Reflecting back on 2024 and looking forward to a future with less misinformation and more facts, Just Facts has summarized 50 false or misleading claims spread by journalists, commentators, and so-called fact checkers during the past year.
Each of these examples quotes a specific media outlet or individual, but nearly all of these fictions were propagated by multiple outlets and people, and many of them were broadcast by dozens.
1: Inflation
Margaret Brennan and John Dickerson of CBS News claimed that “the president of the United States has nothing to do with the price of bacon,” “or eggs,” “or gas,” “or any of it.”
In fact, presidents impact the prices of virtually everything through federal deficits that spur inflation, regulations that prohibit the use of cost-effective production methods and resources, price and wage controls, trade deals, tariffs, and more.
2: “Bloodbath”
Reporting on the first assassination attempt against Donald Trump, George Stephanopoulos and Martha Raddatz of ABC News claimed that Trump “contributed” to “violent rhetoric” because he said “it’s going to be a bloodbath” if “I don’t get elected.”
In fact, Trump didn’t use the term “bloodbath” as a call to violence but to describe the effects of Biden’s policies, especially on the auto industry.
3: Crime Trends
PolitiFact reported that “the violent crime rate today is near a 50-year low.”
In fact, that claim is derived from FBI data, which is based on voluntary reports of crimes by state and local law enforcement agencies and “excludes” crimes like “sexual assault,” “simple assault,” “attempted robberies,” and “crimes not reported to law enforcement.”
The DOJ’s National Crime Victimization Survey—which is widely considered to be the “gold standard” for measuring crime trends—showed a 37% increase in violent crime from 2020 to 2023. Moreover, the latest rate of murder—which is the best-measured and worst violent crime—was 36% higher in 2023 than in 2014.
4: Jobs
The New York Times reported that “President Biden is presiding over a job-creation boom that would have gotten almost any of his predecessors re-elected in the postwar era.”
In fact, all real job growth under Biden went to immigrants, while jobs held by people born in the USA barely recovered from Covid lockdowns, are drastically below their pre-Covid trajectory, and flatlined over the past year:
5: Border Wall
Axios reported that Kamala Harris pledged to “spend hundreds of millions of dollars on the wall along the southern border.”
In fact, Harris said nothing of the sort, but Axios inferred this based on her support of a bill that makes funds “available” for a border barrier but doesn’t actually require it to be built. Such funds were appropriated in prior years but were not used by the Biden administration.
6: School Shootings
The Associated Press and reams of other media outlets reported that JD Vance said “school shootings are a ‘fact of life’.”
In fact, Vance said that “psychos” who “want to make headlines” are a “fact of life”—not “school shootings.” He then said, “We have got to bolster security at our schools.”
7: Fauci’s Record
MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell claimed that “no one in our lifetimes has saved more lives” than Anthony Fauci.
In fact, Fauci may have killed more people than anyone in our lifetimes:
- First, Fauci led the federal agency that funded gain-of-function research on bat coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and then lied about it to Congress.
- Second, Fauci greatly overstated the Covid-19 death rate, prompting mass hysteria and lockdowns that already have or ultimately will shorten the lives of millions of people.
- Third, Fauci spread the hoax that C-19 was a “pandemic of the unvaccinated” when more than half of all Covid deaths were among the fully vaccinated.
8: Republic v. Democracy
The Atlantic’s Anne Applebaum, a Pulitzer-prize winning historian, claimed that “America is a democracy” and “there isn’t a meaningful difference between” a “democracy” and a “republic.”
In fact, the founding fathers explicitly stated that they formed a “republic” and not a “democracy” because the latter lacks safeguards against tyrannical mob rule.
9: “Handled by the Military”
CNN’s Jake Tapper reported that Donald Trump said “that as commander in chief, he will contemplate using the United States military or National Guard to go after his political opponents, including Democrats” like “Adam Schiff.”
