Heh! Facts are always relevant when you are debating in good faith. People who find facts not supporting their beliefs argue dishonesty that doesn't mean facts are not relevant.
A curated set of facts or as you call it “incomplete, but not counter-factual” is not the truth. All facts are the truth and that’s what non opinion news should be reporting.
And yet it's still important to not misstate facts regardless of whether or not they are relevant, because other people will take those supposed facts and apply them in other ways then you did.
How people prioritize issues based on facts is different from whether the facts are true. I agree that you or I can disagree on prioritization of issues. People can also be wrong about which facts they believe. For example, if someone believes that New York City is the capital of the state of New York, they're factually wrong. They're misinformed.
For a more political fact, Barack Obama either was or was not born in the US. People made political decisions based on whether or not this is true. For the argument I'm making, it doesn't matter whether or not it's true. It's that a fact is politically important.
If you're arguing that which facts are true is ultimately relative, I'm not going to chase you down that particular rabbit hole.
Perhaps what I'm saying is obvious and trivial to you, and we're speaking past each other.
Presentation of opinion as fact, and selection of a set of facts that support your opinion, with an accompanying omission of those that don't, is controversial.
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