This morning, I saw a post that put Disney’s original Pinocchio with Kamala Harris and attributed a quote to her: “I smoked weed in college and listened to Snoop Dogg and Tupac.”

My first reaction was distaste that Disney’s classic animation for being pulled into a political swamp. My second was to search the quote and nothing comes up on 16 August 2024 at 8 a.m. using Google and quotes. That should change is not because of this blog because of others.

Searching for the Truth

I then did the following searches:

• Kamala smoked weed in college
• Kamala listened to Snoop Dogg and Tupac

The top two results for the first were:

• What Do Marijuana, the Death Penalty and Fracking Have in Common? Harris Shifted Positions on Them (15 August 2024)
• No One Should Got to Jail for ‘Smoking Weed,’ VP Harris Says at White House (15 March 2024)

The top results for the second were:

• Kamala Harris Did Not Say She Listened to Snoop Dogg and Tupac While Smoking Marijuana in College (20 August 2020)
• A Play-By-Play of Kamala Harris Admitting She Smoked Weed (13 February 2019)
• Kamala Harris’s Jamaican Father Wasn’t Amused by her Joke About Marijuana Use  (21 February 2019)
• Kamala Harris Is Accused of Lying About Listening to Tupac. Here’s What Actually Happened. (13 February 2019)
• Kamala Harris’s Blackness Isn’t Up for Debate (16 February 2019)

The Reuters article notes:

In the interview, Charlamagne Tha God asks Harris if she has ever smoked marijuana and Harris responds that she has ( youtu.be/Kh_wQUjeaTk?t=2193 ). Later in the interview, DJ Envy asks Harris what music she listens to. Before she has a chance to answer, Charlamagne Tha God interrupts by asking what music Harris listened to while smoking marijuana in college ( youtu.be/Kh_wQUjeaTk?t=2288 ).

Harris laughs but ignores Charlamagne Tha God’s question and responds to the original query of what music she listens to by saying “Snoop Dogg”, “Tupac” and adds that she loves “Cardi B”.

Fox News later discussed the interview and both hosts of The Breakfast Club appeared on MSNBC to address the confusion and the Fox News interpretation.

DJ Envy explained that, “I mean, we wanted to humanize [Harris], not just talk about politics, talk about what she likes, what she does, and I asked what she listens to and she said she listens to Snoop Dogg and Tupac. At the same time, my co-host was still talking about the marijuana and it was just a funny exchange. But she was actually answering me, and people took that she was answering Charlamagne and said she was lying, which is not true.” ( here )

Consider the Source

Having understood what the basis for the problem, I think looked to the source of this image: IJR or Independent Journalism Review.

What does IJR say about itself?

What’s probably more important is what do other websites say about IJR? I consulted three different websites.

AllSides gives IJR a medium confidence rating in 2023.

Ad Fontes Media rates this as mixed reliability.

Media Bias Fact Check rates it as “mostly factual.”

Yet Media Bias Fact Check also notes: “IJR lacks transparency as they do not list editors or disclose ownership.”

I was and probably have always been a fact-checker. Every publication needs a proofreader/fact checker, but often those positions are the first cute. I’m left thinking that someone got paid to do that meme and didn’t do any fact checking. Moreover, I know that fact checkers are not popular people. I should not lose friends over this, but I do.  In today’s world, it is easy to fact check. Please fact check before sharing posts. Your friends who fact check you are doing you a favor; treat them kindly.