Amanda Prestigiacomo at the Daily Wire pointed out the incredible elasticity of "fact checking" in a "Two Pinocchios" slam on Senator Ted Cruz from Salvador Rizzo of the Washington Post "Fact Checker" squad.
Rizzo proclaimed "The Fact Checker has a long history of looking into puffed-up job estimates for the Keystone XL pipeline, an international energy project that stalled through the administrations of Barack Obama and Donald Trump and now appears frozen....So regular readers may recall that, barring 50 or so permanent positions, these 11,000 estimated positions are for temporary construction work."
Offhand, I don't recall the Post objecting to "puffed-up job estimates" Obama and Biden have offered of new "green jobs."
Estimates, and guesstimates, and policy-wonk analysis are all a part of politics. But "fact checkers" seem to jump in and rule mostly against Republicans and conservatives. What a surprise! It's clear that Biden and the Democrats think these employment opportunities pale in comparison to the potentially catastrophic threat of climate change...and the threat of losing their left-wing base of anti-capitalist environmental extremists.
Somehow, an Obama State Department report from 2014 was cited as the authoritative source of job guesses, because the Post always finds that Democrats and liberals are the most in command of the "facts."
All told, 10,400 construction workers, engaged for four- or eight-month periods, are expressed in the State Department report as 3,900 jobs — one position that is filled one full year — even though none of the jobs actually last a full year.
The figure that really should be used is 3,900 jobs. But it is also correct to say that 10,400 construction workers would get jobs, as long as a politician made clear this was mostly part-year employment. (Cruz didn’t.)
Rizzo concluded with his Two Pinocchios flourish:
Cruz cited a real estimate of approximately 11,000 jobs, but he left out that they were all temporary. In the same report, the State Department said the Keystone XL pipeline, if built, would require only 35 to 50 permanent positions.
The missing context is key here, obscuring half the story. Cruz earns Two Pinocchios.
Cruz responded on Twitter:
WaPo confirms that YES, on his 1st day in office, Joe Biden destroyed 11,000 jobs (including 8000 union jobs).
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) January 26, 2021
But, it says, they’re construction jobs so are only temporary.
ALL construction jobs are temporary. Presidents still shouldn’t destroy them. https://t.co/ua0jJFrl23
Perhaps Rizzo can fact-check this: Democrats aren't really scared to cancel some "temporary" construction jobs in states like Montana, South Dakota, Kansas, or Nebraska. They're much more concerned about their coastal elites.
