Facts Matter: Capitol police weren't 'tour guides' for rioters

Fox News host Tucker Carlson recently aired selective security footage from the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol building showing one of the protesters, Jacob Chansley, known as the QAnon Shaman, during the riot.

“The tapes show that Capitol police never stopped Jacob Chansley; they helped him. They acted as his tour guides,” Carlson said during a March 6 broadcast, showing video, without audio, that included images of Chansley.

But this presentation of the interactions between Chansley and Capitol police is false. PolitiFact notes Carlson's depiction of what happened is contradicted by Chansley's own admission.

Chansley's signed plea agreement states he was among rioters who entered the Capitol through a door that had been broken and challenged Capitol police who were asking him to peacefully leave. He entered the Senate Gallery, screamed obscenities and sat in the seat reserved for then-Vice President Mike Pence. He refused to vacate the seat despite repeated requests from an officer who had followed him only because he was outnumbered.

When other officers arrived at the scene, they led rioters out of the Senate chamber.

After Carlson's broadcast, Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger issued an internal department memo denouncing the Fox News show, supporting his officers and writing that the program was “filled with offensive and misleading conclusions.”

“One false allegation is that our officers helped the rioters and acted as 'tour guides.' This is outrageous and false,” he wrote.

Paying federal taxes is law

With the April 15 income tax deadline looming — it's actually April 18 this year — social media users are sharing a video that shows purported experts claiming there is no legal obligation to pay taxes.

“If there's no law that binds us to paying taxes. The question I have is, why are we?” read a Facebook post that included the 3-minute video. The clip includes comments from people identified as a tax lawyer, a tax adviser and a former Internal Revenue Service agent.

But these claims are false. Paying federal taxes is required.

“No, there isn't even a grain of truth to the theories in the video, nor does it contain any new or surprising arguments,” George Washington University law school professor Jonathan Siegel told The Associated Press. “There is indeed a law that requires ordinary, working Americans to pay income tax, assuming they earn enough to be over the minimum income threshold.”

The Internal Revenue Code, or Title 26 of the United States Code, contains the requirement for people to pay taxes.

Much of the confusion is due to the IRS using the phrase “voluntary compliance” in its publications, Garrett Watson, a senior policy analyst at the Tax Foundation, told the AP.

But this refers to the idea that people initially are responsible for figuring out the amount of taxes owed, or due in a refund, and filling out the documents to show that.

Photo wasn't taken at CPAC

The 2023 Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, took place earlier this month in Maryland. Social media users shared a photo purported to be taken during the conference.

“Out front of CPAC this afternoon,” read a March 2 tweet that included a photo of a group of people holding signs that each contained a letter. It appeared they were trying to spell out “SECEDE!,” but the letters were out of order and it read, “SECDEE!”

“These are the folks who want to abolish the department of education and are banning books,” wrote one commenter.

But this image is miscaptioned, according to Reuters. It was taken well before the recent CPAC. The photo is actually from a Republic of Texas motorcycle rally in 2009.

Photographer Don Mason told Reuters he took the photo at the intersection of Congress Avenue and 5th Street in Austin, Texas.

Moon can't support residents

A recent social media post makes a surprising claim about life on the moon.

“A confidential source claims that the moon is a habitable place and that it is inhabited by more than 250 million humanoid aliens,” read the Feb. 6 Facebook post.

But this claim is false due to the lack of breathable air and liquid water on the moon.

PolitiFact notes the moon is surrounded by a thin exosphere that contains helium, argon, sodium and potassium, making it unbreathable. According to NASA, water molecules have been found on the moon, but they are very scarce and don't form ice or liquid water.

As for the 250 million humanoid aliens, there is no evidence they exist or are living on the moon.

• Bob Oswald is a veteran Chicago-area journalist and former news editor of the Elgin Courier-News. Contact him at boboswald33@gmail.com.