A few comments regarding the President's January 2023 State of the Union Address (SOTU)... 

Many sources claim to have fact-checked the speech. Let's start with Fox News, which focused on these two comments as being problematic:

#1 That Republicans, at least some, were seeking to "sunset" Social Security (SS).   

#2 That fast food workers are denied the opportunity to switch from one chain to another due to non-compete clauses in their employment contracts. 

SOCIAL SECURITY COMMENT

The President's statements drew boos from the Republican side of the audience. At this point in time, due to the large number of elderly voters, both parties generally recognize the idea of termination of SS as the curse of death to their political futures. Neither party is prepared to pursue that option anytime soon. To say that it is even being considered, at a serious level, is ridiculous. The President has double downed on this comment repeatedly in post-SOTU speeches. It is a lie of the most egregious kind, designed to induce fear in elderly Conservative voters. A strategy of which Liberals regularly accuse Conservatives.

The spec of truth, if there is one, behind the Presidents' claim is that many, on both sides of the aisle, have suggested that programs instituted many years ago should be considered for termination. SS was instituted many years ago but is hardly a candidate for termination as hundreds of millions of Americans have contributed vast amounts from their paychecks for many years to this program. It is also noteworthy that Republicans are much more interested in allowing people to invest their SS contributions. This is not the same as "sunsetting" the program. The President is deliberately promulgating this lie in an effort to scare voters. 

NON-COMPETE CONTRACTS

Companies, with good reason, sometimes prevent workers from leaving the company to work for a competitor through language in an employment contract. Legitimate reasons for including this non-compete language includes expensive technical training and education on proprietary systems or access to trade secrets. Such non-compete employment contracts do not apply to burger flippers. To suggest such is simply untrue and ridiculous, but is it a lie? 

Lies are differentiated from incorrect statements based on the information possessed by the speaker. For this statement to be a lie, the President would have to have known that such a statement was untrue. Clear minded, educated, adults with a bit of business management experience know that fast food workers do not sign non-compete agreements. We cannot know, with certainty, what the President knows and thinks. It is clear that the President will read anything that appears in front of him on a teleprompter or is on a printed page in front of him. It is also clear that his mental capacity is less than stellar. Therefore, we cannot determine that the President lied with this particular statement.

FACT CHECKER OBSERVATIONS

The Liberal news media completely omitted these particular statements from their "Fact Checking" in favor of focusing on other aspects of the speech that were either true, partially true, true with qualification, or arguably true.

The Conservative news media focused on these two items because they were clearly untrue. Additionally, they focused attention on items that were true with qualification, and identified any such observations from other "Fact Checkers" as proof that the President was disingenuous. 

SCRAMBLED BRAIN CONCLUSIONS

Those tuned-in to Conservative new sources came away from the speech believing that the President lied like crazy. Those tuned to Liberal news sources came away from the speech believing that the President's claims generally passed the lie-detector test. No one's mind was changed.