PolitiFact doesn’t take the word "lie" lightly. We use it just once a year.
The word "lie," by definition, suggests an intent to deceive. And while we at PolitiFact sort through a lot of false and misleading statements, our work as fact-checkers cares less about intent than it does about facts.
The Lie of the Year is different. We apply that title to the statement or collection of falsehoods that played the most significant role in undermining the truth over the previous 12 calendar months.
For 2022, the designation goes to Russian President Vladimir Putin for his lies about Ukraine, including those he told to justify the invasion and harmful lies about the atrocities that have been committed since.
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.
On Jan. 6, 2021, following the defeat of then-U.S. President Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election, a mob of his supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. Live news footage and videos from participants provided inescapable evidence of what happened. But claims that Jan. 6 was an antifa operation, a tourist visit, a false flag or an uneventful day to forget proliferated throughout the year.
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...
What are journalists missing from the state of Delaware? What would you most like WHYY News to cover? Let us know. A Delaware doctor who ordered medically unnecessary genetic cancer tests for 103 ...