Why PolitiFact couldn’t name just one Lie of the Year

The concept of truth feels particularly bleak in 2025.

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’s health.

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’s most influential player, President Donald Trump.

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 — at best it’s a red flag, at worst it’s a punchline.