Headline Roundup • November 3rd, 2022
White House Deletes Tweet Crediting Biden for Social Security Increase After Fact-Check
Facts And Fact Checking,Inflation,Social Security,White House,Joe Biden,Economy And Jobs,Misinformation And Disinformation
Summary from the AllSides News Team
The White House deleted a tweet crediting President Joe Biden for this year's Social Security increase after Twitter added a fact-check to it.
What Happened: The White House tweeted Tuesday that "Seniors are getting the biggest increase in their Social Security checks in 10 years through President Biden’s leadership." Some time later, an "added context" disclaimer appeared alongside the tweet, noting that seniors "will receive a large Social Security benefit increase due to the annual cost of living adjustment, which is based on the inflation rate." The tweet was then taken down.
For Context: The Social Security cost-of-living adjustment this year is 8.7%, the highest since 1981. This is due mainly to inflation also hitting 40-year highs, rather than a decision by the president. A 1972 law requires automatic Social Security benefit adjustments tied to the Consumer Price Index (CPI). New Twitter boss Elon Musk said after that "awesome" added context feature is part of his goal "to make Twitter the most accurate source of information on Earth, without regard to political affiliation."
How the Media Covered It: Center-and right-rated outlets covered the story much more than left-rated outlets did. Sources on all sides labeled the tweet "misleading." National Review said the tweet was "bragging" about Biden, and New York Post (Lean Right bias) said the White House was "shamed" into deleting it. CNN said Biden's Social Security "boasts leave out critical context."
Featured Coverage of this Story
WIN MCNAMEE/GETTY IMAGES
The White House deleted a tweet Wednesday crediting President Joe Biden for a forthcoming increase in monthly Social Security payments for seniors, following widespread backlash that led to a fact-check noting that the increase was automatic, which brand-new Twitter CEO Elon Musk hailed as an “awesome” feature on the platform.
The White House account claimed, “Seniors are getting the biggest increase in their Social Security checks in ten years through President Biden’s leadership,” but a note was later added pointing out that the increase is due to a law President...
Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
The White House on Wednesday quietly deleted a tweet from the prior day boasting that Social Security payouts have risen the greatest amount in ten years under the Biden administration.
The now-scrubbed tweet read, “Seniors are getting the biggest increase in their Social Security checks in 10 years through President Biden’s leadership.”
Some time after the tweet went live, an “added context” disclaimer appeared on the text, noting that the increase wasn’t an intentional decision on the part of the president’s.
“Seniors will receive a large Social Security benefit increase due to the...
CNN Fact Check
President Joe Biden keeps touting the size of next year’s increase in Social Security payments.
But his boasts leave out critical context: Biden doesn’t explain that the reason the 2023 increase will be unusually large is that the inflation rate has been unusually large. Nor was that context included in a misleading post from the White House’s Twitter account on Tuesday – a post the White House deleted on Wednesday after it was widely criticized and Twitter affixed a fact-check to it.
In addition, during a speech in Florida on Tuesday,...