In fact, Trump was answering a question about “agitators” who would sow “chaos on election day,” like the “Afghan refugee charged with plotting a U.S. election day massacre.” He was not talking about Americans who “don’t support him” but “sick people, radical-left lunatics,” who’ve rioted, committed arson, and murdered people. Furthermore, he was talking about the 2024 election while the military is not under his command.
10: Biden Family Business Dealings
MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace reported it is “conspiracy theory” that Hunter Biden “profited from business dealings in Ukraine with the help of his father.”
In fact, written records and first-hand witnesses prove that Joe Biden was heavily involved in Hunter’s business deals, bribed Ukrainians with U.S. taxpayer money, obstructed justice, and lied that evidence of all this from Hunter’s laptop was a “Russian plant.”
11: “Firing Squad”
Matt Young of the Daily Beast reported that Donald Trump talked about “putting Liz Cheney in front of a firing squad” in an article headlined, “Trump Fantasizes About Shooting Female Rival in the Face.”
In fact, Trump said that Cheney wouldn’t be a “radical war hawk” if she were serving in combat “with nine barrels shooting at her” instead of “sitting in Washington.”
12: Racialized Killings
The Associated Press reported that deputies in Florida “burst into the wrong” apartment and “fatally shot a Black” man “when they saw he was armed with a gun.”
In fact, the AP selectively highlights people’s races in cases where blacks are killed by whites or police. The AP has done that 60+ times on X and never done the opposite, even though black-on-white murders are 2–3 times more common than vice-versa.
13: “Bipartisan” Border Bill
In a “fact check” of the debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, PolitiFact reported Harris was “correct that Trump helped kill a bipartisan border security bill.”
In fact, the crux of Harris’ argument was that Trump killed the bill because “he preferred to run on a problem instead of fixing a problem.” Trump actually opposed the bill because it is laced with loopholes that codify Biden’s open border policies, which fueled the worst border crisis recorded in U.S. history. Hence, only one Republican ultimately voted for it.
14: Late-Term Abortions
NBC’s Kristen Welker reported that “abortions later in pregnancy—21 weeks and after—are extremely rare and usually only take place in the case of a health emergency.”
In fact, about 15,000 late-term abortions per year are performed in the U.S. at 21 weeks or later, and roughly 80% of them are not for health reasons but purely elective. These abortions are performed on pre-birth humans who are weeks older than this individual at 18 weeks:
15: Abortions Up Till Birth
PolitiFact reported that Democrats don’t support “abortion on demand” up to birth because they only support such abortions if the pregnancy poses a “risk” to “health.”
In fact, 99% of Congressional Democrats voted for bills that would legalize all abortions up till birth if any abortionist merely says it is for “health.” Per late-term abortionist Warren Hern, “I will certify that “any pregnancy is a threat” to “health.”
16: Live Birth Abortions
PolitiFact reported that Donald Trump was wrong to say that Democrats support abortion measures that result in the “execution” of babies “after birth.”
In fact, roughly 3–16% of late-term abortions result in live births, and 99% of House Democrats voted against a bill to prosecute any abortionist who “intentionally” “kills a child born alive” after an abortion or fails to give them medical care. Democrats alleged that the bill was redundant, but the current federal law to protect newborns who survive abortions doesn’t have any penalties for breaking it.
17: Presidential Immunity
Journalist Ron Filipkowski reported that “a Republican Supreme Court has ruled that presidents who commit crimes in office can’t be prosecuted,” and “we have an incoming president who loves committing crimes.”
In fact, the ruling prevents current presidents from abusing their power to prosecute their predecessors for carrying out “official actions” within their “constitutional authority.” Without such immunity, the Trump administration could prosecute Biden for illegally transferring student loans from borrowers to taxpayers. Before Biden took control of the DOJ, such matters were always settled by lawsuits, not prosecutions.
18: Quid-Pro Quo
The Atlantic’s David Frum claimed that Donald Trump “tried to blackmail Ukraine’s Zelensky to produce dirt on the Biden family.”
