Welcome to Wisconsin Watch’s Year in Review series. In this series, we’re looking back on Wisconsin Watch’s reporting and impact in 2023.
Throughout the week, you’ll be hearing directly from reporters and editors and get exclusive behind-the-scenes looks at our biggest investigations of the year, along with some sneak peeks at what we have planned for next year.
We’re taking a look at the impact of our fact-checking project with Gigafact, which continues to produce some of Wisconsin Watch’s most-read content.
In 2023, interns Erin Gretzinger and Rachel Hale and freelancers Tom Kertscher and Jacob Alabab-Moser produced 258 fact briefs. In May, three of our top 10 stories were fact briefs.
In February, we published a fact brief fact checking a claim that state Supreme Court candidate Daniel Kelly said supporting same-sex marriage “robs marriage of any meaning.”
This fact brief was cited in an attack ad on Kelly. It was also cited in a Vanity Fair piece that outlined the historic Supreme Court election in Wisconsin.
In November, Congressman Mark Pocan shared a fact brief fact checking whether a Wisconsin member of Congress openly supported Hamas. The tweet was viewed over 13,000 times.
View our top 10 fact briefs of the year below:
1. Did the US debt increase by $7.8 trillion during Donald Trump’s presidency?
✅ Yes.
The national debt on Jan. 19, 2017, the day before Donald Trump was inaugurated president, was $19,944,429,217,107.
On Jan. 19, 2021, the day before Joe Biden was inaugurated, the debt was: $27,752,835,868,445 — about $7.8 trillion higher.
2. Did Donald Trump suggest rules in the Constitution could be terminated in response to election fraud?
✅ Yes.
While former President Donald Trump did not cite any specifics, he did claim that rules found in the Constitution could be terminated in response to election fraud. Here is the post he made on his social media platform Truth Social in December 2022:
“A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution. Our great ‘Founders’ did not want, and would not condone, False & Fraudulent Elections!”
3. Does Wisconsin’s constitution ‘clearly’ say the Wisconsin Supreme Court chief justice administers the Supreme Court?
❌ No.
Wisconsin’s constitution says: “The chief justice of the Supreme Court shall be the administrative head of the judicial system and shall exercise this administrative authority,” but adds “pursuant to procedures adopted by the Supreme Court.”
The chief justice’s role as court administrator was challenged when the court’s liberal majority voted Aug. 4, 2023, to create an administrative committee comprising the chief justice and two members selected by the majority.
4. Did Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Janet Protasiewicz release Darrell Brooks on bail before his deadly Waukesha Christmas Parade attack?
❌ No.
Milwaukee County Court Commissioner Cedric Cornwall on Nov. 5, 2021, approved Darrell Brooks’ release from jail on $1,000 bail.
The Milwaukee man was in custody, charged with felony recklessly endangering safety in a domestic violence case.
5. Did Wisconsinites vote overwhelmingly in favor of the referendum to require adults to seek work to receive welfare benefits?
✅ Yes.
On April 4, 2023, an advisory referendum to impose a work requirement for welfare recipients was approved by voters in Wisconsin, with nearly 80% voting yes. The referendum asked, “Shall able-bodied, childless adults be required to look for work in order to receive taxpayer-funded benefits?”
The ballot question was non-binding and vague; the term “taxpayer-funded benefits” was not defined. Under current law, many Wisconsinites already need to seek employment to receive public benefits, including unemployment insurance.
6. Did a Wisconsin company implant microchips in its employees?
✅ Yes.
News organizations reported in July 2017 that Three Square Market, a retail technology company in River Falls, Wis., microchipped its employees.
A reference to the chipping was made in an Aug. 26, 2023, social media post by a user with 22,000 followers.
Fifty of the 80 employees at Three Square Market, a provider of self-service break room vending machines, voluntarily agreed to be “chipped,” the reports said.
7. Can you collect unemployment in Wisconsin if you get fired?
✅ Yes.
According to the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, whether someone who gets fired is eligible for Unemployment Insurance — the program through which jobless people receive weekly benefits — depends on the circumstances of the case.
When an unemployment claim includes a “separation from employment,” the department will “investigate the cause of separation” and make an eligibility ruling based on “the circumstances of the separation.” Employees may not receive unemployment benefits if they get fired for “violating reasonable requirements of the employer.”
8. Did former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker try to use some of the state pension fund to invest in startup businesses?
✅ Yes.
In 2012, the chief executive of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., Reed Hall, wrote a letter requesting a $200 million loan from the State of Wisconsin Investment Board, which manages the Wisconsin Retirement System public employee pension fund. Hall said the funds would be used to promote startup business growth.
The SWIB rejected the request by the WEDC — of which then-Gov. Scott Walker was board chairman — saying it had to ensure any investment “does not have any adverse effect on its management of WRS assets,” according to documents obtained by the Wisconsin Reporter.
After the SWIB rejected the request, which Hall called “a long shot,” Walker signed a 2013 law creating a fund to invest in Wisconsin businesses — $25 million that was allocated in the state budget.
9. Is there proof that skeletons of giants were found in Wisconsin in 1912?
❌ No.
There is no evidence of skeletons of giants ever being found in Wisconsin, interim state archaeologist Amy Rosebrough told Wisconsin Watch.
Reports made around 1911 “were picked up by some media outlets and sensationalized, including claims that the skeletons were larger than normal,” she said.
10. Was Hamas’ recent attack on Israel the deadliest single day for Jews since the Holocaust?
✅ Yes.
Roughly 250 people were killed during Hamas’ Oct. 11 attack on Israel, according to multiple sources. Nearly three in four Israelis are Jewish.
U.S. Special Antisemitism Envoy Deborah Lipstadt called the attacks “the most lethal assault against Jews since the Holocaust” and former Israeli Defense Forces spokesperson Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus said it was “by far the worst day in Israeli history.”
Roughly 6,373 Israelis died between 1947 and 1949 during the Arab-Israeli War, which displaced 700,000 Palestinians. The deadliest Israeli loss (estimated 127) then was the Kfar Etzion massacre.
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