Each year, PolitiFact combs through the hundreds of false and misleading statements we’ve encountered in search of one that stands apart — the one falsehood, or collection of falsehoods, that played the most significant role in undermining truth.
We call this the Lie of the Year. For 2021, that designation goes to the campaign to whitewash the history of the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
In previous years, the Lie of the Year has ranged from specific false claims to whole storms of deceptive political rhetoric. Here’s a look back at the past 12 years of winning whoppers.
The U.S. response to the coronavirus pandemic was crippled by conspiracy theories and misinformation that said the new virus was overblown, and maybe even a hoax. Lies about COVID-19 infected America in 2020, and the worst were not just damaging, but deadly.
Former President Donald Trump minimized the threat of COVID-19 from the earliest days of the pandemic, flouted masks and other public health measures, elevated conspiracy theories about COVID-19 deaths, and championed miracle cures. The downplay and denial of COVID-19 was also picked up by online actors, Republican lawmakers and influential TV and radio hosts. Even as hundreds of thousands of Americans died from the disease, their message was consistent: The threat to your health was overhyped to hurt the political fortunes of the president.
The 20201 Lie of the Year had something previous winners did not: documented proof of intent to...
Business THE management of Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals has noted with concern the circulation of unfounded and misleading claims suggesting that its petroleum products are export...