{"id":3629,"date":"2021-05-21T08:48:16","date_gmt":"2021-05-21T12:48:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/?p=3629"},"modified":"2021-05-21T08:53:43","modified_gmt":"2021-05-21T12:53:43","slug":"rep-matt-maddock-demonstrates-hypocrisy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/?p=3629","title":{"rendered":"Rep. Matt Maddock Demonstrates Hypocrisy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/JPA292.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"560\" height=\"410\" src=\"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/JPA292.jpg\" alt=\"Rep. Matt Maddock Demonstrates Hypocrisy\" class=\"wp-image-3630\" srcset=\"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/JPA292.jpg 560w, http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/JPA292-300x220.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 560px) 100vw, 560px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>I hesitated to draw this cartoon because Michigan state Rep. Matt Maddock (R-Milford) is not widely known. That&#8217;s a good thing, and I don&#8217;t really want to change that. He&#8217;s clearly one of those &#8220;rally the base&#8221; sort of attention seekers who are better off left alone to shake their tiny fists and scream into the void.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Except, of course, when they appear to be doing something truly dangerous, which is exactly what Maddock did last week in proposing a law that would require fact-checkers to register with the state. The Maddock bill would, as the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/nation\/2021\/05\/12\/michigan-matt-maddock-fact-checkers\/\"><em>Washington Post<\/em>\u00a0reported<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>Require fact-checkers to register with the state and insure themselves with $1 million fidelity bonds. Any fact-checker who did not register with the state could face a $1,000 per day fine. The proposed legislation would also allow anyone to sue a fact-checker over \u201cany wrongful conduct that is a violation of the laws of this state.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>So, who or what is a fact-checker? Nobody really knows. But it could be, very conveniently, anybody (especially journalists) who might challenge, find evidence, and refute what Maddock (or his wife, who is co-chair of the Michigan GOP) say is true. Coincidentally, this happens A LOT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Beyond being a serious attack on the First Amendment, it is the exact opposite of the &#8220;government can&#8217;t be trusted&#8221; ideology he and his colleagues supposedly live by. And yes, there&#8217;s very little\u00a0chance that this bill will ever become law \u2014 Gov. Whitmer would never sign it. Still, it&#8217;s&#8230;well, this is how the conservative\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.detroitnews.com\/story\/opinion\/editorials\/2021\/05\/19\/editorial-ditch-idea-registering-fact-checkers\/5145956001\/\"><em>Detroit News<\/em>\u00a0editorial board put it<\/a>:\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>&#8220;A group of Michigan Republican lawmakers is floating the\u00a0idea of registering &#8220;fact checkers&#8221; with the state. It flies in the face of the First Amendment, and they should ditch this dangerous and dumb idea.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I hesitated to draw this cartoon because Michigan state Rep. Matt Maddock (R-Milford) is not widely known. That&#8217;s a good thing, and I don&#8217;t really want to change that. He&#8217;s clearly one of those &#8220;rally the base&#8221; sort of attention seekers who are better off left alone to shake their tiny fists and scream into [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,13,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorial-cartoon","category-michiganpress-org","category-michiganradio-org"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3629"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3629\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3633,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3629\/revisions\/3633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}