Caught In A Lie: How A TikTok Journalist Successfully Fact-Checked The GOP SOTU Rebuttal
Republicans lie.
All the damn time. By now, it's second nature to them. They are so detached from the truth that they simply spout off narratives that appeal to their base's preconceived notions and ideas about the world. It's no coincidence that Republicans began to adopt this strategy during the Obama years when America's first Black president was in office. Obama wasn't a Muslim. He wasn't born in Kenya. He didn't pal around with Saul Alinsky. The Affordable Care Act did not create death panels. An entire industry of lies was created for one simple reason: to diminish the accomplishments of the country's first Black president.
The emergence of Donald Trump in 2015 brought their lies to a whole nother level. While Trump's lies are well-documented, his party has done nothing to correct those lies and instead has helped amplify them. They don't even see them as lies. The most egregious example is Kellyanne Conway calling them "alternative facts" a designation so egregious that even Chuck Todd was forced to give pushback. Seeing the media's submissiveness in calling a lie a lie, Republicans have used the Trump era to gaslight the American people by trying to convince them that their lies were truths and vice-versa. Their goal was to flood the airwaves so that the media wouldn't be able to capture and correct their lies in real-time. Despite media outlets like CNN bringing on political fact-checkers like Daniel Dale, the sheer volume of lies and manipulation became so overwhelming that networks eventually gave up and ended up providing free airtime for Republican guests to spew their lies and misinformation with no consequences for having done so.
In time, this misinformation became weaponized. In the years since Trump was elected, Republicans have capitalized on their monopoly of conservative television media and radio. They have social media influencers like Tomi Lahren, Charlie Kirk, and Matt Walsh gushing hate day in and day out. They have the annual Conservative Political Action Committee conference that draws the dregs of Republican society into a world where up is down and left is right. Each interview, each panel, each conference, more deranged than the last creating a world that exists only in their minds. What we've seen is the complete detachment of Republicans from reality. They have entered a bubble, one where their "truth" has instead become the lies they are fed that keep them from voting against their best interests. The only apt comparison we have is that of a cult, one where Donald Trump is the leader. Nothing he says is wrong. Everything he says is truth. And that truth must be shared as gospel for the tens of millions of Republican voters.
So none of us should have been surprised on Thursday evening when Republicans offered a rebuttal to Joe Biden's wildly successful State of the Union address. The rebuttal is always written ahead of time and always attempts to create a contrast between the competing visions of the two parties. During the Obama and now Biden years, the Republican rebuttal has been one of fear, trying to paint a picture of a dystopian nation awash in roving gang violence, illegal immigration, and failed Democratic cities. Thursday night's speaker was Katie Britt from Alabama, the youngest Republican senator and someone who was seen as a rising star. Britt, speaking from her "homely" kitchen in her $750,000 Montgomery home, shared a story about a Mexican woman who was trafficked at raped along the southern border. The implication was clear: Joe Biden's "failing" border policies were putting innocent women's lives at risk. It was a narrative that fits right in with Republicans' current criticisms of Joe Biden and his alleged lack of border security and was an argument they hoped to amplify in fundraising emails and Sunday talk show appearances scheduled to take place this weekend.
In time, this misinformation became weaponized. In the years since Trump was elected, Republicans have capitalized on their monopoly of conservative television media and radio. They have social media influencers like Tomi Lahren, Charlie Kirk, and Matt Walsh gushing hate day in and day out. They have the annual Conservative Political Action Committee conference that draws the dregs of Republican society into a world where up is down and left is right. Each interview, each panel, each conference, more deranged than the last creating a world that exists only in their minds. What we've seen is the complete detachment of Republicans from reality. They have entered a bubble, one where their "truth" has instead become the lies they are fed that keep them from voting against their best interests. The only apt comparison we have is that of a cult, one where Donald Trump is the leader. Nothing he says is wrong. Everything he says is truth. And that truth must be shared as gospel for the tens of millions of Republican voters.
So none of us should have been surprised on Thursday evening when Republicans offered a rebuttal to Joe Biden's wildly successful State of the Union address. The rebuttal is always written ahead of time and always attempts to create a contrast between the competing visions of the two parties. During the Obama and now Biden years, the Republican rebuttal has been one of fear, trying to paint a picture of a dystopian nation awash in roving gang violence, illegal immigration, and failed Democratic cities. Thursday night's speaker was Katie Britt from Alabama, the youngest Republican senator and someone who was seen as a rising star. Britt, speaking from her "homely" kitchen in her $750,000 Montgomery home, shared a story about a Mexican woman who was trafficked at raped along the southern border. The implication was clear: Joe Biden's "failing" border policies were putting innocent women's lives at risk. It was a narrative that fits right in with Republicans' current criticisms of Joe Biden and his alleged lack of border security and was an argument they hoped to amplify in fundraising emails and Sunday talk show appearances scheduled to take place this weekend.
The only problem is, the story wasn't true.
At least, not in the way that Britt presented it.
Fortunately for all of us, there still remain independent journalists in this country. One of them, former Associated Press reporter and editor Jonathan Katz, decided to do some digging into Britt's story. In a roughly seven-and-a-half-minute video posted to TikTok, Katz unearthed the truth about her story and how wildly different it was from how she portrayed it. While the woman Britt mentioned did face horrific sexual assaults and sex trafficking by the Mexican cartels, those acts occurred in Mexico City and not on the southern border. Those incidents also did not happen recently but actually happened between 2004 and 2008 under the watch of President George W. Bush. While Britt did hear about the incident at a 2023 border visit, it did not unfold the way she presented it, which was done in a way for people to associate the incident with Joe Biden's border policies. Like many before her, Britt was hoping that the media would simply pass off her lies and truth without doing any sort of follow-up investigation.
