So last night this tweet started making the rounds.

What’s that, you say? Chicago Fire owner Andrew Hauptman donated to Autocrat-In-Chief Donald Trump’s presidential campaign?! This is an outrage! I knew he wasn’t fit to own this club! #HauptmanOut! #HauptmanOut!!!!

Except, not really. This is what Andrew Hauptman’s political donation record actually looks like.

If you go back to that tweet and jot down the Image Number, it’ll reference a donation paid on the same date and in the same amount... to Hillary Clinton. But don’t take my word for it— go look for yourself.

Not only did Hauptman donate to Hillary, his records show that he tends to donate to Democratic candidates throughout the country. This includes a donation of $2700 (the individual maximum) to Tammy Duckworth, who was elected to be the junior senator from Illinois last November.

Don’t trust the government as a source of information anymore? OpenSecrets will tell you the same thing. Hauptman, in a break with other owners of Chicago sports teams, did not support Donald Trump for president. At least not with his money.

Hot (Time) Take

Look, I know a lot of us have problems with Andrew Hauptman as owner. There’s a lot of valid criticism to be made of how he’s run this team, and the fact that he’s historically been so reluctant to listen to the fans (or indeed other stakeholders) only makes things worse in that regard.

Sharing things like this contributes to the Fake News problem that gave rise to our current cryptofascist regime in Washington. It took me all of a minute to look into this and find out whether it was true. The information’s out there and easy to access. But it made the rounds on CF97 Twitter because a lot of us just don’t like Andrew Hauptman, so, you know, whatever. Who cares if it’s true or not, right?

Making things up just to stick it to Andrew and gin up the #HauptmanOut crowd is a waste of time and energy and it makes the rest of us look bad. Stop it.

In the meantime, it may be worth giving this a once-over.