More Adventures in Fact Checking

In reading countless PolitiFact articles to fact check, I came across one this morning by Tom Kertscher, who has a reputation for being among the site’s worst fact checkers. In this „fact check,“ he attempts to downplay Joe Biden’s hostility to the oil and natural gas industry while simultaniously admitting Biden’s anti-energy policies. 

The supposed fact check was published in March 2020, when Biden was still competing for the Democrat nomination, but is relevent as gas prices have doubled since he took office.

Responding to allegations in a viral Facebook post that Biden “just announced on CNN he will completely shut down drilling for oil and natural gas on day one of his administration,“ Kertscher rated the claim „mostly false“ in a fact check entirely dependent on how one interprets the phrase „completely shut down.“

The exact quote from Biden on CNN in question was: „Number one, no more subsidies for fossil fuel industry. No more drilling on federal lands. No more drilling, including offshore. No ability for the oil industry to continue to drill, period, ends, number one.“ 

Kertscher begins the article with an executive summary of its main points, which are that:

• In a CNN debate, Biden said no more oil drilling.
• For natural gas, he promised to allow no new fracking.
• His stated campaign position is to ban “new oil and gas permitting on public lands and waters.”

So Biden said he wants no more oil drilling, no new fracking, and wants to ban new oil and gas permitting on public lands and waters…. and Kertscher rates it „mostly false“ that Biden wants to „completely shut down drilling for oil and natural gas on day one of his administration.“

The article concludes with this:

A Facebook post says Biden „just announced on CNN he will completely shut down drilling for oil and natural gas on day one of his administration.“ In a CNN debate, Biden said „no more drilling“ for oil. Taken literally, that could be interpreted to mean he supports ending oil drilling. But he did not use the words „shut down“ and his stated position has been to ban new oil drilling on federal lands and water, not end ongoing work.

Only by arguing semantics can Kertscher issue such a ratings with this set of facts. This isn’t even so much a fact check of the claim made in the viral Facebook post, but of if „completely shut down“ means all production or future production. The Facebook post didn’t say that Biden was going to abolish the oil and natural gas industry, which is what would happen if he did „completely shut down“ production in that sense, so the „shut down“ being of future production is a reasonable interpretation. If Kertscherer were honest he’d at least give this a „half true“ or „mostly true“ rating while noting some ambiguity in phrasing. 

Given the endless criticism that Biden got for his comments on the oil and gas industry during that CNN debate, one must wonder the motivation of Kertscher checking that specific version of the criticism. It’s as if he deliberately chose a version of the argument presented in a way for him to nitpick it so he could pen an article favorable to Biden to downplay his hostility to the sector. 

Matt Palumbo is the author of The Man Behind the Curtain: Inside the Secret Network of George Soros

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