Biden officials successfully pressured fact-checker to alter gas stoves ban rating: Watchdog
By
Gabe Kaminsky
April 11, 2024 4:35 pm
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The Biden administration worked successfully to pressure the fact-checking website Snopes to change its accuracy rating for whether a federal gas stoves ban was under consideration, a watchdog said based on internal emails.
Republican lawmakers raised concerns after commissioner Richard Trumka Jr. of the Consumer Product Safety Commission proposed the idea in 2022 of a ban on gas stoves to protect the climate, prompting Snopes in early January 2023 to issue a “mixture” rating on its accuracy level. In the initial fact-check, Snopes said the CPSC was “currently considering a ban on gas stoves if they can’t be made safer, due to concerns over harmful indoor pollutants that cause health and respiratory problems,” though noted that “the ban has not been put in place,” according to archived records.
Trumka Jr. had previously told Bloomberg that gas stoves are a “hidden hazard,” noting, “Any option is on the table. Products that can’t be made safe can be banned.” However, on Jan. 11, 2023, just one day after Snopes issued the initial “mixture” rating on its fact-check, the rating was quietly updated to “false,” noting that the CPSC, a federal agency, “is not currently considering a ban on gas stoves, though a commissioner said ‘anything is on the table’ if they can’t be made safer, due to concerns over harmful indoor pollutants that cause health and respiratory problems.”
That critical change was made after the CPSC apparently pressured Snopes on an adjustment, according to emails obtained by the Functional Government Initiative, a watchdog group investigating the Biden administration.
“Sent over tough letter to this writer yesterday when the initial claim was rated as ‘mixed,'” Pamela Rucker Springs, the spokeswoman for the CPSC, told White House assistant press secretary Michael Kikukawa in an email on Jan. 11, 2023. The email linked to the latest version of the fact-check from Snopes.
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https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/white-house/2962351/biden-officials-successfully-pressured-fact-checker-to-alter-gas-stoves-ban-rating-watchdog/