In fact, a transcript of the phone call where this allegedly occurred shows that Trump did nothing of the sort. Meanwhile, smoking gun emails prove that Joe Biden withheld U.S. aid from Ukraine to ensure that a prosecutor who was investigating Hunter Biden’s financial benefactor was fired.
19: Russia Collusion
CNN’s Josh Campbell, a former FBI agent, claimed that the FBI’s “initial investigation of the Trump world” “started because four people in Trump’s orbit had these sketchy ties to the Russians.”
In fact, the FBI targeted Trump’s orbit based on “unvetted hearsay information” that proved to be baseless, and the agency repeatedly misled a court to obtain search warrants for the investigation. The FBI did this less than two weeks after agents expressed personal animus for Trump as he overtook Clinton in the polls, and official records of their actions reveal a host of indiscretions.
20: “Climate Crisis”
ABC News reported, “The climate crisis is not a distant threat; it’s happening right now and affecting what matters most to us. Hurricanes intensified by a warming planet and drought-fueled wildfires are destroying our communities. Rising seas and flooding are swallowing our homes. And record-breaking heat waves are reshaping our way of life.”
In fact, the following climate-related measures have stayed level or improved for the past 30–170 years:
- hurricane frequency & intensity
- forest mass & tree cover
- floods & droughts
- coral reef island area
- mainland coastal area
- foliage productivity
- extinctions
- tornadoes
- agricultural production
- weather fatalities
- weather economic damages
21: Civil Rights
Axios reported that Donald Trump’s “close allies” want to “dramatically change the government’s interpretation of Civil Rights-era laws to focus on ‘anti-white racism’ rather than discrimination against people of color.”
In fact, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 made it illegal to “discriminate against any individual” because of their “race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.” Democrats have twisted this into a license to discriminate via affirmative action and DEI.
22: “Cancel Student Debt”
NBC News reported that “President Joe Biden is expected to announce revised plans to cancel student debt.”
In fact, Biden wasn’t planning to “cancel” this debt but transfer it to taxpayers. In the meantime, inflation-adjusted taxpayer funding per college student has already tripled since 1960.
23: mRNA Covid-19 Vaccines
PolitiFact reported that mRNA Covid vaccines are “helping save millions of lives.”
In fact, the most objective evidence shows no indication that mRNA Covid vaccines save more lives than they take. Moreover, clinical trials were narrowed and then halted before their effects on mortality could be accurately determined.
24: Birthright Citizenship
NBC’s Kristen Welker reported that the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution says, “All persons born in the United States are citizens.”
In fact, the 14th Amendment says, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens.” The U.S. senator who introduced the 14th Amendment stated that this doesn’t include the children of anyone who is not legally and permanently living in the United States, such as “foreigners, aliens.”
25: Academic Plagiarism
The Associated Press reported that the resignation of Harvard president Claudine Gay under a cloud of plagiarism allegation “highlights a new conservative weapon against colleges.”
In fact, universities have a duty to root out plagiarism. The fact that outsiders exposed 45+ examples of Gay copying other people’s work without proper attribution shows rot in academia—not the people who did the job that Harvard failed to do.
26: Illegal Voting by Non-Citizens
MSNBC’s Jen Psaki claimed that “non-citizens can’t vote” because it’s “a crime.”
In fact, non-citizens can and do vote because federal law doesn’t require proof of citizenship to register to vote. As a result, about 2–5 million non-citizens are now illegally registered, half of these people vote, and 73–82% of them vote for Democrats. Desperate attempts to debunk these facts by a host of media outlets and fact checkers have repeatedly failed.
27: Migrants Are “Animals”
CBS Evening News anchor Robert Costa reported that Donald Trump “referred to migrants as ‘animals’.”
