The Biden administration worked successfully to pressure the fact-checking website Snopes to change its accuracy rating for whether a federal gas stoves ban was under consideration, a watchdog said based on internal emails.
Republican lawmakers raised concerns after commissioner Richard Trumka Jr. of the Consumer Product Safety Commission proposed the idea in 2022 of a ban on gas stoves to protect the climate, prompting Snopes in early January 2023 to issue a “mixture” rating on its accuracy level. In the initial fact-check, Snopes said the CPSC was “currently considering a ban on gas stoves if they can’t be made safer, due to concerns over harmful indoor pollutants that cause health and respiratory problems,” though noted that “the ban has not been put in place,” according to archived records.
Trumka Jr. had previously told Bloomberg that gas stoves are a “hidden hazard,” noting, “Any option is on the table. Products that can’t be made safe can be banned.” However, on Jan. 11, 2023, just one day after Snopes issued the initial “mixture” rating on its fact-check, the rating was quietly updated to “false,” noting that the CPSC, a federal agency, “is not currently considering a ban on gas stoves, though a commissioner said ‘anything is on the table’ if they can’t be made safer, due to concerns over harmful indoor pollutants that cause health and respiratory problems.”
That critical change was made after the CPSC apparently pressured Snopes on an adjustment, according to emails obtained by the Functional Government Initiative, a watchdog group investigating the Biden administration.
“Sent over tough letter to this writer yesterday when the initial claim was rated as ‘mixed,'” Pamela Rucker Springs, the spokeswoman for the CPSC, told White House assistant press secretary Michael Kikukawa in an email on Jan. 11, 2023. The email linked to the latest version of the fact-check from Snopes.
The White House was excited to hear the news, emails show.
“Nice!!!” Kikukawa replied. “So helpful going forward.”
In a statement to Fox News, Springs said her agency was “glad to see accurate reports that the administration is not trying to ban gas stoves — and never has.”
“As a routine matter, whenever CPSC identifies factually inaccurate coverage in any media outlet, we contact the outlet to request a correction,” Springs said. “That’s what occurred in this circumstance.”
To the Functional Government Initiative, the newly unearthed exchange “goes beyond dysfunction” and shows how the government used “sympathetic media to censor inconvenient news.”
“A commissioner appointed by President Biden wanted to ban gas stoves, and he got caught, provoking a public outcry,” FGI spokesman Pete McGinnis said. “So, the CPSC staff leaned on Snopes, seeking to counter the narrative by splitting hairs about Commission processes. And the White House finds this ‘helpful.’ Helpful with what?”
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In a statement on social media on Thursday, Snopes said it “was not ‘pressured’ by anyone to change a fact-check rating.”
“Snopes updates reporting as new facts become available, regardless of how that information affects a presidential administration,” Snopes said. “After initially publishing this fact check, we received new information from the CPSC.”