Fun with Fact-Checking

Yesterday, there was a disheartening (or perhaps even disturbing) story about a fellow named Mark Fisher who was on Fox explaining that as co-founder of the Black Lives Matter branch in Rhode Island, they were endorsing Trump for president, adding that he felt “No one has done more for the Black community than President Trump.”
 
Needless-to-say, Fox played up their interview with Fisher, as did Trump, thanking BLM for their endorsement and posting the video of the interview.
 
Putting aside that I was hard-pressed to figure one thing that Trump had done for the Black community, other than praise   the anti-Semitic Kanye West, who has said he likes Hitler and loves the Nazis, it was nonetheless troubling to see even just one branch of Black Lives Matter endorse Trump, even a branch with probably fewer Black people than you’d find at a performance of the musical Legally Blonde.
 
But there was a twist to the story.  A twist that would impress even the most convoluted bag of pretzels.
 
It turned out that later in the day, the Rhode Island Black Lives Matter organization put out a statement.  They wrote that –
 
"In response to recent media coverage, we would like to clarify that Mark Fisher is not and has never been affiliated with our organization. The views expressed by Mr. Fisher in the referenced Fox News segment do not reflect the values or beliefs of BLM RH PAC."
 
In fact, Rhode Island BLM felt that this didn’t go far enough, and even felt it was important to release a second statement –
 
"We would like to emphasize that Mark Fisher claims association with Black Lives Matter Rhode Island, a non profit organization. Any statements or actions attributed to him should not be conflated with our organization."
 
So…yeah, as for a Black Lives Matter branch endorsing Trump…no, not so much.  And the idea was so anathema to BLM that they put out two denials.
 
As a result, Fox now has a double quandary.
 
The first is explaining to viewers why an organization Fox has long-positioned as being made up of nothing more than violent rioters is now one that they now say is worth admiring.
 
And the second is that, after promoting Mr. Fisher, having to do a mea culpa after the Rhode Island BLM has said the guy is not affiliated with them.  So, viewers could go back to hating the organization.
 
This is known as a Trust Issue.  Or in shorter terms -- oops.
 
And then there’s the Trump quandary, as well.  After all, he not only posted the interview video on his site, but also thanked BLM – a group he has vilified – for supposedly supporting him.
 
After all this, there is still some uncertainty about if Fisher was, in fact, involved with Rhode Island BLM at some point, and then resigned.  But the larger point is that given that the official BLM online account disclaims the comments by Mark Fisher and says he is not affiliated with them -- which he himself acknowledges is a letter -- then it's fair to say that the main, demonstrable point is that...Rhode Island Black Lives Matter has not endorsed Trump.  Period.
 
Egg meet face.