In fact, Trump wasn’t talking about migrants in general but about murderous aliens like MS-13 gang members and the illegal border crosser arrested for the murder of Laken Riley, a 26-year-old nursing student.
28: Laken Riley
PolitiFact reported that President Biden had nothing to do with the murder of Laken Riley because “Biden does not decide who is released into the country.”
In fact, the illegal border crosser charged with her murder was let into the U.S. as a direct consequence of policies that Biden enacted.
29: Illegal Immigrant Crime Rates
NBC News Chief White House Correspondent Peter Alexander reported that “undocumented immigrants commit crimes at a much lower percentage than Americans do.”
In fact, illegal immigrants commit serious, imprisonable crimes at much higher rates than Americans. Claims to the contrary are based on studies riddled with these five defects.
30: Border Porosity
Axios reported that the U.S./Mexico border is “more fortified than it’s ever been” and that the Biden administration is “attempting to stop as many people who cross the border as they can.”
In fact, objective measures like gotaways, inadmissible migrant encounters, and border crossing deaths proved that the border was far more open than ever recorded in the nation’s history. Moreover, the Biden administration let into the U.S. at least 70% of all the illegal border crossers who were “stopped.”
31: Illegal Immigration Rates
PolitiFact reported it is “false” that “illegal immigration outpaced American births.”
In fact, PolitiFact’s analysis failed to account for 770,000 illegal immigrant gotaways per year and 800,000 visa overstays per year.
32: “Undocumented” Immigrants
Virtually all major media outlets referred to illegal immigrants as “undocumented.”
In fact, Garner’s Dictionary of Legal Usage explains that terms like “undocumented” are “euphemisms” which “obscure” the fact that people are “present in a country in violation of the immigration laws.”
33: Hunter Biden’s Laptop
Based on evidence that Biden accuser Alexander Smirnov had contacts with Russian intelligence, NBC News reported that the “former U.S. spies” who “warned in 2020 that the Hunter Biden scandal had Russian fingerprints” “feel vindicated now.”
In fact, the 51 spies have never presented any evidence of Russian involvement with Hunter’s laptop, and the contents of the laptop have been widely verified as authentic. Moreover, these former intel officials stayed silent as Joe Biden and the media used their authority to lie that the laptop “is a Russian plant.”
34: Mar-a-Lago Valuation
NBC News reported that Donald Trump “fraudulently puffed up the value” of his Mar-a-Lago estate by valuing it “at $426 million to $612 million, while the Palm Beach County assessor appraised the property’s market value to be $18 million to $27 million.”
In fact, a tax assessment of Mar-a-Lago is not its “market value”—a widely known fact that was even reported by CNN. This stark reality is documented by a broad array of real estate industry leaders and business publications, such as Realtor.com, Zillow, and U.S. News & World Report.
35: “Misogynoir”
The Associated Press reported that “Black women working year-round and full-time in 2021 made 69 cents for every dollar a white man got” because of “misogynoir,” defined as “hatred of, aversion to, or prejudice against Black women.”
In fact, the lower average incomes of black women don’t correlate with racism or sexism but with leftist policies and mindsets. This includes but isn’t limited to poor educational outcomes in Democrat-dominated schools and high rates of single-parent households.
36: Grocery Prices
In an episode of 60 Minutes, host Lesley Stahl suggested that “greedflation” is the reason why “grocery prices have gone through the roof” in recent years.
In fact, the average grocery store profit margin is only 1.6%, and the wholesale food prices paid by supermarkets rose by more than the retail food prices paid by consumers during the Biden/Harris administration.
Furthermore, a 2024 study by 3 Ph.D. economists at the San Francisco Fed found that “price markups for goods and services”—or so-called greedflation—has “not been a main driver” of inflation. Instead, the study found that the root causes are “large” federal “fiscal transfers” like “increased unemployment benefits” and Federal Reserve policies like lowering “the federal funds rate target to essentially zero.”
