It might shock you to learn that politicians occasionally shade the truth.

Shocking, I know. But it has been known to happen once in a blue moon.

In light of this, the media invented the “fact check,” in which brave truth-telling journalists speak truth to power and hold them accountable for telling fibs.

In theory, the idea makes a great deal of sense. If journalists were honest brokers the public would benefit tremendously from the occasional fact check that probed the rare times politicians told fibs and exposed the truth. And, in rare cases, they actually do that.

But the reality is that most fact-checks are basically veiled Op/Eds designed to persuade people to the point of view held by the fact-checker. They are one more tool in the Narrative-building toolbox carried around by media hacks. It can be very effective because partisans can drop easy rebuttals to their opponents’ attacks, getting around the pesky need to defend the indefensible.

The Washington Post had a field day during Trump’s presidency, creating or feeding off a drumbeat that declared Donald Trump uniquely evil. There is more than a little irony in this, given how the Post along with the New York Times pushed the Russia Russia Russia narrative to death, with almost every single thing they said being an outright fabrication.

But the establishment loves the Post and hates Trump, and they had a big megaphone.

Now Trump was a master of hyperbole, so indeed he told some whoppers. Few of them were at all relevant or important, and most people knew how to parse out his words to distinguish fact from exaggeration. He is more a carnival barker or infomercial salesman than a political liar, and generally speaking, what you saw was what you got.

Unlike, say, “If you like your plan you can keep it.” That was an outright lie. Even the Washington Post admitted that although they never kept a running tally of Obama’s lies. Or Biden’s.

NBC tried to do a running fact-checking tally during the Republican debate Wednesday night, and as usual the fact-checkers were all about making their own point rather than holding the politicians accountable.

One “fact check” in particular stood out:

This falls into the “true but inconvenient” category of fact checks, which is what “half true” means in factcheckspeak.

It turns out that yes, Ron DeSantis did sign an executive order that resulted in 700 people returning from Israel to the United States, but Ron DeSantis didn’t carry them on his back, so really it isn’t true. He didn’t even fly the planes.

Instead, he simply mobilized his government, got somebody to organize the effort, and got the state to pay for the program.

But he didn’t personally “send the planes.”

This is half true. The Biden administration initially told Americans in Israel to take advantage of commercial flights on Oct. 9, but flights from Israel to the U.S. were scarce and prices were reportedly as high as $25,000. Some Americans in Israel at the time posted on social media that they were stranded.

On Oct. 12, DeSantis signed an executive order that allowed the Florida Division of Emergency Management to pay for Americans in Israel to fly back to the U.S. The flights, however, were organized by Tampa-based nonprofit Project Dynamo, which specializes in rescuing Americans in distress, and DeSantis’ primary role was to fund the flights.

This would be as if Biden sent military planes to evacuate Americans somewhere and then said “I got people out of Israel,” and NBC’s response was “Half true; the pilots were in the Air Force, and Biden is not.”

Not they would ever do that, of course. But you get the idea.

“Fact-checking” has turned out to be an incredibly useful tool for the MSM, because they can appear to be speaking ex-cathedra–this isn’t US, but the TRUTH itself. Facts don’t lie.

It is all crap. A steaming pile of crap. How surprising.