An independent experimental fact-checking site, exploring and advocating ways to make fact-checking better.
“Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; Or close the wall up with our English dead.” Henry V, from Shakespeare’s “Henry V” Mainstream media fact checkers have done a lousy job of alerting their readers to Democrats’ deceptive gender pay gap claims. We’ll review the fact checks of the pay gap issue from FactCheck.org, the Washington Post…
Read more
“(Charlie) Crist said Scott’s per-pupil education spending is “about $200 less” than the Crist administration did during the recession. … We rate the statement Mostly True.” —PolitiFact Florida, from a July 18, 2014 fact check of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist Overview PolitiFact Florida’s fact check misleads on Crist’s nearly meaningless claim. The Facts On July 18, 2014, PolitiFact…
Read more
“Most people on the individual market are getting more benefits under the law. At worst, they’re paying more to get more, though in many cases they’re actually paying less.” —PolitiFact, from a March 20, 2014 fact check of an Americans for Prosperity ad. Overview Is “Fact Checkers for Mendacity” the answer to Americans For Prosperity? The Facts The political…
Read more
“It’s too soon to say that Obama has deported more people than any other president. But with the information available, it looks like he’s on track to do so. We rate her claim Half True.” —PolitiFact, summarizing a March 9, 2014 fact check of National Council of La Raza president Janet Murguía Overview PolitiFact’s balancing act on President Barack Obama’s…
Read more
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,…
Read more
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…
Read more
“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…
Read more
How PolitiFact’s 2013 “Lie of the Year” selection was even worse than you thought It was Nov. 4, 2013, and insurance companies had already started to send cancellation notices to customers whose policies failed to meet the administration’s “essential benefits” standards under the Affordable Care Act. The media recognized the failure of the president’s pledge that Americans could keep the…
Read more
“[T]he International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans … found that about three-quarters of all employer-sponsored health plans already meet the criteria of the Affordable Care Act.” —PunditFact, Nov. 20, 2013 Overview PunditFact, the pundit-checking branch of PolitiFact, misuses a 2013 survey by the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans to help excuse insurance plan cancellations under the ACA. The…
Read more
Fact checker “PolitiFact” spins its fact check failures on health care reform The media have rightly joined the public in criticizing President Obama’s veracity in claiming Americans could keep their health care plans if they liked them. And many have rightly criticized PolitiFact for turning a more-or-less blind eye on the president’s preposterous sales job. But PolitiFact isn’t taking this…
Read more