37: International Living Standards
Tucker Carlson claimed that U.S. leaders have tanked our “standard of living” because he was able to buy $400 worth of food in a Russian grocery store with only 104 U.S. dollars.
In fact, the average standard of living in the U.S. is roughly 2.4 times higher than in Russia. Carlson could buy a disproportionate amount of groceries in Russia with $104 only because U.S. dollars have far greater purchasing power than Russian rubles.
38: Dictator Clothing
Alex Kasprak of Snopes reported that Elon Musk posted this AI-generated image with the pretense that it “authentically shows Kamala Harris wearing ‘communist dictator’ garb”:
In fact, Musk’s posts are laced with AI-generated humor.
39: Christian Nationalism
Politico reported that “Trump allies” are “developing plans to infuse Christian nationalist ideas in his administration should the former president return to power.”
In fact, “Christian nationalist” is a slur used by people to ban Christian values from government, an agenda that has no basis in the Constitution and is at odds with:
- the authors of the Declaration of Independence, who wrote that “all men” are “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.”
- Abraham Lincoln, who wrote that the only way to “know right from wrong” is the Bible.
- Martin Luther King, Jr., who wrote that “a just law is a man made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God.”
40: Gun Ownership & Violence
PolitiFact reported that states with more gun ownership have more gun violence.
In fact, there’s no clear association between state gun ownership rates and murder rates, and PolitiFact’s misleading measure:
- counts murders committed with guns but fails to account for lives saved by guns.
- assumes that gun suicides don’t occur through other means when guns are unavailable.
41: Indicting Political Opponents
NBC’s Lester Holt reported that Trump “has said that if he’s re-elected he would use the FBI and the DOJ to go after his political opponents.”
In fact, Trump said that Joe Biden sicced the FBI and DOJ on his political opponents, and this could “happen in reverse,” but “the people aren’t going to stand for it.”
42: Sea Level Rise
PBS News reported that “by 2100, scientists project sea levels around parts of Florida will rise between two and eight feet,” submerging large parts of the state.
In fact, climate activists have been making such predictions for more than 30 years, and they have turned out to be categorically false:
- In 1989, a senior U.N. official projected that “entire nations could be wiped off the face of the Earth by rising sea levels if the global warming trend is not reversed by the year 2000.” Since then, Earth’s land area has grown by about 22,400 square miles.
- In 1992, Al Gore claimed that “up to 60% of the present population of Florida may have to be relocated” “not long after” the “next few decades” “because of the rising sea level, due to global warming.” Since then, the coastal population of Florida has grown by 61%.
- In 1989, another senior UN official wrote that “sea-level rise as a consequence of global warming would immediately threaten that large fraction of the globe living at sea level.” Since then, Earth’s coastal land area has grown by about 5,200 square miles.
- In 1995, the New York Times reported that “some experts” say “most of the beaches on the East Coast” of the U.S. will “be gone in 25 years” due to global warming. Since then, none of them have disappeared.
43: Masking
NBC’s Kristen Welker reported, “Scientists did show that masks help to stop the spread” of Covid-19.
In fact, no randomized controlled trial has ever found that masks save lives, and an analysis of CDC mask studies published by the American Journal of Medicine in 2023 found that “the level of evidence generated was low and the conclusions were most often unsupported by the data.”
Covid deaths enduringly plunged only after nearly everyone caught C-19 and naturally acquired immunity flourished—not when masks or vaccines were deployed.
44: Debt Limit
Reuters reported that not raising the debt limit “could prevent the Treasury from paying its debts” and cause a “U.S. debt default.”
In fact, not raising the debt limit wouldn’t cause a debt default unless the president violates the law and Constitution.
45: Picking Crops
CNN’s Catherine Rampell reported that it “will worsen the economy” if Trump deports the illegal immigrants who “pick your crops.”
In fact, a 2017 study by a research institute at the University of California found, “If the influx of immigrant workers were slowed or stopped and farm wages rose,” the average U.S. family would pay $21 more per year for fresh fruits and vegetables.
