Zebra Fact Checks

Fact checks and commentary articles that fact check fact checkers

One “Pinocchio” is not enough

On July 19, 2013 the Washington Post Fact Checker, Glenn Kessler, published a fact check of President Obama’s claim that the ACA’s medical loss ratio rules saved consumers $3.4 billion. That interested us, for we fact checked a version of the same claim coming from Consumer Reports.  Finding other fact checkers investigating similar claims provides an opportunity to see how…
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PolitiFact Ohio claims increased federal expenses for the ACA’s Medicaid expansion do not contribute to the federal deficit

What about (Ohio state senator Maag’s broader point — that Medicaid expansion under Obamacare would result in more deficit spending? … But the facts, projections and law, as they exist today, do not support his claim. We rate it False. —PolitiFact Ohio   Overview PolitiFact Ohio uses specious reasoning in its rating of a Republican lawmaker from Ohio. The Facts…
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Nancy Pelosi says health care reform drives the decrease in the budget deficit

 “The Affordable Care Act is bringing the cost of health care in our country down in both the public and private sector. And that is what is largely responsible for the deficit coming down.” —House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, May 13, 2013   Overview A logic deficit undermines Pelosi’s claim about the budget deficit. The Facts House Democratic Leader Nancy…
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FactCheck.org says federal spending has increased ‘far more slowly’ under Obama than under Bush

“Federal spending under Obama has grown faster than inflation, but far more slowly than it did under President Bush.” —Annenberg Fact Check   Summary We rate a second recent claim from FactCheck.org, stemming from the same “Obama’s Numbers” article that prompted our earlier fact check.  Again, Annenberg Fact Check spins like a politician. The Facts The federal government substantially increased…
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Annenberg Fact Check says Obama beats George W. Bush on jobs.

“Now that we have figures for the full four years of Obama’s first term, a surprising fact emerges: The economy added more jobs during four years under Obama than it did in the entire eight years under Bush.” —Annenberg Fact Check   Summary FactCheck.org closely imitates the methods of a typical misleading political campaign advertisement. The Facts We do not…
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PolitiFact says gun prosecutions didn’t nosedive under President Obama

“Sessions said that Obama “has allowed, each year he’s been here, the prosecutions of gun cases to go down. .. [sic] They’ve declined every year since President Bush left office.” That’s true — but the data covers only the first two years of Obama’s term, and it didn’t nosedive under Obama since it was already a tiny percentage under Bush.”…
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Social Security, deficits and the fact checkers

On April 10 we published a fact check of a House Democrat presentation of Social Security, claiming that Social Security has never added so much as a dime to the deficit.  We found the claim false based on the Social Security Administration’s reports of revenue falling short of expenses. We’ve since surveyed the way various mainstream fact checkers treated similar…
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PolitiFact vs. Michele Bachmann on Alzheimer’s disease

“Are bureaucrats, high taxation and trial lawyers keeping America from tackling Alzheimer’s disease? Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., said they are during a speech to CPAC, the annual conservative conference.” —PolitiFact, March 20, 2013   Overview PolitiFact sets a straw man ablaze. The Facts Rep. Michele Bachmann drew PolitiFact’s attention with her March 16 speech at an annual gathering sponsored by…
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Obama’s Jedi mind meld on the sequestration

“I know that this has been some of the conventional wisdom that’s been floating around Washington that somehow, even though most people agree that I’m being reasonable, that most people agree I’m presenting a fair deal, the fact that they don’t take it means that I should somehow do a Jedi mind-meld with these folks and convince them to do…
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Of pistols and PolitiFact Georgia

“(Sen. Bill) Jackson said there were more people killed with hammers than shotguns and pistols and AK-47s. There were actually 12 times as many people killed with handguns in 2011 than with blunt objects like hammers. Jackson’s claim is way off.” –PolitiFact Georgia, from “Gun claim goes awry,” Feb. 21, 2013   Overview PolitiFact conducted its fact check under the…
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