Snopes caves after people with real-world experience point out its 'fact-check' about Biden was false

Snopes, a media outfit still regarded by some as an arbiter of truth and a checker of facts, has issued a correction after pushing a blatant falsehood that painted President Joe Biden in a positive light.

Biden was in Wisconsin last week, hyping his administration's pre-election injection of taxpayer funds into infrastructure projects in the swing state. During his promotional tour, the 81-year-old Democrat joined Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) in visiting a construction site in Superior.

While Biden managed to keep his footing this time around, he nevertheless set himself up for ridicule during a photo op by wearing a construction hat backward, as indicated by the nape strap planted firmly on his forehead.

Critics on social media quickly descended on the post, claiming the geriatric Democrat's inability to properly don a hard hat further exemplified his detachment from working-class Americans along with his decrepitude.

Snopes swooped in with a so-called "fact-check" Friday, stating the claim, "President Joe Biden wore a hard hat backwards during a photo op with union construction workers in Superior, Wisconsin," was "False."

"Social media users not particularly friendly to the president were quick to identify what they took to be a gaffe on Biden' part: He appeared to be wearing a hard hat backwards," wrote Snopes' so-called fact-checker David Emery.

While Emery conceded the photo was genuine, he claimed that all those with real-world insights into how a hard hat should be worn were still wrong: "The hat on Biden's head was facing forward, bill to the front, not backward."

In his "fact-check," Emery included multiple images showing the construction worker whose hat Biden donned wearing the exact same hat the correct way. Those images were not, however, enough to shake Emery of his "particularly friendly" conviction that Biden was in the right.

Snopes' false fact-check sparked significant backlash and mockery, even among contributors to news publications with similar credibility problems.

David Urban, an American lobbyist and CNN commentator, wrote, "C'mon man!' @snopes you blew this one #BIGLY! As anyone who has ever touched a hard hat can tell you, @JoeBiden is wearing it #backward!"

Another critic noted that "all Snopes had to do (besides have any experience at all wearing a helmet) is simply open any user manual or instructions. ... He's wearing the nape strap in the front. Nape literally means 'back of the neck'. He's wearing it backward. This isn't rocket science!"

Podcaster Tim Pool wrote, "The reality is that snopes writers don't know how hard hats work."

Emery, who days earlier claimed, "Social media is making us stupid," responded to the backlash, tweeting, "TIL that literally everyone on X was a construction worker for 40 years."

Snopes made a complete about-face on Jan. 27, changing its rating of the initial claim from false to true.

"We received a ton of comments in a very short time challenging our assumption that wearing a hard hat 'backwards' means wearing it with the brim facing to the rear, and 'forwards' means means wearing it brim to the front," said an editor's note appended to the revised fact check.

"The prevailing counter-argument is that if the suspension of the hat has been purposely configured by its owner such that the bill and tightening knob are worn to the back (as was the case of the hat Biden wore), to wear that hat with the bill facing forward is, practically speaking, to wear it backwards," continued the editor's note. "Therefore, it's argued, it's actually true that, in the photo op discussed below, Biden was wearing it backwards. The strap and tightening knob, which should have been behind Biden's head, were on his forehead. A corollary to that argument is 'Biden looks damn silly in any case.'"

"We find these arguments sound. Therefore, the claim 'President Joe Biden wore a hard hat backwards during a photo op with union construction workers in Superior, Wisconsin' is true, and this fact check has been re-rated as such," added the note.

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