The most popular fact checks of 2019

We additionally listed 5 of our hottest movies, in addition to the highest reality checks that had been revealed earlier than 2019.

(In the meantime, we’re going to attempt to take a wanted break earlier than the brand new 12 months. Solely one thing dramatic will trigger us to alter our plans.)

On the high of the record — and one of the well-liked reality checks in our 12-year historical past — is one thing distinctly nonpolitical, although we began with quotes from politicians calling for the U.S. Girls’s Nationwide Workforce (WNT) to be paid equally to the boys’s workforce. We determined to discover whether or not there was an enormous pay hole, partly with data from never-seen-before paperwork obtained by the Truth Checker.

The reply was difficult as a result of the 2 groups have totally different collective-bargaining agreements that define totally different pay constructions. A contract participant on the ladies’s workforce makes a base wage and might earn performance-based bonuses. On the boys’s workforce, gamers earn solely bonuses.

The lawsuit from the ladies’s workforce sketched out the next state of affairs: If each groups performed 20 friendlies in a 12 months, a top-tier ladies’s nationwide workforce participant would earn $164,320 much less, or “38% of the compensation of a equally located MNT participant.” That was true beneath the earlier collective-bargaining settlement that led to December 2016. The Truth Checker obtained the brand new settlement, which took impact in April 2017. Utilizing the identical 20-game state of affairs, we calculated that the participant on the ladies’s workforce would earn $28,333 much less, or about 89 p.c of the compensation of a equally located males’s workforce participant. If each groups misplaced all 20 video games, the gamers would make the identical quantity. That’s as a result of the boys earn a $5,000 bonus after they lose and the ladies have a $100,000 base wage.

What meaning is that when the feminine gamers have appeared to make about the identical or more cash, they’ve needed to flip in constantly excellent performances on the world stage. Even with these feats, incomes the identical quantity as the boys’s soccer gamers was successfully unattainable beneath the earlier collective-bargaining settlement. There’s — with out query and for no matter causes — nonetheless a large hole between males’s and girls’s World Cup bonuses.

Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), chairman of the Intelligence Committee, has spearheaded the impeachment inquiry with diligence and willpower since an nameless whistleblower emerged with allegations of presidential strain on Ukraine. However Schiff stumbled early on when he advised MSNBC: “We have now not spoken straight with the whistleblower. We wish to.”

That turned out to be false, because the whistleblower had approached a Home Intelligence Committee workers member for steering earlier than submitting a grievance with the Intelligence Group inspector normal. We gave Schiff 4 Pinocchios. It’s fairly attainable this text was so broadly learn partly as a result of the White Home saved tweeting about it.

A video snipping that line from Omar’s speech shortly went viral, and the phrase “some individuals did one thing” as a reference to the 9/11 terrorist assaults drew heated criticism. As we frequently discover, trying on the complete speech offers a distinct view. For starters, CAIR was based in 1994, not in response to 9/11, as Omar claimed.

Her remarks had been half of a bigger level about anti-Muslim discrimination and got here after she listed some examples. An extended take a look at what she stated: “For a lot too lengthy we have now lived with the discomfort of being a second-class citizen, and, frankly, I’m uninterested in it, and each single Muslim on this nation needs to be uninterested in it. CAIR was based after 9/11 as a result of they acknowledged that some individuals did one thing and that each one of us had been beginning to lose entry to our civil liberties.” We depart it for readers to resolve whether or not Omar was clear sufficient on terrorism.

It’s the sort of stunning statistic that normally makes for a very good reality examine, and it occurs to be right. Sanders, a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, earned a Geppetto Checkmark.

Eric Trump, one of many president’s sons, attributed a quote to actor Tim Allen in an Instagram submit: “President Trump’s wall prices lower than the Obamacare web site. Let that sink in, America.”

However there are two massive issues. First, it’s factually incorrect. The border barrier will value excess of the $2 billion estimate for the price of the web site. Second, whereas Allen is a conservative, he didn’t say this. (A jewellery technician in Virginia named Tim Allen had posted a prolonged diatribe on Fb making this declare, which he had borrowed from a submit by singer Ted Nugent.)

A presidential tweet from January caught our eye as a result of it included enormous (and oddly exact) numbers on unlawful migration. “We’re not even into February and the price of unlawful immigration to this point this 12 months is $18,959,495,168. Value Friday was $603,331,392,” Trump tweeted. “There are at the very least 25,772,342 unlawful aliens, not the 11,000,000 which have been reported for years, in our Nation.”

Trump met with Pelosi and Senate Minority Chief Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) over the border barrier in January, however issues apparently went off the rails. Did Trump “slam” the desk, and did Pelosi reject border safety? We investigated. Everybody at this assembly was biased indirectly, so no Pinocchios got, however there have been just a few conclusions we may draw however.

Throughout remarks on the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, assaults, Trump stated he noticed the second aircraft hit the World Commerce Middle whereas looking a window of a constructing in midtown Manhattan. We recounted how he has advised ever-grander variations of this supposed story and likewise offered a roundup of Trump claims about 9/11 which might be clearly false, similar to saying that he predicted Osama bin Laden’s assault on america.

This was based mostly on one imprecise reference to bin Laden in a ebook he issued in January 2000. Even when his declare had been true, Trump would have been echoing predictions of consultants, information organizations and even bin Laden himself, who in media interviews indicated that he deliberate to assault america.

Key targets embrace slicing greenhouse gasoline emissions to web zero over 10 years and guaranteeing jobs for all. The plan has outstanding Democratic backers, together with Sens. Cory Booker (N.J.), Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.), Kamala D. Harris (Calif.), Amy Klobuchar (Minn.) and Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), all of whom at one level had been working for president. Many liberal and environmental teams are on board. Republicans say it’s a nonstarter that reeks of socialism.

In February, Harris dashed off a important tweet after the IRS reported preliminary knowledge displaying the common tax refund examine was down eight p.c ($170) in contrast with final 12 months: “The typical tax refund is down about $170 in comparison with final 12 months. Let’s name the President’s tax lower what it’s: a middle-class tax hike to line the pockets of already rich companies and the 1%.”

However the measurement of a refund tells you nothing about an individual’s tax invoice. We gave 4 Pinocchios to Harris as a result of she linked these details deceptively and with out context, making it seem as if the smaller tax refunds had been proof of a tax hike on the center class. In actuality, the dimensions of a tax refund displays nothing concerning the measurement of a tax lower or tax improve — and at the very least in 2018, the overwhelming majority of middle-class Individuals can anticipate to pay much less in taxes on account of the Trump tax legislation. Furthermore, Harris jumped to a defective conclusion based mostly on preliminary knowledge. In the long run, tax refunds in 2018 had been little totally different from in 2017.

Many readers uncover outdated reality checks when looking out the Web for data. Right here’s a listing of reality checks that ranked among the many high 75 in 2019 — though they had been first revealed in 2018 (or earlier).

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