Fortunately for all of us, there still remain independent journalists in this country. One of them, former Associated Press reporter and editor Jonathan Katz, decided to do some digging into Britt's story. In a roughly seven-and-a-half-minute video posted to TikTok, Katz unearthed the truth about her story and how wildly different it was from how she portrayed it. While the woman Britt mentioned did face horrific sexual assaults and sex trafficking by the Mexican cartels, those acts occurred in Mexico City and not on the southern border. Those incidents also did not happen recently but actually happened between 2004 and 2008 under the watch of President George W. Bush. While Britt did hear about the incident at a 2023 border visit, it did not unfold the way she presented it, which was done in a way for people to associate the incident with Joe Biden's border policies. Like many before her, Britt was hoping that the media would simply pass off her lies and truth without doing any sort of follow-up investigation.
But Katz did follow up. And because he did, social media took notice. Throughout Friday and into the weekend, X and TikTok users continued to comment on and share his video. Additional media outlets began to pick up on the story. American outlets like The Washington Post, The New York Times, Forbes, ABC News, and CNN fact-checked Britt's claims. Katz's research was even picked up by international media like The Guardian, who credited him for debunking Britt's false claims. It became so big that even Saturday Night Live referenced Britt's story in their cold opening sketch. Through the power of a single independent journalist, Republicans had been denied an opportunity to skate on by with a lie they hoped nobody would bother to question.
This wasn't the first time Republicans lied about Joe Biden's border policies. It certainly won't be the last. While this will be a battle over the next 8 months, what was encouraging is that with enough pressure on social media, our legacy media can actually do its job when prompted. There are enough Democratic supporters left on X to amplify the work of independent journalists like Katz, even though Elon Musk is trying his damndest to limit their influence. While The Washington Post and the New York Times won't begin these investigations, they will feature them if they get enough steam. And let's not forget about TikTok, the platform Katz used for his initial reporting. As we all know, TikTok is the app favored by younger generations. If they can help identify and elevate independent reporters like Katz, then the GOP will be in for a world of pain. Because the GOP needs their lies and misinformation to get outside the bubble to sway swing voters. It's why they brought Stepford wife Katie Britt in front of a national audience on Thursday. It was always their plan to have her go on unchallenged and to use her talking point to hammer Joe Biden in the general election regardless of whether or not the story was actually true.
What Britt and Republicans hadn't counted on was there being someone like Jonathan Katz willing to put in the work to debunk the lie. They certainly hadn't counted on his investigation catching fire on social media. And they definitely hadn't counted on Britt having to defend her telling of the story on Fox News of all places within 72 hours. But this is the power of journalism. This is the power of good journalism in a day and age where legacy media has packed it in and simply allowed Trump and Republican lies to go unaddressed. What we saw over the past 72 hours was a hunger of those wanting to call out Trump and Republicans for their consistent gaslighting of the Biden presidency. Katz's original video had over a million likes and re-shares across the X platform. People have been manipulated by Republican lies over the past 8 years but there still remains a significant portion of the population that wants these lies to be publicly challenged. Jonathan Katz did a tremendous service for all of us who still value honesty, integrity, and decency in our elected officials.
And in doing so he delivered a huge blow to the latest GOP gaslighting effort.
This wasn't the first time Republicans lied about Joe Biden's border policies. It certainly won't be the last. While this will be a battle over the next 8 months, what was encouraging is that with enough pressure on social media, our legacy media can actually do its job when prompted. There are enough Democratic supporters left on X to amplify the work of independent journalists like Katz, even though Elon Musk is trying his damndest to limit their influence. While The Washington Post and the New York Times won't begin these investigations, they will feature them if they get enough steam. And let's not forget about TikTok, the platform Katz used for his initial reporting. As we all know, TikTok is the app favored by younger generations. If they can help identify and elevate independent reporters like Katz, then the GOP will be in for a world of pain. Because the GOP needs their lies and misinformation to get outside the bubble to sway swing voters. It's why they brought Stepford wife Katie Britt in front of a national audience on Thursday. It was always their plan to have her go on unchallenged and to use her talking point to hammer Joe Biden in the general election regardless of whether or not the story was actually true.
What Britt and Republicans hadn't counted on was there being someone like Jonathan Katz willing to put in the work to debunk the lie. They certainly hadn't counted on his investigation catching fire on social media. And they definitely hadn't counted on Britt having to defend her telling of the story on Fox News of all places within 72 hours. But this is the power of journalism. This is the power of good journalism in a day and age where legacy media has packed it in and simply allowed Trump and Republican lies to go unaddressed. What we saw over the past 72 hours was a hunger of those wanting to call out Trump and Republicans for their consistent gaslighting of the Biden presidency. Katz's original video had over a million likes and re-shares across the X platform. People have been manipulated by Republican lies over the past 8 years but there still remains a significant portion of the population that wants these lies to be publicly challenged. Jonathan Katz did a tremendous service for all of us who still value honesty, integrity, and decency in our elected officials.
And in doing so he delivered a huge blow to the latest GOP gaslighting effort.
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