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MI Lawmaker Caught Spreading Falsehoods Introduces Bills to Punish Fact Checkers
Michigan State Rep. Matt Maddock is a lead sponsor of legislation that would require fact checkers to register with the state and face possible fines for improper findings.
Michigan House Republicans
Michigan state Republican lawmakers introduced legislation on Tuesday that would require news organizations that produce fact-checked articles to register with the state. Under the legislation, if state officials deem facts within the reporting to be untrue, the organization would be subject to fines.
House Bills 4813 and 4814 would apply to news organizations and websites that are part of the International Fact-Checking Network, created by the Poynter Institute, an organization that is dedicated to improving journalism and is attempting to connect fact checkers from around the world through the network.
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The attack on the conservative internet has reached a new low.
Poynter, the journalism institute responsible for training writers and reporters, decided to promote a left-wing smear of conservative groups online. The result was a hit job written by someone who works for the anti-conservative Southern Poverty Law Center for a journalism organization funded by prominent liberal billionaires such as George Soros and Pierre Omidyar.
Poynter, which has started the International Fact-Checking Network, shared the new report and dataset called “UnNews,” declaring at least 29 right-leaning news outlets and organizations to be “unreliable news websites.”
Report author and SPLC producer Barrett Golding combined five major lists of websites marked “unreliable.” That result, which consisted of 515 names, included many prominent conservative sites Breitbart, CNSNews.com, Daily Signal, Daily Wire, Drudge Report, Free Beacon, Judicial Watch, LifeNews, Life
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Lansing A Michigan lawmaker who s been at the center of efforts to question the 2020 election introduced a bill Tuesday that would require fact checkers to register with the state.
Rep. Matt Maddock, R-Milford, wrote the legislation, which was co-sponsored by eight other Republican House members, about five months after Maddock floated the idea of licensing fact checkers on Twitter.
The Fact Checker Registration Act defines a fact checker as someone who publishes in print or online in Michigan, is paid by a fact-checking organization and is a member of the International Fact Check Network.
The network is a reference to the Poynter Institute s International Fact-Checking Network, a unit launched by the journalism group in 2015 to train and develop best practices in fact checking, Maddock said.
The bill would require fact checkers to register with the Michigan Secretary of State and post bonds of at least $1 million.
Affected parties could then bring civil actions against the fact checkers, and, if successful, collect damages from the bond amount. Fines could be up to $1,000 a day.
House Democratic Leader Donna Lasinski, D-Scio Township, slammed the legislation as an attack on the First Amendment and an effort to perpetuate the falsehood that the election was stolen from former President Donald Trump. Maddock’s bill is just another play in his brazen attempt to perpetuate the Big Lie. If trying to override the will of the people wasn’t enough, now Maddock is trying to intimidate and harass journalists and others who work to promote the truth, keep our citizens informed, and hold our elected officials accountable, Lasinski said.