Latest Fact Check

FACT CHECK: Security Personnel Did Not Set Fire at North Dakota Pipeline Protest

April 8, 2019

CLAIM: The Albuquerque Journal reports that “someone set some army trucks parked on a bridge on fire” at the Standing Rock pipeline protest in 2016, and that “some thought it was the work of security details dressed as protesters.” The Journal also quotes an activist photographer as saying, “There’s this huge issue of who set those trucks on fire” because security “wanted to keep their jobs; they were making $1 million a month.”

RATING: False

FACT CHECK

The Journal quotes the claims uncritically but fails to mention that seven people were charged with federal crimes in conjunction with the protest, …

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FACT CHECK: Missouri Legislation Poses No Threat To First Amendment

April 5, 2019

CLAIM: The editorial board at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch claims that legislation before the Missouri General Assembly designed to discourage violent and destructive behavior by protesters at pipelines and pipeline construction sites instead “aims to silence environmentalists.”

RATING: False

FACT CHECK

The text of the bill – Senate Bill 293 – makes clear that the legislation poses no threat to the First Amendment rights of environmentalists to gather peacefully and share their concerns about pipeline projects.

Instead, the legislation states:

A person commits the offense of trespass on a critical infrastructure facility if he or she unlawfully trespasses

…
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