Today White House press secretary Sean Spicer affirmed that it is the position of the White House that 3 to 5 million people voted illegally in the most 2016 presidential election. As I and many others have already covered, this did not happen.

If you click that first link above, you’ll see it goes to a New York Post story on the topic. Ordinarily I would never link to the Post, because I think it is a disgusting publication and I think that the mere act of remaining in its employment after the paper’s series of horrifying journalistic and moral failures in recent years (that’s three different links and each is appalling in its own way!) is suggestive of a moral deficiency in one’s self. But I have to read the Post for work purposes, and I was surprised to see that it covered the story responsibly this time. 

Its story begins:

“Donald Trump’s spokesman on Tuesday doubled down on the president’s claims that more than 3 million people voted illegally on Election Day — a claim that has been thoroughly debunked.”

This is the New York Post – a newspaper that that is so strongly right-leaning that New York’s Democratic mayor won’t even answer its reporters’ questions at press conferences (which is also stupid, by the way). And yet here they* are calling President Trump and the White House press secretary liars. Good for them. President Trump and the White House press secretary are liars, and they should be called on their lies at every opportunity, by every media outlet.

After correctly pointing out that the claims of widespread illegal voting have been debunked, the Post also correctly points out that Spicer “repeatedly declined to provide any evidence of what would have been the most egregious case of voter fraud in history.”

I know I said this, like, two blog posts ago, but here it is again: When you make outlandish claims, the burden of proof is on you, not on the people who dispute those claims. You can’t come out as the motherfucking White House press secretary and make an allegation like this and then just stand there like a mute idiot when you’re asked to provide a modicum of evidence to support your statement.

It pains me to say this, but I am grateful to the Post for its honest coverage of this issue. I may have to re-evaluate my opinion of the publication if they continue to hold Trump and his lackeys accountable like this.

By the way, you want to know another right-leaning source that has trashed Trump’s ridiculous lies on this topic? Republican Speaker of the House Paul Ryan. That’s right, the man who is third in line to the presidency, and arguably the second most powerful person in the Republican Party, refuses to get on board with Trump’s lies. And Republican Senator Lindsey Graham (cue the obligatory Trump retort: “HE RAN AGAINST ME! HE GOT ZERO PERCENT!”) also repudiated Trump, saying “I am begging the president, share with us the information you have about this or please stop saying it.”

You see, facts are not partisan things. And there are some people, and some organizations, that still believe facts are important, regardless of whose agenda those facts may support or undermine.

The problem is that there don’t appear to be enough such people and organizations. It is on us to create more.

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(*Yes, I switched from a singular pronoun to a plural pronoun. The singular is obviously correct – the NY Post is one newspaper – but writing sentences to fit the singular pronoun began to feel too stilted. I’m sure this note was of great interest to you.)