The leaves must already be falling because last week, the establishment media and their coterie of biased “factcheckers” stepped on a whole yard full of rakes.

I already told you about the so-called ““factchecker”” (I think in this case, he deserves double quotation marks) who set out to “debunk” the claim that President Biden checked his watch during the body transfer ceremony for the troops killed by his incompetence in Kabul (fact-check that all you like.) He was taken to the woodshed after it turned out he got the story wrong, and in FACT, Biden checked his watch multiple times.

But that was nothing compared to the Sideshow Bob-level rake face-pounding that many, many media liberals took over the great Ivermectin hoax. After podcaster Joe Rogan said he’d successfully treated his COVID with a combination of drugs that included Ivermectin, the media went nuts trying to smear Ivermectin as a horse deworming drug. This despite the fact that the drug, in different formulations, is approved for use for both livestock and humans, and is even recommended by the CDC to rid Afghan refugees of parasites. That doesn’t mean it has any proven effectiveness against COVID, but painting it as nothing but a horse dewormer is total “DISINFORMATION.”

But wait, it gets much worse. Oklahoma TV station KFOR quoted local doctor Jason McElyea as saying that rural folks familiar with Ivermectin were buying it in feed stores, overdosing and backing up ERs. This was picked up by Rolling Stone (notorious for being sued over its fact-free reporting) and presented as the local hospital being so filled with Ivermectin OD’s that they were turning away people with gunshot wounds. That story was credulously tweeted worldwide by such avatars of journalism as Rachel Maddow, to illustrate what pig-ignorant morons those rural Trump voters are.

https://www.westernjournal.com/rolling-stone-offers-pathetic-update-ivermectin-overdose-story-got-totally-wrong-bury-1-fact-killed/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=huckabee

Yeah, here’s the thing: there’s not a word of truth to any of that. The local hospital had to put out word that they aren’t overwhelmed, they’re not turning away anybody, they’d treated no patients for problems with Ivermectin, overdoses or otherwise, and that doctor hadn’t worked there in two months. In an “update” (but not a “correction”), Rolling Stone admitted there had been only 459 Ivermectin overdoses in the entire US in August, so it’s hardly likely they are straining any hospital’s ER.

And another rake in the face: the A.P. reported that 70% of calls to the Mississippi Poison Control Center were from people who’d self-medicated with Ivermectin. Actually, only 2% of calls involved Ivermectin, and 70% of those (or only 1.4% of total calls) involved veterinary Ivermectin.

https://redstate.com/bonchie/2021/09/06/another-hysterical-ivermectin-claim-bites-the-dust-and-garners-an-incredible-correction-n438626

Thomas Lifson at American Thinker has a rundown of some of the Twitter Bluechecks (Maddow, The Hill newspaper, the Guardian, etc.) who trumpeted this fake story that a couple of phone calls could’ve easily disproved.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/09/where_are_the_apologies_for_spreading_harmful_misinformation_about_fake_ivermectin_overdoses_in_oklahoma_hospital.html

They’ve now given the American people even more reason to doubt what they read in the media about COVID treatments, so thanks for that. And note that not one of them has had a “Disinformation” label slapped on their false tweets or been banned by Twitter for promoting dangerous “disinformation,” the way any conservative would who simply tweeted a controversial opinion or unapproved fact. Glenn Greenwald has more to say about these people’s hypocrisy and shattered credibility, and about the new disinformation industry that’s trying to silence all of us for allegedly spreading disinformation.

https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2021/09/06/rolling-stone-pushed-fake-news-on-ivermectin-but-what-happened-next-was-even-worse-n438666

In conclusion, I notice that my newsletter/website has recently run afoul of more of these self-proclaimed “fact-checkers,” even though I seldom think they have a legitimate reason for it. Usually, it’s something like, “your story lacks context,” which generally means that we included the opposing view, but didn’t make it the dominant/only view or present their particular version of that view. I take these “factchecks” as a compliment; proof that they know more people are reading and trusting us, so they have to attack us. It reminds me of a great quote from Joe Bob Briggs: “People complain, ‘You may be right, but you’re not very nice. Remember when it was enough just to be right?”

Well, we try to be nice, too, but we also strive to be right. When we do make a mistake, unlike Rolling Stone, we own up to it and clearly correct it. But let me just point out that this is the first time we’ve even mentioned the yarn about the tidal wave of Ivermectin overdoses. We did point out last week that the idea that it was only for horses and other livestock was false, but we never fell for the fake story all those liberal outlets did. That’s because those of us with rural backgrounds can recognize horse droppings when we smell them.