January 5, 2026<\/p>\n
Government leaders deploy up-is-down narratives at an exhausting clip. Online worlds drip with artificial intelligence-generated slop that incites rage. Chatbots answer questions with fabricated information, and the government folds it into a report card on America\u2019s health.<\/p>\n
The last 10 years have been an ugly era for facts, marked by a drumbeat of untruths and near-constant charges of “fake news” from the decade\u2019s most influential player, President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n
The trouble with drumbeats is, as a matter of survival or sanity, we tend to tune out or grow numb to them. Even people with influence who might lament “misinformation” move on to other fights. The word itself is downgraded \u2014 at best it\u2019s a red flag, at worst it\u2019s a punchline.<\/p>\n
I understand why the outlook feels hopeless, but it\u2019s time to revisit the basics of why it\u2019s important to call out lies. They\u2019re more than just words. Lies harm livelihoods and families.<\/p>\n
We have long stuck to the practice of not describing a falsehood or inaccuracy as a “lie,” because those three letters confer a degree of intent that we don\u2019t have the capacity to prove.<\/p>\n
There is one notable exception. Each December since 2009 we have published a year-end report dubbed “Lie of the Year” to recognize a statement, collection of statements or theme that is worthy of note for a consequential undermining of reality.<\/p>\n
Trump and his running mate JD Vance\u2019s claim that Haitian migrants were eating dogs and cats in Springfield, Ohio, took last year\u2019s distinction. (It was Trump\u2019s fourth Lie of the Year award; he was a supporting character in three others.) This annual exercise isn\u2019t about finding the most ridiculous of claims; that pool is as wide as the ocean. Our criteria has always been finding claims that tick three key boxes: They are repeated often, demonstrably false and, perhaps above all, consequential.<\/p>\n
In 2025, options for the top lie include Trump\u2019s made-up math to justify deadly boat strikes off Venezuela\u2019s coast, Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker\u2019s disconnected assessment of food stamp “SNAP machines,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s claim of “no starvation” in Gaza, and a heaping of dishonest talking points on tariffs, the record-setting U.S. government shutdown, immigration raids and the Jeffrey Epstein files.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not uncommon for people to joke or roll their eyes when they hear politicians and pundits say two plus two equals five, or what\u2019s red is really blue. But the stakes are too high for such cultural rationalization or tolerance of assaults on facts.<\/p>\n
While we are glad that our fans and foes enjoy the debate about the single best\/worst whopper, we are stepping back this year and recalibrating the Lie of the Year \u2014 focusing less on the offenders who perpetuate the falsehoods, and more on those who are hurt by them.<\/p>\n
So “congratulations” 2025. PolitiFact names you Year of the Lies.<\/p>\n
This week, we\u2019ll tell three stories that spotlight what happens when things are not true. The people suffering the consequences of these lies are not aberrations.<\/p>\n
This is what happened when lies trampled real people:<\/p>\n
A farmer couldn\u2019t sell soybeans to his usual big foreign customer or plan for next year\u2019s crop. A tit-for-tat trade war sparked by U.S. tariffs on China left a cloud of uncertainty.<\/p>\n
A pediatrician quit her long practice of seeing patients in person. In clinical care’s already pressurized environment, the Trump administration\u2019s unproved claims on everything from Tylenol to vaccines had added chaos and safety concerns to her days.<\/p>\n
Two brothers, who came to the U.S. as children to escape gang violence in El Salvador, attended school, stayed out of trouble and complied with government check-ins, arrived at their most recent appointment only to be suddenly shackled, detained and deported. They and many others like them were not the “worst of the worst” criminals that the administration claimed would be the first to be shipped home.<\/p>\n
To be clear, these are just three examples in a Year of the Lies. This week, we invite you to spend some time with each of these stories. They illustrate a broader need to not dismiss that false claims have consequences. We look forward to sharing these stories with you throughout this week, via this newsletter and videos on our social media channels.
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\n(AP)
\nThe Power and Poison of Technology<\/p>\n
This year, powerful AI tools gained widespread adoption, with more consequences for truth than Silicon Valley architects might have imagined.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s never been easier to produce a deceptive video or audio clip with a prompt of a few words, and it\u2019s never been harder to tell real content from fake.<\/p>\n
Tech leaders removed guardrails to falsity as they rushed new products to market, with Washington\u2019s blessing. Now, the burden of calling out deceptive content falls to the crowd.<\/p>\n
Predictably, it\u2019s not going well.<\/p>\n
After Charlie Kirk was assassinated Sept. 10, the FBI released “person of interest” photos of a figure in sunglasses and a hat from stairwell security footage.<\/p>\n
Eager to nab a suspect, X users asked AI-powered chatbot Grok to “clean these pictures up” to enhance their quality, or to turn a photo into a video. A Utah sheriff\u2019s office shared one such manipulated image on Facebook: “Much clearer image of the suspect compared to others we have seen in the media.”<\/p>\n
Perhaps it was clearer \u2014 but it wasn\u2019t the right image.<\/p>\n
The proliferation of fake photos clouded the real law enforcement investigation and seeded doubt Sept. 12, when officials released the mugshot of Tyler Robinson, the suspected shooter. The conflicting photos fueled confusion and conspiracy theories.<\/p>\n
Some 2025 lowlights didn\u2019t need help from AI. Ahead of Labor Day, X and TikTok users speculated to extremes about Trump\u2019s health, compounding the 79-year-old president\u2019s medical history, a dayslong stretch without public appearances and out-of-context remarks from Vance. “Trump is dead” soared to the top of X trends. Trump emerged the next morning for golf at his Virginia club.<\/p>\n
Mischief is not limited to fooling people about politics or public policy. The same misuse of AI technologies that produce phony celebrity tribute songs and a charming video of senior center residents showing off Halloween costumes are used to scam consumers out of money or produce deepfakes of world leaders.<\/p>\n
A collective shoulder shrug over even innocuous false content exposes a scary truth: We\u2019re unprepared for the bigger lies to come.
\nReaders Call Out Netanyahu<\/p>\n
PolitiFact has always been guided by the belief that we show our sources of information, and readers can decide for themselves. That\u2019s true all year long, as well as when considering the “lie of the year.”<\/p>\n
So our annual exercise, again, includes a readers\u2019 ballot. In a ranked-choice poll of more than 1,000 readers, the highest-ranking claim chosen as the year\u2019s most serious falsehood went to Netanyahu\u2019s July assertion of “no starvation” in Gaza.<\/p>\n
Thank you for reading PolitiFact, and sticking with us throughout 2025, the Year of the Lies. Stay tuned all week for more essays about the real people dealing with the fallout.<\/p>\n
Sincerely,
\nKatie Sanders
\nEditor-in-Chief
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“I understand why the outlook feels hopeless, but it\u2019s time to revisit the basics of why it\u2019s important to call out lies. They\u2019re more than just words. Lies harm livelihoods and families.” \u2013 Article by Gregg W. Morris<\/p>\n