Big Pharma Funds COVID Fact Checkers
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FactCheck.org, the organization that flags “misleading” COVID-19 content for Facebook, is supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a nonprofit funded by vaccine maker Johnson & Johnson, YouTube commentator Jimmy Dore reported.
FactCheck.org, the organization that flags “misleading” COVID-19 content for Facebook, is supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a philanthropic organization funded by pharmaceutical giant and vaccine maker Johnson & Johnson (J&J), YouTube commentator Jimmy Dore reported.
Dore said his own shows have often been slapped with a “misleading” label when he covered issues related to COVID-19 or vaccines.
“These fact check organizations aren’t there to check facts,” Dore said. “They’re there to push a political point of view and an agenda and to discredit people.”
Dore said when the organization “fact-checked” his work in the past, its claims were always “bogus.” He said FactCheck.org never reached out to consult him about his content, it twisted his words and it never even pointed to any erroneous facts.
Instead, he said, “They didn’t like my headlines,” and they would say they were misleading.
Johnson & Johnson’s viral vector COVID-19 vaccine received emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in February 2021. After the shot was linked to dangerous blood clots, its use was suspended a couple of months later and it was eventually completely pulled from the market in May 2023.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation was established in 1952 by Robert Wood Johnson II, who ran J&J with a bequest of shares from the pharmaceutical giant. Today, although the foundation says it has diversified its holdings, it holds nearly $2 billion in J&J stock.
Its current CEO, Dr. Richard Besser, formerly worked at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where he was acting director during the H1N1 outbreak.
When Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) first sounded the alarm in 2021 about FactCheck.org on Twitter (now X), the organization responded by saying, “The views expressed by FactCheck.org do not necessarily reflect the views of the foundation.”
The organization continues to receive funding from Robert Wood Johnson for its work “correcting health misinformation.” It reiterates on its website, the foundation “has no control over our editorial decisions.”
“The fact checking organization,” Dore said, quoting Michael Rectenwald, Ph.D., “is in collusion with Big Pharma.”
Watch ‘The Jimmy Dore Show’ here:
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