Snopes' “Fine People on Both Sides” Debunk Too Little, Too Late

Cheers to Snopes for finally telling the truth. But nearly a decade after the initial lie is way too late to make a difference

It appears Hell has frozen over as left-wing “fact-checker” Snopes actually did their job for once. The thinly-veiled DNC propaganda organ released a fact check last week confirming that former President Donald Trump did not call neo-Nazis and white following the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. 

“While Trump did say that there were "very fine people on both sides," he also specifically noted that he was not talking about neo-Nazis and white supremacists and said they should be "condemned totally,” Snopes noted. “Therefore, we have rated this claim "False."

It’s a massive shift from the left’s previous comments on the matter. 

At the time, multiple outlets parroted the lie that Trump praised white supremacists and Nazis. The Atlantic ran a story titled “Trump Defends White-Nationalist Protesters: 'Some Very Fine People on Both Sides” while NBC argued that Trump had “lost his moral authority for good” by “legitimizing last weekend’s white nationalist protest in Charlottesville.”

President Biden made Charlottesville central to his campaign, highlighting both the rally and Trump’s comments in his 2020 announcement video and declaring the election was a battle for the “soul of the nation.” Over ominous footage of tiki-torch bearing neo-Nazis, Biden repeated the lie that Trump had said there were very fine people on both sides and said “in that moment I knew the threat to this nation was unlike any I had ever seen in my lifetime.” 

Biden has continued to use Trump’s supposed love affair with the white supremacists at Charlottesville as a cudgel against him. Just last month, Biden tweeted “There were not fine people on both sides of Charlottesville” as media figures and pundits continued to parrot the lie. 

Biden was only able to get away with lying endlessly about his political opposition because the mainstream media was willing to collaborate with him and do whatever it took to prevent him from winning reelection. 

Snopes may think it’s doing right by the American people by rectifying the “fine people” conspiracy, but it’s seven years after the fact and the damage is done. Is there anyone who has internalized the lie that Trump praised white supremacists who will suddenly be swayed by Snopes’ sudden about face? 

Of course not. Snopes, the media, and Biden all got what they wanted. The message has sunk in and there’s little to no risk of Americans who swallowed the narrative changing their minds. 

Astute observers of our media class may note this isn’t the first time the media and fact-checkers have colluded to create a narrative that they later quietly admit was bullshit. The Hunter Biden Laptop coverup falls into this category quite nicely, as the media breathlessly worked to devise a narrative that the laptop was Russian disinformation. 

That is, until, it was okay to say it wasn’t anymore. With an election won and Biden safely ensconced in the Oval Office, maybe now was the time to admit it wasn’t Kremlin propaganda and that there actually may have been a there there. 

While it is obviously a net positive that Snopes eventually made the right decision to do their jobs and actually tell the truth about Charlottesville, it’s irrelevant now. The best time to do this was in 2017 when it actually happened. Stating the obvious nearly a decade after the fact is entirely pointless and is clearly a weak attempt to portray some form of political neutrality. 

Hilariously, Snopes couldn’t resist taking a jab at Trump anyway, writing in an editor's note at the top of the article, 

Some readers have raised the objection that this fact check appears to assume Trump was correct in stating that there were "very fine people on both sides" of the Charlottesville incident. That is not the case. This fact check aimed to confirm what Trump actually said, not whether what he said was true or false. For the record, virtually every source that covered the Unite the Right debacle concluded that it was conceived of, led by and attended by white supremacists, and that therefore Trump was wrong. 

What this incident should teach Americans is that the media is 100% willing to lie to them to advance a narrative and will only reveal the truth once it can no longer damage that narrative. Snopes and other fact-checkers may try to commend themselves for telling the truth, but here the truth is a drop in a flood of lies. 

Too little, too late.