Fact-checking is such a weird trend in journalism because the whole point of journalism is to address and/or state the facts. That is the entire point of what they do.

And if we’re being honest, fact-checking has really become a means for journalists to more outwardly and publicly disagree with politicians (more often than not, Republican ones).

One can argue that holding politicians accountable is a necessary job of journalism, and I don’t disagree. However, if you are fact-checking a politician, it helps if you fact check claims they actually made.

Enter NPR, with arguably the most ridiculous fact check I’ve seen from a non-Politifact source.

FACT CHECK: President Trump praised the record number of women in Congress, but that's almost entirely because of Democrats, not Trump’s party. https://t.co/cbixnX8mnk pic.twitter.com/GBppTBkZTI

— NPR Politics (@nprpolitics) February 6, 2019

The problem with this fact check is that Trump never claimed it was due to the Republicans that more women were in Congress. Here is the segment where he mentioned it.

As we work to defend our people’s safety, we must also ensure our economic resurgence continues at a rapid pace. No one has benefitted more from our thriving economy than women, who have filled 58% of the new jobs created in the last year.

You were not supposed to do that. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. All Americans can be proud that we have more women in the workforce than ever before. Don’t sit yet. You are going to like this.

And exactly one century after the Congress passed the constitutional amendment giving women the right to vote, we also have more women serving in the Congress than ever before.

That’s great. Very great. And congratulations. That’s great. As part of our commitment to improving opportunity for women everywhere, this Thursday we are launching the first ever government-wide initiative focused on economic empowerment for women in developing countries.

That’s it. He did not once say “Thanks to Republicans, we have more women than ever in Congress.”

That’s why this fact check is so stupid. It is checking a claim Trump never made. It gives the impression Trump made the claim, but he did not. The only reason you would release this, then, is to cheerlead for the Democrats in getting more women elected to Congress.

That is, of course, not objective, unbiased journalism. That is straight-up advocacy, and stupidly obvious advocacy at that. Shame on NPR for allowing that to be written in any form.