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‘Stop the Steal’ Republican Wants to Charge News Outlets $1M to Fact Check

In a total coincidence, claims from Donald Trump and others about Michigan’s election have been repeatedly fact-checked.
A fan holds up a fake news sign during a college basketball game between the St. Bonaventure Bonnies and the George Washington Colonials at the Smith Center on March 2, 2019 in Washington, DC.
 A fan holds up a fake news sign during a college basketball game between the St. Bonaventure Bonnies and the George Washington Colonials at the Smith Center on March 2, 2019 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images)

A state legislator in Michigan who attended the “Stop the Steal” rally Jan. 6 wants to “put fact-checkers on notice” by requiring them to register with the government and put up a $1 million bond in order to do their jobs, in what he himself admits is an act of pure retaliation.

State Rep. Matt Maddock filed the “Fact Checker Registration Act” in the Michigan House of Representatives Tuesday, targeting people and organizations who publish in Michigan and are paid by fact-checking organizations registered with Poynter’s International Fact Check Network. 

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There are 13 U.S.-based news organizations registered with the IFCN, including USA Today, the Associated Press, the Washington Post, and Politifact, which co-publishes Politifact Michigan along with the Detroit Free Press. Nearly every fact-check the latter has made since November has involved claims by Republican politicians and conservative websites about the election, with the overwhelming majority of claims being proven false. 

In addition to the bond, the bill would create a mechanism by which an “affected party” could sue to claim the bond, as long as they can “demonstrate to the district court any wrongful conduct that is a violation of the laws of this state.” Fact-checkers who violate the law could also be fined up to $1,000 per day. 

Maddock reportedly first raised the idea of creating a fact-checking license back in December, in a tweet that also called for burning Dominion Voting Machines “so we don't use them in future elections,” according to the Detroit News. (Maddock’s Twitter account has since disappeared, though he created a new one in March 2021.) Last week, Maddock wrote on Facebook that the “enormous economic and social power” of fact-checkers “is being abused.”

“Social media companies deplatform people, politicians, and businesses on the basis of ‘fact checkers’ who relish their roles punishing those whom they deem ‘false,’” Maddock wrote May 6. “My legislation will put fact-checkers on notice: Don't be wrong, don't be sloppy, and you better be right.”

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Maddock was heavily involved in the effort to overturn the results of the election, as he and another Republican lawmaker, Daire Rendon, were originally listed as plaintiffs in a lawsuit aiming to force state legislatures to certify the election, the central argument of which a federal judge said “lies somewhere between a willful misreading of the Constitution and fantasy.” Joe Biden won Michigan by more than 150,000 votes. (Maddock said after the lawsuit was filed that “what was eventually filed is very different than what was initially discussed.”)

Maddock also supported a bid by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to throw out the election results, which the Supreme Court declined to hear. And on Jan. 6, Maddock attended the “Stop the Steal” rally in D.C. along with his wife, Michigan GOP co-chair Meshawn Maddock. Democratic lawmakers introduced a resolution to censure Maddock over his attendance. 

The fact-checking bill is being co-sponsored by eight Republicans. Democratic state senator Jeremy Moss, a member of the minority leadership, pointed out the irony of purportedly small-government conservatives creating a government registry for journalists publishing stuff they don’t like. 

“This is an affront to the First Amendment,” Moss told the Detroit News.