After quickly revising its first fact-check on a picture of President Biden sporting a hard hat backward, the left-leaning fact-checker Snopes came under fire on social media.
The Democrat senator from Minnesota, Amy Klobuchar, posted the President’s picture to X. The picture quickly gained traction online.
Reports show Snopes’ first fact check sought to clarify the look. It said the picture was real, and it seemed like Biden had the hard helmet on backward. But Snopes came to the opposite conclusion after comparing it to other images and recordings of the same event. Biden’s hat was pointing forward, not backward.
Several social media images about the occasion included other employees donning hard helmets, one looking quite identical to the one worn by the president. The President stopped in Superior, Wisconsin, and unveiled a nationwide infrastructure investment program totaling $5 billion.
In response to growing criticism on social media, Snopes retracted the fact check and provided an update.
Snopes wrote that a common rebuttal holds that if the hat’s suspension has been adjusted by the owner to wear the bill and tightening knob to the back (like Biden’s hat), then wearing the hat forward with its bill facing forward is essentially wearing it backward. In light of this, one may argue that Biden was wearing it backward at the picture session in question. Instead of being behind Biden’s head, the strap and knob were resting on his forehead. These arguments were made evident. Hence, it was re-rated as truthful, and the claim is accurate.
Mark Hemingway, a senior writer for Real Clear Politics, said if you want to see how eager ‘fact checkers’ are to come to the aid of Democrats, just look at that Snopes post. The piece would never have been published if a Republican wore his cap backward.
Someone else on X provided a hard hat guide and explanation.
In the past, Snopes has retracted its statements on various occasions. The OceanGate submersible went missing in June 2023, and Snopes revised its rating in response to a suggestion that billionaire Elon Musk’s Starlink firm was partly to blame.
Snopes revised the fact check to state that the assertion that Musk’s firm was partially responsible was unsubstantiated, but after adding information, Snopes eventually deemed the allegation untrue.
