An independent experimental fact-checking site, exploring and advocating ways to make fact-checking better.
The first of two correction requests Zebra Fact Check sent to PolitiFact on this date concerned PolitiFact’s fact check of a movie trailer. In its criticism of the “2000 Mules” trailer, PolitiFact included a subheading that falsely described both the trailer and PolitiFact’s evaluation of the trailer. PolitiFact changed the offending line not long after we sent the correction request….
Read more
On May 5, 2022 at around 8:00 a.m. EDT, Zebra Fact Check sent a pair of correction requests to PolitiFact. One of the correction requests concerned a false statement PolitiFact included as a subheading. PolitiFact claimed a trailer for a film about the 2020 presidential election, “2000 Mules,” based its case on “cell phone footage.” That claim contradicted the content…
Read more
A PolitiFact fact check published April 5, 2022 resulted in justified pushback on social media. Zebra Fact Check summarized the objections in the form of a correction request, submitted on April 11, 2022. On April 12, 2022 we followed up our first email with one correcting a mistake in our correction request. We will update this item if and when…
Read more
A PolitiFact fact check from April 8, 2022 made an ambiguous and misleading claim comparing costs of insulin in the United States to elsewhere. Accordingly, we asked PolitiFact for a correction. We will update this post when and if we note PolitiFact has either corrected the item or otherwise responded to the complaint. Update/Correction note: We changed the background description…
Read more
On April 7, 2022 PolitiFact published a fact check concerning Colorado’s new abortion law. PolitiFact drew immediate criticism on social media for failing to support its conclusion. Colorado law and late term abortion After a Facebook post said Colorado’s law codifying state abortion rights made abortion legal up until delivery, PolitiFact stepped in to fact check. PolitiFact’s fact check, by…
Read more
In 2021 PolitiFact produced a video explainer about its “Truth-O-Meter” process. We reviewed the video in our article “PolitiFact’s misleading ‘Truth-O-Meter’ explainer” on Oct. 4, 2021. A tweet from PolitiFact’s Louis Jacobson on March 10, 2022 impels us to revisit the subject. Jacobson’s mention of the “chamber” suggested he was talking about the “star chamber” for PolitiFact New York. That…
Read more
PolitiFact’s video explainer for critical race theory hides from its audience the movement’s postmodernist hostility to Western culture.
PolitiFact’s Jan. 28, 2022 fact check of a claim by Fox News’ Sean Hannity mistakenly rated his claim as though it used an “or” conditional instead of an “and” conditional. The resulting conclusion (“False”) flew in the face of logic. We noticed a fair amount of pushback against PolitiFact’s conclusion on Twitter, but after PolitiFact spent days making no move…
Read more
On Jan. 21, 2022, after PolitiFact declined to act in response to our Jan. 14, 2022 correction request, we sent this formal complaint to the International Fact-Checking Network, noting on the complaint form that PolitiFact’s inaction breached its pledge to “scrupulously” adhere to an open and honest policy on corrections. Updated a few minutes after publication to add the date…
Read more
We saw something funny on PolitiFact’s Facebook page the other day. It was a video purporting to answer questions about PolitiFact’s trademarked “Truth-O-Meter” system for rating the relative truth of political statements. We would count the explanatory video as an unmitigated disaster. Much of PolitiFact’s video deserves critical commentary. We invite readers to watch the embedded video via YouTube before…
Read more