Truth takes a holiday

To paraphrase one of the relatively few Mark Twain quips that isn’t an online fabrication, the report of Nancy Pelosi’s arrest was an exaggeration.

Debunking the Pelosi perp walk, first “reported” by a website styling itself America’s Last Line of Defense, won’t strike most news consumers as pressing business. If the former House speaker really were “just taken from her office in handcuffs,” the news would be leading every mainstream outlet, not emanating from an obscure corner of the Internet.

Give PolitiFact California credit for putting itself through the paces anyway amid a “fact-check-a-thon” of fake news conducted Sunday, which was — in case you weren’t invited to any fact-checking holiday parties — the inaugural International Fact-Checking Day. Celebrated the day after April Fool’s, it was described as “a rallying cry for more facts — and factchecking — in politics, journalism and everyday life.”

Alongside examinations of such fictitious events as pot brownie sales at the Colorado Rockies’ stadium and a “Star Wars” sequel shooting outside Houston, the Pelosi exercise turns up a case-closing disclaimer on the originating website, which says it includes “facts that don’t necessarily exist” and quotes that are “total baloney.”

The Kremlin, President Trump and countless clickfarming sites have helped make these the best and worst of times for the trade marked by the new holiday. The facts have rarely been more thoroughly checked — or more widely ignored.