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PolitiFact published an article on Nov. 14, 2022 bearing the title “Donald Trump, the least accurate politician we’ve ever covered, eyes another White House run.” The article later similarly claimed “Trump has the worst record of any politician fact-checked by PolitiFact.” Given that PolitiFact does not rate politicians using a randomly selected set of stories and uses subjective judgments to…
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A PolitiFact Virginia fact check from Nov. 11, 2022 featured a substantial hole in its reasoning, so on Nov. 12 (after using Twitter to flag the issue) Zebra Fact Check sent PolitiFact a description of the problem and two potential avenues it might take toward fixing it. PolitiFact promptly responded with its standard response email.
Upon noticing an apparent error in a PolitiFact newsletter sent Sept. 15, 2022, Zebra Fact Check sent a correction/clarification request to PolitiFact that same day. PolitiFact responded (unusual in our experience) the same day. PolitiFact Audience Director Josie Hollingsworth affirmed the presence of the error and committed to issuing a correction in the next edition of the newsletter. Note: We…
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On July 23, 2022 Zebra Fact Check sent a clarification request to International Fact-Checking Network verified signatory The Healthy Indian Project asking it to resolve an equivocation problem in an abortion fact check. We were pleased to receive a response from THIP’s founder and CEO Sudipta Sengupta on July 24, 2022. Zebra Fact Check sent its reply to the THIP…
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AFP Fact Check used the same equivocal argument other fact-checking organizations have used in answering whether abortion is ever medically necessary. The fact-checking organization under Agence France-Presse uses a form interface instead of email submission of correction requests. After submission, we received confirmation of submission and a message that the email was not sent. We’re not sure what that means…
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Zebra Fact Check encountered another abortion-related fact check basing its argument on a fallacy of equivocation. We sent a correction request to Annenberg Fact Check (FactCheck.org) on July 15, 2022.
Upon noticing that PolitiFact fact check had failed to properly contextualize a claim from Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), Zebra Fact Check sent a correction request to PolitiFact on July 1, 2022. PolitiFact acknowledged its receipt of the correction request with a form email.
Zebra Fact Check discovered a major methodological error in PolitiFact’s May 24, 2022 fact check of a claim by Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.). Accordingly, we sent a correction request to [email protected]. We received PolitiFact’s standard acknowledgment form letter in reply.
When PolitiFact responded to our May 27, 2022 outreach by failing to disclose edits it made to a May 26, 2022 fact check, Zebra Fact Check sent another correction request to PolitiFact. We noted, among other things, that revising and eliding material does not count as an update according to PolitiFact’s statement of principles.
Zebra Fact Check sent a correction request to the Poynter Institute (“Factually” newsletter) on May 13, 2022