Author Archive: Bryan W. White
Bryan W. White
April 14, 2014
“It was about a black president.” —Talk show host Bill Maher, on the origin of the tea party movement during the Feb. 28, 2014 airing of the HBO show “Real Time” Overview Maher’s on-air comment provides a good opportunity to assess whether racism serves as an origin or continuing motive of the tea party movement. The charge is common…
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Bryan W. White
March 6, 2014
A critical review of and reflection on The Epistemology of Fact Checking by Joseph E. Uscinski and Ryden W. Butler epis·te·mol·o·gy: the study or a theory of the nature and grounds of knowledge especially with reference to its limits and validity In their paper The Epistemology of Fact Checking (hereafter “Epistemology“), published in October 2013, authors Joseph E….
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Bryan W. White
March 3, 2014
“Myth: Obamacare should be unconstitutional.” —The Democratic National Committee, on its “Your Republican Uncle” website, Nov. 25, 2013 Overview As with some other claims on the Democratic National Committee’s “Your Republican Uncle” website, this claim misleads with ambiguity. The Facts In November of 2013 the Democrat National Committee kicked off “yourrepublicanuncle.com,” a website the DNC says is intended to answer…
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Bryan W. White
February 24, 2014
“Myth: Obamacare is a government takeover of the health care system.” —The Democratic National Committee on its “Your Republican Uncle” website, Nov. 25, 2013 Overview The DNC says it’s a myth that the ACA represents a government takeover of the health care system. The DNC’s case unwittingly undermines itself. The Facts We continue our series of ratings for claims…
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Bryan W. White
February 21, 2014
On Feb. 20, 2014, PolitiFact Oregon posted a new rating relating to the gender wage gap. PolitiFact Oregon rated it “Mostly True” that women in Oregon make 79 cents on the dollar compared to men for the same work. It was a notable rating, since other PolitiFact ratings on the gender wage gap, while not exactly a model of consistency,…
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Bryan W. White
February 19, 2014
“Myth: Obamacare hurts businesses.” —The Democratic National Committee on its “Your Republican Uncle” website, Nov. 25, 2013 Overview The DNC’s attempt to turn truth into myth creates a distortion of a distortion. The Facts In late 2013, the Democratic National Committee created a website it says gives Democrats answers to Republican myths. We continue our fact check series of…
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Bryan W. White
February 14, 2014
“Myth: The website doesn’t work so people can’t sign up for health care even if they wanted to.” —The Democratic National Committee, December 2013 on the “Your Republican Uncle” website Overview The federal exchange site will cause some users to miss deadlines for obtaining insurance. The DNC holds back details it ought to know well. The Facts This myth-busting…
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Bryan W. White
February 10, 2014
A critical review of Lying in Politics: Evidence from the US, a working paper by Alessandro Bucciol and Luca Zarri Researchers Alessandro Bucciol (assistant professor of econometrics) and Luca Zarri (associate professor of economics), both of the University of Verona, wanted to examine the tendency of politicians to lie. But they were confronted the problem of objectively assessing whether and…
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Bryan W. White
February 3, 2014
“Barack Obama, in State of the Union, says women make 77 cents for every dollar a man earns … We rate the claim Mostly True.” —PolitiFact, from a Jan. 28 fact check of President Obama’s 2014 State of the Union speech Overview If the presidential State of the Union address is the Super Bowl for fact checkers then PolitiFact…
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Bryan W. White
January 29, 2014
“Myth: Obamacare isn’t working.” —The Democratic National Committee, December 2013 on its “Your Republican Uncle” website Overview An ambiguous claim misleads, as ambiguous claims often do. The Facts Having completed fact checks dealing with the Democratic National Committee’s claims about the economy, we move on to the DNC’s set of claims about health care at its “Answering Your Republican…
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