Republican Proposes Legislation To Punish Fact Checkers After He's Caught Lying

Republicans in Michigan have proposed legislation that would force fact checkers at media organizations to register with the state and to pay hefty fines if the lawmakers "deem" the outlet to be incorrect. This came about after a Republican lawmaker, Matt Maddock, was repeatedly called out by fact checkers for lying to the public. Farron Cousins explains what's happening.

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*This transcript was auto-generated. Please excuse any typos.

Republicans in the state of Michigan recently introduced legislation to hold those pesky little fact-checkers accountable for calling out politicians who lie. See, before I get to what this legislation does. I got to take you back in time a little bit, because this legislation was actually sponsored by a Michigan state lawmaker Republican by the name of Matt Maddick and Mr. Maddock. And both in his wife had both been called out by fact checkers on social media for repeatedly lying. And it got to the point where MADEC and his wife were being called out so frequently by the fact checkers on social media, that MADEC decided to sit down, carve out this new legislation, get all of his Republican buddies in Michigan to support it. And what this legislation would do is it would force fact checkers to ensure themselves at least a million dollars. So they'd have to buy special fact-checker insurance. They would also have to register with the state.

So I don't, I, I don't, I don't, I don't quite know what that means. Like if you're not a registered fact checker, and then you check somebody faxed, ma maybe you get fined for it. I'm assuming that's what they're going to do. So if you're not a registered fact checker in the state of Michigan under this Republican law, uh, you might get sued. You might get a find. I don't know. And also if they, which I'm assuming means lawmakers, the Republican lawmakers, if they deem what you say as a fact checker, to be an accurate, you get fined as well. Now that's the way I said that if they deem what you say to be an accurate, they find you not. If they find what you say to be an act, none, if they find it not, if they prove what you've said is false. If they deem it, if they think it, if they say, you know what, you're wrong and you fact check, boom, pay me a hundred bucks.

That

That's what this is. That's what's in the legislation. It gives these idiot Republicans who are so afraid of the truth. The ability to determine whether or not a fact checker is telling the truth without having to actually have the facts. We're kind of living in topsy, topsy, turvy, crazy world. Now, I mean, really that's the point we're at as a country. None of this makes any sense. You know what? I sit here and I do this every single day. You're both here and at ring of fire and every day the news is crazier. And this is one of those stories that, that really just makes you, I don't know. I don't know. It leaves you speechless because it's so stupid and so crazy. And of course, so authoritarian, because that's what this is. These are publicans in the state of Michigan. Want to create their own Orwellian version of the ministry of truth. And even when you have the people out there, job, it is to look things up and find out if something is right or wrong, they want the final say to say, Nope, you say it's right, but we say, it's wrong. Therefore, we are right. And you have to find, well, you have to be fine. You have to be punished. You have to be punished for telling a truth. We didn't want you to tell

That's the country we're living in today. And if

For some reason, which I do not think it will. Thank God. If this does pass in Michigan, guess what?

This is a blueprint and it's a blueprint

That will be followed by other red states. They will do the same thing until fact checking in the United States becomes illegal.

Don't believe me, just look at Michigan.