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The so-called “elite three” mainstream fact checkers, FactCheck.org, PolitiFact and the Washington Post Fact Checker, all followed the mainstream press in making a serious error reporting on the Inspector General’s report on the FBI’s “Crossfire Hurricane” investigation. What the IG Report Said The IG report repeatedly said investigators failed to find “documentary or testimonial evidence” of political bias. But the…
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We failed to give a proper reading to part of PolitiFact’s Nov. 2019 Medicare For All explainer. Specifically, we failed to attach the claim about cutting costs in one paragraph to the examples offered in the following paragraph. Do we think PolitiFact communicated poorly in the two paragraphs? Yes, but we offer that as a replacement critique, not as an…
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CORRECTION: This article received a significant correction the same day it was published, affecting three paragraphs. Find specific details here. In addition to its “Truth-O-Meter” and “Flip-O-Meter” judgments on political speech, PolitiFact delves fairly often into the “explainer” genre. PolitiFact’s November 2019 “Medicare For All” explainer contained a number of misleading elements while offering its readers a credulous view of…
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On Sept. 2, 2019 Zebra Fact Check contacted PolitiFact at truthometer@politifact.com to point out problems with a Sept. 1, 2019 fact check published by PolitiFact Illinois. The fact check checked a claim other than the claim made by Democrat Sean Casten. Note: We have not yet sent to the IFCN as an example of PolitiFact failing to adhere to an…
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After confirming that the IFCN’s outside assessor responsible for PolitiFact’s 2019 IFCN verification renewal had not received complaints submitted to the IFCN about PolitiFact, we reached out to the International Fact-Checking Network to find out more information and try to resolve the problem. The email exchange with PolitiFact Director Baybars Örsek spans about two months. Find a .pdf version of…
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When numerous media outlets produced conflicting reports, op-eds and fact checks on whether Hillary Clinton said the Russians were grooming Democratic Party presidential candidate Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, Zebra Fact Check weighed in on the issue. After looking at the whole context of the Clinton interview on David Plouffe’s podcast, we said Clinton had tended to mix statements about Trump campaign…
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Editor’s note: This post was scheduled to publish at 8:01 a.m. on Oct. 24, 2019. A malfunction kept the post from publishing. Working to address the problem resulted in it publishing at 11:05 a.m. but with the 8:01 a.m. time stamp. We then immediately added this note and corrected the time stamp. On Oct. 21, 2019 Zebra Fact Check sent…
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We have transcribed parts of two segments of a David Plouffe podcast (alternative link) featuring a Hillary Clinton interview. The segments provide critical context for a fact check conducted by fact-checking organization Lead Stories. We cite fair use as our justification for producing these transcripts. The transcripts are tagged as resource pages and are not set for indexing by search…
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An Oct. 18, 2019 story at National Review said Hillary Clinton claimed the Russians were grooming Democratic Party presidential candidate Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) for a third-party campaign. And the fact checkers at Lead Stories, a fact-checking organization verified by the International Fact-Checking Network called it a hoax. Lead Stories was wrong. But its role as a Facebook fact-checking partner…
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