An independent experimental fact-checking site, exploring and advocating ways to make fact-checking better.
On June 27, 2022, Zebra Fact Check sent a correction request to PolitiFact via [email protected] PolitiFact issued a “Mostly True” rating for President Biden’s claim that the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision made the United States “an outlier among developed nations in the world.” We explained to PolitiFact it used an unrealistic approach to defining “developed nations” that was inconsistent with…
Read more
On June 16, 2022, Zebra Fact Check sent a complaint about PolitiFact to the International Fact-Checking Network.
A PolitiFact fact check got out ahead of the facts, evident after Uvalde, Texas law enforcement issued contradictory reports about events surrounding a shooting incident. PolitiFact obscured from readers that it issued apparent false reports while relying on official sources. Instead of admitting it changed its reporting, PolitiFact told readers it updated its story with new information that came out…
Read more
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.
After PolitiFact published an article supposedly explaining “great replacement theory,” with Tucker Carlson as a key focus, PolitiFact published a preposterous piece on May 19, 2022 claiming Carlson feigned not knowing about “great replacement theory.” Fox News host Tucker Carlson falsely claimed he was unfamiliar with the racist and antisemitic “great replacement theory” cited by the mass shooter in Buffalo,…
Read more
For years, we have scratched our heads over PolitiFact’s spotty compliance with its own policies. Zebra Fact Check has built a collection of correction requests where PolitiFact has either ignored the request or made a correction without following its policy on corrections. A PolitiFact Fact Check from May 26, 2022 introduces another stellar example of the fact checkers’ clay feet….
Read more
Zebra Fact Check found PolitiFact had announced an “update” to an article where it had changed existing material as well as adding new material, all without following its own statement of principles for doing an update. Accordingly, we sent PolitiFact an email message to [email protected] asking PolitiFact to follow its policy regarding changes to its story.
Zebra Fact Check sent two correction requests to PolitiFact on May 5, 2022. The first of the two we documented here. We delayed documenting the second. We decided on the delay because PolitiFact made a change, albeit via stealth edit, after the first correction request but made no apparent change after the second correction request. Under the assumption that submitting…
Read more
Zebra Fact Check sent a second correction request to PolitiFact on May 5, 2022. PolitiFact misquoted Sean Hannity while fact-checking his opinion.