46: Kamala’s “Tax Cuts”
CNN reported that Kamala Harris proposed a “new plan to provide tax relief for more than 100 million middle-class and lower-income Americans.”
In fact, her proposed “tax cuts” were actually welfare benefits doled out by the IRS via two fraud-ridden programs.
47: Racism & Sexism in Elections
CNN’s David Axelrod claimed that “anybody who thinks” “racial bias” and “sexism” did not in any way impact the outcome” of the 2024 presidential election is “wrong.”
In fact, scientific surveys stretching back for decades show no indication that racism or sexism play a role in the outcomes of presidential elections. Also, Kamala Harris received a smaller portion of the female vote than Biden in 2020 and Hillary Clinton in 2016.
48: Pre-Musk Twitter
On 60 Minutes, anchor Lesley Stahl reported that Twitter/X is “rife with trash talk and lies” since Elon Musk took over in 2022.
In fact, pre-Musk Twitter broadly censored proven facts and widely spread flagrant falsehoods about countless important issues. A prime example is Lesley Stahl’s claim on 60 Minutes that Hunter Biden’s laptop “can’t be verified.” Here’s 13 more examples.
49: Economic Growth
Axios reported that the U.S. is experiencing an “unprecedented—and largely unheralded—economic miracle” because the nation’s GDP “has surged by an astonishing 40%” in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In fact, Axios failed to account for inflation and population growth, which are both vital for understanding economic trends. Exploding Axios’ claim of an “economic miracle,” real GDP per capita is still below its pre-Covid trajectory:
50: Inadmissible Migrants
CNN’s Dana Bash reported that it’s “not illegal” for Biden to allow hundreds of thousands of migrants who are inadmissible under federal law to cross U.S. borders via airplanes and land ports of entry.
In fact, the law allows for such entries under narrow circumstances and “only on a case-by-case basis”—not by the trainload. Texas and 19 other states filed a lawsuit against this policy, but the case was dismissed by a district court judge on the basis of standing, a legal doctrine that prohibits lawsuits unless plaintiffs can prove that they suffered a direct personal injury. Litigation has continued, and regardless of the outcome, the issue of standing doesn’t settle the legality of Biden’s actions.
Conclusion
Despite broadcasting an avalanche of fake news in 2024, journalists cast themselves as paragons of truthfulness.
CNN’s Dana Bash, for a prime example, claimed in an interview with JD Vance that “There aren’t media lies” and journalists don’t distort Trump’s words but simply “let him speak for himself.”
In reality, the press has incessantly reported Trump’s words out of context in ways that disfigure what he actually said. Although it’s hard to discern whether these were honest mistakes or deliberate lies, journalists often did this by cutting out vital words that Trump said in close proximity to one another, sometimes within seconds.
Yet, CBS reporter Scott Pelly claimed in 2024, “We fact-check every story.”
Journalists have also defended their cherry-picked sources and described them as victims of unjust criticism.
For instance, 60 Minutes reported that academics who “flagged misinformation to social media” say “there’s a campaign to discredit them—and it’s mainly coming from conservatives.”
In reality, a Harvard non-scientific survey of 150 “misinformation” scholars found that 83% described themselves as “fairly left-wing” or “very left-wing.” Beyond the ideological bias, this is significant because pillars of leftism like Lenin and Alinsky openly encouraged lying to achieve their ends.
Based on a study published by the prestigious journal Nature, Washington Post columnist Philip Bump alleged that “doing your own research is a good way to end up being wrong.”
However, Bump failed to reveal that the study “hired professional fact checkers from leading national media organizations” to “determine” what’s “true” and “false.” Given the track record of the media, this fatally flawed study reinforces the need to conduct your own research and equip yourself with the necessary skills to do it well.
James D. Agresti is the president of Just Facts, a research and educational institute dedicated to publishing facts about public policies and teaching research skills.
