"fact" = stated notion, suggestion, or idea (even if untrue)

[Jonathan Lighter]

This is absurdly common in speech, but it's hard to find an unequivocal example, one not attributable to a disagreement about what the facts really are.  I believe the following counts, however.

While covering (yes, they're still doing it) the gut-wrenching outrage of the reality event now known as "The Runaway Bride," _Fox News Live_ a few minutes ago repeated the plot element that she falsely told police she'd been kidnaped while jogging in her home town by a Hispanic man and a white woman.  After a brief discussion of whether the specified ethnicity of one of the imaginary abductors marked The Bride as a racist, an FNC correspondent turned to the reaction of the peaceful town of Duluth, Ga. :

"The fact that a woman could be abducted in this community while jogging has a lot of folks  angry here."

We report. You deride.

JL

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