An independent experimental fact-checking site, exploring and advocating ways to make fact-checking better.
Veteran journalism critic John McManus came forth with a good article on evaluating online information sources, published online by PBS. “Don’t Be Fooled: Use the SMELL Test To Separate Fact from Fiction Online” encourages readers to test claims with a process that follows the SMELL acronym: Introducing the SMELL test S stands for Source. Who is providing the information?…
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“FACT: It’s President Obama’s Sequester” –The United States House of Representatives Republican Conference Overview President Obama proposed the sequester. But Republicans who agreed to or voted for the sequestration deal get to share ownership of the policy once implemented. The Facts Reporter Bob Woodward reported in his book “The Price of Politics” that the budget sequestration idea, particularly for…
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We’re close to making the site look like the way we planned it. We have revised the pages of posts to show only the beginning of stories and posts with a “Continue reading” option, making it much easier to see all the recent stories with just a bit of scrolling. The images accompanying the stories and posts give the site…
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We were sure we’d need a few more fallacy icons eventually. For some, it’s easier to conceive a design than for others, and because of the ease of the design we started work on a “red herring” design last week. The red herring fallacy is one of the fallacies of distraction, named for the way a reeking fish might throw…
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“This bill surrenders the hostage Republicans have taken in the past by decoupling the full faith and credit of the United States from cuts to Social Security and Medicare, or anything else. … By passing this bill, Republicans are joining Democrats to say we will not hold the full faith and credit of the United States hostage, and we will…
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PolitiFact Texas: “Contrary to Gohmert’s characterization … Washington was not speaking about citizens arming themselves in case of government tyranny. Quite the opposite: The president and former general was calling for disciplined troops to fight on behalf of the government.” Overview PolitiFact Texas builds a dandy straw man in honor of Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas). The Facts The line from…
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Attributed to Mark Twain on Facebook and elsewhere: “Religion was invented when the first con man met the first fool.” The Facts: Mark Twain was the pen name of American author Samuel Clemens (1835-1910). Quite a few quotations disparaging religion came from Twain, though he was apparently a Presbyterian. So what about the above quotation that often accompanies a picture…
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Alas! Sorry for the lack of new content lately. It’s not for lack of effort, as I’ve been working furiously on a fact check of PolitiFact Texas. PolitiFact’s fact check had to do with a statement from President George Washington. My research on this one has proved so extensive that I’m planning a fact check entry as well as a…
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PolitiFact Florida: “Marco Rubio tweets that GOP didn’t support Social Security changes” Overview Fact checker commits fallacy of equivocation in posting false headline. The Facts Marco Rubio’s tweet from 1:16 p.m. on Dec. 20, 2012: Report that #GOP insisting on changes to social security as part of #fiscalcliff false.BTW those changes are supported by @barackobama. PolitiFact reports…
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Though I haven’t especially pushed it in the few promotional statements put forth about Zebra Fact Check, it was never lost on me that the name lends itself to fact checking other fact checkers. “Zebra,” of course, often serves as a mildly derisive nickname for sports referees who run about, at least in American football, in uniforms that feature black…
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