NY Times Reporter Finds ‘Misinformation…Lies’ in GOP Campaign Emails

New York Times political reporter Maggie Astor had a pretty galling story on the front of Tuesday’s Business section, where she criticized apparently dangerous falsehoods lurking in Republican campaign emails: “Now in Your Inbox: Political Misinformation.”

However, her main example of an eminent Republican was disappointing.

A few weeks ago Representative Dan Crenshaw (a Texas Republican), was in the House. falsely claimed that the centerpiece of President Biden’s domestic agenda, a $1.75 trillion bill to battle climate change and extend the nation’s social safety net, would include Medicare for all.

It doesn’t, and never has. But few noticed Mr. Crenshaw’s lie because he didn’t say it on Facebook, or on Fox News. Crenshaw instead sent the falsified message via fund-raising emails directly to his supporters and constituents.

Campaign emails can’t be trusted for 100% factual accuracy, and the Times Is on it!

The New York Times signed-up in August to receive the campaigns lists for 390 Senators and Representatives running for reelection in 2022. They also read over 2,500 emails to see how many misleading and false statements were used to fill their political coffers.

You’ll never guess which party the TimesMore misleading.

….Republicans used misinformation more frequently than Democrats, with around 15 percent of messages containing misleading information, as opposed to just 2 percent for Democrats.

A brazen distortion of the potential settlement between migrants and their families in Trump’s administration was sent by at least eight Republican lawmakers to fund-raising email. One of them, Senator John Kennedy, Republican of Louisiana, falsely claimed that President Biden was “giving every illegal immigrant that comes into our country $450,000.”

These claims are based on news reports that the Justice Department was in negotiations to pay settlements for lawsuits brought by immigrant families whose children were separated by the Trump administration. Some of these families have never been reunited. But the payments, which are not final and could end up being smaller, would be limited to that small fraction of migrants.

So….it’s technically not false yet? It’s their favorite way to say “False”, because it means that something is still in an oven. 

After a couple of paragraphs devoted to “The relatively small number of false statements from Democrats…mostly about abortion…” it was back to the meat of the matter.

The emails reviewed by The Times illuminate how ubiquitous misinformation has become among Republicans, fueled in large part by former President Donald J. Trump….

Look over here, Big Tech! Pry into people’s private messages!

They also highlighted how, in spite of all the attempts to make platforms like Twitter and Facebook address falsities, similar claims flow freely through other channels, with very little notice.

Astor’s attack was even weaker when she tried to defend the Biden Administration equating concerned parents with domestic terrorists.

“Parents are simply protesting a radical curriculum in public schools, and Biden wants the parents labeled terrorists,” read an email from Representative Jake LaTurner of Kansas. “Will you consider donating now to help us fight back against this disgusting abuse of power?”

Astor said:

“This misinformation…emerged after Attorney General Merrick Garland sent a memorandum on Oct. 4 directing the F.B.I. to respond to threats made against school employees and school board members. (Some opponents of curriculums and pandemic protocols have sent death threats, vandalized homes and otherwise acted menacingly.) The memo explicitly distinguished between dissent and threats, and did not call anyone a domestic terrorist….”

Astor, who is a loose-minded individual, has spread misinformation frequently in the media. Times, falsely claiming that calling Vice President Kamala Harris “phony” or “condescending” was both sexist and racist, as Astor did in her defenses of Harris before the election.

Astor got heat for cowriting a story that stated as fact the dubious proposition that “Transgender women of color led the uprising at the Stonewall Inn 51 years ago….” It required a correction.

Also, you can call Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin a “conservative” truly was misinformation.

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