Opinions on Politifact?

[TexasWife25]

I've heard a lot recently, from both sides of the aisle, about how Politifact seems to get it wrong, more often then they get it right. Just curious about everyones opinion, and is there a fact checking source that you trust more then politifact?

 

[JoeRockStar]

They tend to slant to the left. Reading multiple news sources and forming your own opinion is usually the best way to weed through the bullshit.

 

[mercury14]

Hit and miss on their little gauge thing. They often get the analysis right but the gauge wrong.

 

[TexasWife25]

Hit and miss on their little gauge thing. They often get the analysis right but the gauge wrong.

Ive noticed that too. They seem to analyze more than the actual facts, they judge the intention behind the statement as well.

 

[mercury14]

Ive noticed that too. They seem to analyze more than the actual facts, they judge the intention behind the statement as well.

All it takes to get a claim rated as 'half true' is some baseless speculation. As long as it's something that's difficult to specifically disprove, they often rate any old claim that way. It's silly. They need a new category where they set aside comments that have no apparent backing.

 

[Liar]

They tend to slant to the left.

And yet, it seems to be voices on the left that are hammering them at the moment. So I dunno.

Reading multiple news sources and forming your own opinion is usually the best way to weed through the bullshit.

Yep.

 

[KingOrfeo]

I've heard a lot recently, from both sides of the aisle, about how Politifact seems to get it wrong, more often then they get it right. Just curious about everyones opinion, and is there a fact checking source that you trust more then politifact?

I dunno whether its reputation is better or worse than Politifact's, but there's always FactCheck.org. It's run ultimately by a journalism school (Annenberg School for Communications at the University of Pennsylvania).

 

[KRCummings]

Don't need a web site to tell me a politician is lying.

 

[KingOrfeo]

Don't need a web site to tell me a politician is lying.

Yes, you do. (And, no, you can't tell from the moving lips.)

 

[Liar]

Yes, you do. (And, no, you can't tell from the moving lips.)

All politicians should learn ventroquilism. Just to fuck with the idiom.

 

[KRCummings]

Yes, you do. (And, no, you can't tell from the moving lips.)

No, I don't. Even if the facts given are true they are lying about their involvement or the effect of those facts. No politician ever told the whole truth. Ever. When George Washington cut down the cherry tree he neglected to admit also cutting down a peach tree.

 

[mercury14]

So going to Politifact's front page right now I see a great example of their broken truth-o-meter. Marco Rubio claims that most Americans are conservatives and Politifact runs off to the recent Gallup poll showing that the statistic is 40%. Then Politifact rates that claim as "Mostly True".

What? It's mostly true that 40% is greater than 50%? WTF?

http://www.politifact.com/florida/s...ty-americans-are-conservative-marco-rubio-sa/


Likewise under the presidential promise keeper bit, it gives Obama a "Promise Kept" rating for building the Keystone Pipeline because he promises to keep working on it. This should clearly be rated "In the Works".

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-m.../454/build-natural-gas-pipeline-from-alaska-/

Their analysis is usually fine but who is fact checking their meters?

 

[KingOrfeo]

Even if the facts given are true they are lying about their involvement or the effect of those facts.

Generally, in such situations, they're not lying but simply wrong. Sometimes they're not even wrong.

 

[KingOrfeo]

So going to Politifact's front page right now I see a great example of their broken truth-o-meter. Marco Rubio claims that most Americans are conservatives and Politifact runs off to the recent Gallup poll showing that the statistic is 40%. Then Politifact rates that claim as "Mostly True".

What? It's mostly true that 40% is greater than 50%? WTF?

http://www.politifact.com/florida/s...ty-americans-are-conservative-marco-rubio-sa/

Well, it's "mostly true" if the claim is "more Americans self-ID as conservative than as liberal if asked to choose between those two options." (But, you get a different picture if you offer more options.)

 

[mercury14]

I dunno whether its reputation is better or worse than Politifact's, but there's always FactCheck.org. It's run ultimately by a journalism school (Annenberg School for Communications at the University of Pennsylvania).

