A fruitful literature has examined the consequences of dishonesty and lying in particular. However, lying is only one source of false misinformation. When communicators fail to seek out accurate information or verify the information they have, they may form biased beliefs. When communicators share these beliefs, they contribute to misinformation. In the present work, we examine reactions to false information stemming from a communicator’s biased beliefs (“bias”) versus a communicator’s decision to lie (“dishonesty”). Five studies demonstrate that people are less likely to punish falsehoods from biased versus dishonest communicators, even when these processes are intentional and lead to identical harms. Increased punishment of dishonesty is driven, at least in part, by the belief that dishonest actors are less constrained by moral rules and norms than (even intentionally) biased actors. By providing insight into how people react to false information from biased communicators, this work deepens our understanding of multiple facets of deception, broadens the field’s understanding of sources of societal conflict, and sheds light on the challenges associated with punishing misinformation.