One June 13, 2019, Zebra Fact Check submitted a complaint to the International Fact-Checking Network noting PolitiFact made no changes to a false statement on its website after Zebra Fact Check pointed out the problem about a week earlier.
The complaint counted PolitiFact’s inaction as a failure to adhere to an open and honest corrections policy.
Update Oct. 9, 2019: Our complaints to PolitiFact and the IFCN incorrectly suppose that only “Truth-O-Meter” items occur on PolitiFact’s page of “Corrections and Updates,” but later research showed other stories PolitiFact classifies as “statements” showing up on that list. PolitiFact’s “statements” category apparently includes promise items (such as “Obameter” ratings) and “Flip-O-Meter” items. But that continues to exclude “articles” PolitiFact publishes with no type of rating.
The complaint follows in .pdf format.
PolitiFact’s False Description of Corrections Policy Goes Uncorrected
Upon reviewing PolitiFact’s past descriptions of its corrections policy, I found an item by PolitiFact’s founding editor, Bill Adair. Adair announced the creation of a PolitiFact page dedicated to listing “articles or Truth-O-Meter fact checks” that feature a correction.
In fact, that page does not show corrected “articles” as PolitiFact employs the term. The list has featured only “Truth-O-Meter” items. Other articles such as explainer articles, “In Context” items, “Flip-O-Meter” items and promise items (such as “Obameter” stories) do not appear on the list when corrected.
I pointed out the problem to PolitiFact using its truthometer@politifact.com contact email, albeit without including the URL to the problem article (I trust a fact checker should be able to find it easily based on the included description).
The email was sent on Thursday, June 6, 2019. After the passage of nearly a full week, PolitiFact has made no discernable [sic] move to reply to my message or fix the misleading article. That inaction in response to the indication of a clear error seems to count against claims that PolitiFact adheres scrupulously to an open and honest corrections policy.
Thanks for your attention to this matter.