Fact Check has a more sound reputation. Conservatives still occasionally attack it as a liberal shill (even though it's a product of conservatism).

 

[mercury14]

Well, it's "mostly true" if the claim is "more Americans self-ID as conservative than as liberal if asked to choose between those two options." (But, you get a different picture if you offer more options.)

That wasn't the claim though. Rubio used the word "most".

 

[TexasWife25]

That wasn't the claim though. Rubio used the word "most".

And I think thats the issue a lot of people have with politifact. That took what he said and inferred he meant more then instead of a majority of.

 

[Wok]

I've heard a lot recently, from both sides of the aisle, about how Politifact seems to get it wrong, more often then they get it right. Just curious about everyones opinion, and is there a fact checking source that you trust more then politifact?

It is OK, as long as it agrees with my opinions.

 

[KRCummings]

It is OK, as long as it agrees with my opinions.

Oh, I didn't know it was run by Litsters.

 

[mercury14]

And I think thats the issue a lot of people have with politifact. That took what he said and inferred he meant more then instead of a majority of.

The whole question is bunk anyway. Many people say they're conservative because it sounds safe and non-committal. The same Gallup poll also showed that more people call themselves Democrats than Republicans which definitely doesn't jive with the first figure.

 

[phrodeau]

(edited)

Likewise under the presidential promise keeper bit, it gives Obama a "Promise Kept" rating for building the Keystone Pipeline because he promises to keep working on it. This should clearly be rated "In the Works".

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-m.../454/build-natural-gas-pipeline-from-alaska-/

Their analysis is usually fine but who is fact checking their meters?

Read your link.

This is not to be confused with the Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry petroleum rather than natural gas and which Obama, in a controversial decision, moved to deny a key approval in January 2012.

 

[Wrong Element]

So going to Politifact's front page right now I see a great example of their broken truth-o-meter. Marco Rubio claims that most Americans are conservatives and Politifact runs off to the recent Gallup poll showing that the statistic is 40%. Then Politifact rates that claim as "Mostly True".

What? It's mostly true that 40% is greater than 50%? WTF?

http://www.politifact.com/florida/s...ty-americans-are-conservative-marco-rubio-sa/


Likewise under the presidential promise keeper bit, it gives Obama a "Promise Kept" rating for building the Keystone Pipeline because he promises to keep working on it. This should clearly be rated "In the Works".

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-m.../454/build-natural-gas-pipeline-from-alaska-/

Their analysis is usually fine but who is fact checking their meters?

My guess is that Politifact, like most journalists

1) don't want to say flat out that a politician is lying if there's any plausible way to use weasel words;

2) don't EVER want to be in the position of saying that Republicans are guiltier than Democrats, so as not to get talk radio and Fox coming down on them as "biased."

So you get utter nonsense like Politifact calling Democratic claims that the Ryan budget would end Medicare as "the biggest political lie of 2011." What made it the biggest political lie of 2011? Why, the GOP says itself that Ryan wants to preserve Medicare, so it's obvious the Democrats had to be lying about it! Yes, they're that dumb, if not dishonest.

Needless to say, they're not part of my daily reading.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

So going to Politifact's front page right now I see a great example of their broken truth-o-meter. Marco Rubio claims that most Americans are conservatives and Politifact runs off to the recent Gallup poll showing that the statistic is 40%. Then Politifact rates that claim as "Mostly True".

What? It's mostly true that 40% is greater than 50%? WTF?

http://www.politifact.com/florida/s...ty-americans-are-conservative-marco-rubio-sa/


Likewise under the presidential promise keeper bit, it gives Obama a "Promise Kept" rating for building the Keystone Pipeline because he promises to keep working on it. This should clearly be rated "In the Works".

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-m.../454/build-natural-gas-pipeline-from-alaska-/

Their analysis is usually fine but who is fact checking their meters?

I agree. In fact I think 40% is about double the real percentage. The right 20% are batshit crazee fundies, the next 30% are libertarian/conservatives, then 30% liberal/libertarians, then 20% apeshit crazee, big brother lovin, leftie totalitarians.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I personally prefer REALPOLITICS.