The left-wing fact check industrial complex exists to police the reach of conservative media on socials. It assigns fake ‘fact checks’ written by the lowest dregs of journalists to nitpick things that often aren’t relevant or material facts to the central claims in a story.
PolitiFact has attempted to suppress the Gateway Pundit reporting about voter fraud evidence in Muskegon, Michigan. But they committed multiple major errors in their ‘fact checking’ that we can easily debunk.
![](https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-2023-08-25-at-3.08.54-AM-513x600.png)
Less than two weeks ago, Sara Swann from PolitiFact wrote a ‘fact check’ where she rated the Gateway Pundit’s reporting on the Muskegon Vote Fraud discovery, as a “false” story. So now we are going to fact-check her fact-check, and show not only why Sara Swann is wrong in her conclusion, but flawed in her analysis, and overall just an awful reporter.
Here is a summary of Sara Swann’s complaints in Politifact about the TGP Story:
-
OLD: The story is from 2020 and is old, which is a complaint Bridge Magazine made in their coverage
-
ALREADY REFERRED: The case was referred to the FBI in October 2020
-
NOT FRAUD: The police report does not say that ‘suspected irregularities’ are ‘evidence of election fraud’
PolitiFact is using misdirection and wordplay in order to rate our coverage as ‘false.’ They are also lying about the facts in the Muskegon police report on the matter, which we will discuss.
Let’s address these three main complaints by Sara Swann and PolitiFact:
IS THE STORY FROM 2020?
Local Michigan media ran this single story on October 31 2020 saying that there were ‘irregularities’ as reported by Clerk Meisch. All this story had to back itself up were the claims by Clerk Meisch. When the Gateway Pundit exclusively reported the police report nearly three years later, the focus was not on the fact that the fraud happened in 2020, it was that we now had proof because now the police report’s explosive facts and obvious investigation were now exposed and in print. Instead of this being another claim of fraud, now we had a police report that showed a diligent investigation by the Muskegon Police Department and 40 pages of details from their investigation.
Their investigation has never concluded. There are no official conclusions about the crimes observed and investigated.
In 2020, the public did not know that the Muskegon Police had conducted a thorough investigation into the claims by Clerk Meisch and had revealed a campaign vendor to the Biden Campaign.
The news in 2020 was an oddity and a fluke. By the facts as revealed in 2023, they were revealing an investigation that should have resulted in indictments and prosecutions. By complaining about the age of the story, PolitiFact is trying to minimize, mitigate, and deflect from the story. Instead of focusing on the content of the police report, which is the story in 2023, they focus on the allegation by Clerk Meisch that started the investigation in 2020 instead.
This is an entirely dishonest narrative frame by PolitiFact.
WAS THE CASE REFERRED TO THE FBI IN OCTOBER 2020?
Here is what PolitiFact says: “In late October 2020, this investigation was referred to the FBI because GBI Strategies was operating in multiple states.”
Nowhere has the reason for the referral to the FBI been explained. PolitiFact is inventing facts for the story when they claim it was referred because GBI was operating in multiple states. The motive for referring the case to the FBI is not clear.
In August 2023 after the reporting by the Gateway Pundit, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel claims she is referring the case to the FBI. The reason for the referral was never cited as because GBI was ‘operating in multiple states.’ The Muskegon Police have said that the FBI is not responding to them.
DOES THE POLICE REPORT SUGGEST OR STATE THERE IS NO EVIDENCE OF ELECTION FRAUD?
Here’s the summary of the PolitiFact position:
The Gateway Pundit correctly reported that the police report states that these applications were evidence of voter fraud in the 2020 election. PolitiFact contends that this is not what the police report says.
Yet this is explicitly what the police report says.
The police were collecting evidence in support of a search warrant. They were chronicling their investigation to date. In it, they say that these observed incidents and evidence are indications of potential criminal fraud.
Here’s what the Muskegon Police Report actually says in the last paragraph of the police report as the Muskegon Police are asking for a search warrant, explaining to a judge that they have probable cause that a crime has been committed:
Here’s the key sentence: “Your affiant (The Muskegon Police) believes documents, financial records, and electronic files located in the business are crucial to determining the crime of Election Fraud Forgery and determining who may be criminally liable and who may have profited from the fraud.”
This is the Muskegon Police saying they believe there is ongoing Election Fraud Forgery and criminals at work. There’s no other way to read this sentence.
PolitiFact is directly lying about this story and this evidence. They are assuming no one will read the police report and compare it to their trash fact-check.
This is the end of the police report we have available. It is making clear that the Muskegon Police were getting search warrants issued to pursue the crime of Election Law Forgery.
What PolitiFact is doing is trying to claim they know the conclusions of the police, that they know what the investigation revealed. But the investigation is still ongoing.
We have no idea what the investigation revealed because it was taken over by the Michigan State Police controlled by far-left zealot Dana Nessel, and the corrupt FBI, controlled by Crooked Joe Biden. They have sat on this case for nearly three years.
The ‘investigation’ has been ongoing for three years with no developments, and even the Muskegon Police complain they can’t get updates on the case.
PolitiFact is LYING when it says the Police Report offers conclusions. The police report offers no CONCLUSIONS because it is clear that the investigation is ongoing.
The investigation was then taken over by the FBI who have done nothing but cover up the case since then.
PolitiFact asks the government if the government committed a crime. And then when it predictably says ‘no’ – they treat this as proof that nothing happened. At TGP FactCheck, we call this the “government genuflect” where the reporter is not only not-skeptical of what lies they are being told by the government, they willingly use government lies in order to cover-up the truth that another media outlet is courageously reporting.
Imagine if the Washington Post had merely asked Nixon if Watergate was not true, and when he said it was false, they rated all the reporting on Watergate ‘false’ as a result: after all, the government said there was nothing wrong!
MAJOR MISTAKES SWANN/POLITIFACT MAKES:
- She misstates the number of fraudulent ballots received. Muskegon reports 8-10,000 received in one day, and another 2,500 in another day. PolitiFact tries to say it’s just 8,000.
- She tries to gaslight readers into thinking the investigation is concluded, when it is not.
- She tries to cite to ‘conclusions’ in the police report that do not exist, and in fact are directly contradicted by the police report.
- She invents reasons as to why the Muskegon case was referred to the FBI, and is not clear when the case was initially referred.
- She misspells the main subject’s name: Ann Meisch, the clerk of the City of Muskegon. This is a minor issue but shows that her reporting didn’t bother to get basic facts correct.
- She rates the Gateway Pundit’s reporting “false” when the substance of what we have reported has been repeatedly confirmed as accurate
- She violates the PolitiFact “Code of Ethics” by publishing this fact check without first reaching out to the reporter or outlet in question for clarification. This never happened.