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rae deng

@raesdeng.bsky.social

fact-checking for snopes, (short) previous life as statehouse reporter covering legislatures in washington, minnesota and ohio (in that order) | they/she

56 Posts1737 Follower48 Folgt
rae deng@raesdeng.bsky.social · 4mo ago

haven't had a minute to talk about this story yet, but please read dr. burgart's thread/my story here: www.snopes.com/news/2026/04...

Trump admin plans to detransition incarcerated trans people. Is that 'medical experimentation'?

Factually, the proposal rejects medically accepted standards of care.

snopes.com

Alyssa Burgart, MD, MA (BurgartBioethix)@alyssaburgart.com · 4mo ago

The Trump administration aims to withhold gender-affirming care for incarcerated transgender people. A rumor circulated that it was “medical experimentation,” but the government has no research question. @raesdeng.bsky.social @snopes.com

I suppose you could call it an experiment to see how many more trans people are profoundly harmed and perhaps killed in the prison system - Burgart said
rae deng@raesdeng.bsky.social · 4mo ago

this one really flew under the radar in american media (too much to cover), but yes, trump reposted racist comments made by a radio host about indians and chinese people, including that there's 'no loyalty' among non-european immigrants + china/india are a 'hellhole' www.snopes.com/fact-check/t...

Trump posted conservative radio host's derogatory statement about people of India, China

The quote came from conservative radio host Michael Savage, who railed against Indian and Chinese immigrants.

snopes.com

Danny Cherry Jr (twitter/Insta/tiktok: @Deecherrywriter)@deecherrywriter.bsky.social · 5mo ago

If I was management of one of the top investigative outlets in the country I’d just simply give them what they want.

ProPublica Guild@propublicaguild.org · 5mo ago

We’re on strike today! Support our fight for a fair contract by NOT visiting the @propublica.org website or engaging with ProPublica stories today. Tell ProPublica’s management you won’t cross the picket line: actionnetwork.org/petitions/te...

We're on strike! Don't visit propublica.org on April 8
rae deng@raesdeng.bsky.social · 5mo ago

the amdt banning "bodily and genital mutilation" for minors bans surgeries that "no longer correspond with an individual's sex." it doesn't ban chest reductions or breast enhancements for cis kids (which happen more than gender-affirming surgeries for trans kids) www.snopes.com/news/2026/03...

Republicans propose adding anti-trans provisions to SAVE America Act that Trump claimed it already had

The president referred to the proposed ban on trans women in women's sports and gender-affirming surgeries for minors as the "best of Trump."

snopes.com

rae deng@raesdeng.bsky.social · 5mo ago

in the inbox: men, especially young men, are actually more likely to not have access to the documentary proof of citizenship required by the SAVE america act. the act would also impact americans across political spectrum. from UMD's center for democracy and civic engagement

"Men - especially young men - are particularly likely to lack easy access to documentary proof of citizenship." Graph shows 15% of men aged 18-29 don't have access to DPOC as opposed to 11% of women in same age group.
rae deng@raesdeng.bsky.social · 5mo ago

i started working on this story for @snopes.com in mid/late january. it was scheduled to run next week but we pushed it up in the schedule... because people kept dying in ICE facilities and i kept having to update the story with more deaths. www.snopes.com/news/2026/03...

Posts claim ICE killed 9 people in 2026. We broke down the cases

ICE detention centers have a reported history of poor conditions, abuse and medical neglect, which may have contributed to detainee deaths.

snopes.com

rae deng@raesdeng.bsky.social · 6mo ago

for @snopes.com, i looked into rumors that lifetouch, the school photo company, is in the epstein files. what i found: a single debit card transaction from a redacted account and no mention of any lifetouch execs. here's what their 'ties' to epstein look like. 1/3

flowchart showing that epstein was connected to execs at apollo management group, which acquired shutterfly and lifetouch, but leadership at shutterfly/lifetouch had no connections to epstein.
Frankie de la Cretaz@thefrankiedlc.news · 6mo ago

This is the correct take. ALSO: The ex-gf has spoken & she does not seem to want to take him back: "I did not choose to be put in this position, and it hurts to have to be in it." people.com/sturla-holm-...

But let me tell you what really bothers me about this incident: The winner of this race, Johan-Olaf Botn, is Lægreid’s Norwegian teammate, and sort of came out of nowhere to win this gold — he’s 26, and had never won on the World Cup circuit before this season. And the story of his victory is much, much more moving than anything Lægreid had to offer. Botn’s training partner and close friend, Sivert Bakken, unexpectedly died about six weeks ago. Botn, a 26-year old who had never won a World Cup event before this season, was clearly emotional about winning the gold so soon after his friend’s death. He pointed to the sky while crossing the finish line and while on the medal podium, paying tribute to his late friend. “When I crossed the line I broke down,” Botn said. “I was thinking about him all the way through the last lap. I started to think about the whole year and us training every day for this. It had been such a clear goal for us. I felt that he was with me that whole lap. I hope he was watching today.” And instead of talking about the guy who won gold and his beautiful tribute to his late friend, we’re talking about Mr. I Fell In Love With A Girl I Just Met But Not Enough To Avoid Cheating On Her.
Rodger Sherman@rodger.bsky.social · 6mo ago

OLYMPICS NEWSLETTER, DAY 5 🔫⛷️ A biathlete shoots his shot (derogatory) 🔫⛷️ 🥌 Korey and Cory fall juuuuuuust short🥌 😬oh no is it happening again to Mikaela Shiffrin😬 sports.beehiiv.com/p/olympics-d...

