The Associated Press (AP), a far-left propaganda outlet that spreads misinformation and conspiracy theories, published a “fact check” with the obvious hope of spreading an absurd smear about Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance.
The Wednesday headline read: “No, JD Vance did not have sex with a couch”
CLAIM: Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance wrote in his 2016 memoir about having sex with a couch.
AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. Vance does not write about performing such an act in his bestselling book. A searchable PDF of the memoir includes 10 mentions of the word “couch” or “couches,” none of which are related to accounts of salacious escapades. Some social media users have claimed the story appears on pages 179 to 181, where Vance actually writes about his first days as a freshman at The Ohio State University.
This is how devious the AP is…
The fact check wasn’t based on a false claim made by a prominent Democrat or someone in the media, so there was no valid reason for the AP to blow a false rumor up into a high-profile AP fact check. But the AP wants this false rumor out there. It wants to blow it up. The AP understands that not everyone will read the fact check and that once the rumor is out there, it’s out there.
This indefensible fact check was nothing less than a fig leaf to use the power of the AP to give a humiliating lie rocket fuel. You see, there was nothing to debunk, really. But in order to justify spotlighting a lie, the AP used a couple of xweets written by a couple of nobodies.
The first xweet said, “Somebody please explain to me how JD Vance, who wrote about humping a couch and has only been a Senator for barely TWO f—— years, thinks he has the right to criticize Kamala Harris’ qualifications.”
The second one basically said the same:
In his dreadful novel, “Hillbilly Elegy,” JD Vance described having sex with a rubber glove secured between cushions on his couch. Republicans chose him to be one heartbeat away from becoming POTUS. Voters in NC, the U.S. furniture capital, should be particularly horrified.
Who does fact checks based on a couple of xweets written by nobodies?
It’s ridiculous, it’s highly partisan, and it’s the AP using a fact check to give a false rumor a national perch.
The AP concludes, “[A]t no point in his memoir does Vance write about performing sex acts on a couch.”
The whole thing is ridiculous and deliberately so…
“A searchable PDF of ‘Hillbilly Elegy’ mentions the word ‘couch’ or ‘couches’ 10 times,” reads the fact check, “never in reference to the story being told on social media. Instead, these passages describe couches being used for typical reasons, such as sitting and sleeping”:
An Associated Press reporter reviewed pages 179 to 181 in a physical copy of “Hillbilly Elegy” — a first edition from 2016 — and found that they actually recount Vance’s first days as a freshman at The Ohio State University in 2007. Topics he covers include arriving on campus for orientation, his proximity to his hometown, the “brain drain” phenomenon, filling out financial aid forms and his desire to go to law school.
You may be thinking, Hey, what’s the problem? The AP reported that the claim was false.
Wake up. Sure, the AP has since retracted the fact-check, but that doesn’t matter. This is the AP handing the left-wing Late Night guys and Saturday Night Live 100 days’ worth of jokes. The AP knows this can stick to Vance in the same way the lie about former Gov. Sarah Palin claiming she could see Russia from her house stuck.
It’s already bearing fruit.
No matter how much you hate the media, it will never be enough.
John Nolte’s first and last novel, Borrowed Time, is winning five-star raves from everyday readers. You can read an excerpt here and an in-depth review here. Also available in hardcover and on Kindle and Audiobook.