Matt Novak@paleofuture.bsky.social · 7mo ago

I just tested this out with a selfie, asking Gemini to add a digital watermark and then starting a new chat to ask. Gemini said it had the SynthID watermark so it's AI. Gemini also falsely claimed the "Hiroshima USA" magazine behind me was AI generated because of tiny distortions it added.

Matt Novak in a selfie wearing glasses with a framed Collier's magazine cover behind him that reads "hiroshima USA"
vrunt@vrunt.social · 7mo ago

could someone, and i mean this speaking generally and not about the above image, use an AI image product to insert the synthID watermark and otherwise leave the original photo in tact? for the purposes of discrediting a real image?

rae deng@raesdeng.bsky.social · 7mo ago

absolutely horrendous that in our current online environment false claims like this one about alex pretti — the result of ai-generated slop on a half-formed wordpress blog — can spread so quickly. for @snopes.com: www.snopes.com/fact-check/a...

Was Alex Pretti fired from nursing job for misconduct? Here's the truth

After Pretti was fatally shot by U.S. Border Patrol agents, his family and friends said he became the target of a smear campaign.

snopes.com

Phil Lewis@phillewis.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Becca Good, the wife of Renee Good, has released her first public statement since the shooting “We were raising our son to believe that no matter where you come from or what you look like, all of us deserve compassion and kindness. Renee lived this belief every day.”

Renee Macklin Good’s wife says she nurtured kindness

On Wednesday, Renee Macklin Good was fatally shot by a federal ICE agent. Becca Good, her wife, shared the following statement with MPR News.

mprnews.org

rae deng@raesdeng.bsky.social · 11mo ago

used my very expensive journalism degree to prove that democrats aren't shutting the government down to stand in solidarity with "haitian male prostitutes." literally made a data visualization of state dept data on an hiv/aids treatment program for this www.snopes.com/fact-check/g...

Democrats don't want $3.6M for 'Haitian male prostitutes' to reopen government

The rumor, popularized by Sen. John Kennedy, appeared to be connected to an HIV/AIDS prevention program started under U.S. President George W. Bush.

snopes.com

rae deng@raesdeng.bsky.social · 11mo ago

some in the american left like to lionize pope leo — and in this case, spread a claim that he's replacing NY's pro-charlie kirk archbishop with a 'pro-immigration, anti-gun bishop.' the thing is, most bishops are pro-immigration and anti-gun...bc they're catholic. www.snopes.com/fact-check/p...

Contextualizing claim Pope Leo XIV is replacing Cardinal Dolan, who compared Charlie Kirk to saint

Here's what's true — and what's false — about rumors that Leo is replacing New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who called Kirk a "modern-day St. Paul."

snopes.com

rae deng@raesdeng.bsky.social · last yr.

my attempt for @snopes.com to break down the extremely wonky trump admin provision(s) that, in short, will likely make care more expensive and less accessible for trans people on private insurance. www.snopes.com/news/2025/07...

How Trump admin's policies may affect gender-affirming care for patients on private insurance

A federal health agency already passed a rule that could make care more expensive for trans people, but the Big, Beautiful Bill seeks to enshrine it.

snopes.com

rae deng@raesdeng.bsky.social · last yr.

amid all the discourse on whether or not the pope is woke: i found out in the course of writing this story that the vatican literally helped invent the term "gender ideology" in the 1980s-90s as essentially a catch-all for "politics the catholic church is against" www.snopes.com/news/2025/05...

Breaking down rumor Pope Leo XIV once said 'gender ideology' creates 'genders that don't exist'

The American-born pontiff allegedly said this in 2016 in response to a proposed education curriculum promoting gender equality in Peru.

snopes.com

rae deng@raesdeng.bsky.social · last yr.

for @snopes.com: amid a @statnews.com report that trump admin is pulling out of the 30-yr long 'safe to sleep' campaign which reduced SIDS, the american academy of pediatrics says they'll keep the program going alongside partners — but it won't have the same capacity. www.snopes.com/news/2025/05...

Former NIH official says Trump admin cut government's 'Safe to Sleep' team that helped reduce infant deaths

The National Institutes of Health said no final decisions had been made about the program's future.

snopes.com