First Rule Of Fact-Checking
Mollie Hemingway, Ed. ·
January 19, 2013 at 5:23pm
Oh dear. Politifact issued its Lie of the Year.
PolitiFact has selected Romney's claim that Barack Obama "sold Chrysler to Italians who are going to build Jeeps in China" at the cost of American jobs as the 2012 Lie of the Year.
The only problem is that, well, the claim is true. My husband pointed this out. PolitiFact now concedes that the claim is the "literal truth" but if you interpret it with special PolitiFact glasses, it becomes the lie of the year.
Better luck next year, guys!
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Sep '12
Re: First Rule Of Fact-Checking
As a general rule of thumb, if Politifact calls it a lie, it's the truth. If they call it the truth, it's a lie. So in a way, they are doing their job.
Edited on January 19, 2013 at 5:41pmJun '11
Re: First Rule Of Fact-Checking
Dear Mark,
Thanks for exposing an even more pathetic fraud than ours.
Insincerely yours,
Lance and Manti
Edited to fix heinous mobile formatting,
Edited on January 19, 2013 at 5:42pmRe: First Rule Of Fact-Checking
Politi"Fact" explained that the reason why they didn't pick Obama's claim that Romney had murdered a woman as its lie of the year is because the true Jeep ad was "brazenly false."
Intriguing.
Sep '12
Re: First Rule Of Fact-Checking
Because Politi"Fact"'s goal was the reelection of Barack Obama. Mission accomplished.
Feb '12
Re: First Rule Of Fact-Checking
Perhaps I shouldn't find it odd that an entity called "PolitiFact" deals more with "intentions" and "messages" than route facts, but it still shocks me.
They seem to misunderstand what a fact is. "Overall messages" and "intentions" have nothing to do with facts. Deception through facts is a different kind of thing than a fact being the case or not, but of course ObamaFact is either incapable or unwilling to communicate these nuances in their journalism read muckraking.
Dec '11
Re: First Rule Of Fact-Checking
The real lie of the year was Obama's repeatedly saying we need a "balanced approach" to deficit reduction that has to include both spending cuts and tax increases. We now know that he wants tax increases and spending increases (big surprise!), and that that was his position all along. The man lied to get elected, and he should be hated for it.
Re: First Rule Of Fact-Checking
Mollie Hemingway, Ed.: Oh dear. Politifact issued its Lie of the Year.
I'm just going to go out on a limb here but if you are unable to put the portion that's a lie inside of quote marks, you might want to find another "lie of the year."
Sep '12
Re: First Rule Of Fact-Checking
I have thought all along that there's hubris in the very idea of fact checking. There really is no "view from nowhere." Everyone has biases that show up in how they interpret news and facts. So-called "fact checkers" want us to believe that they have no bias and will give us the straight story, but that really isn't possible. Instead, they just add another contentious layer to the left-wing bias. Now, if there were an organization that attempted to point out the exaggerations inherent in almost all political speech and really tried to do this fairly, that WOULD be a service to the nation. This might be possible if people from both sides of the political spectrum were hired to run such a service. I wish someone would try.
Jun '10
Re: First Rule Of Fact-Checking
Is Politifact some kind of new age church?
The reason I ask: despite the fact that the Jeep allegation was "the literal truth," it's apparently still some kind of metaphysical lie.
Now that's what I call some deep theology.
Mollie: As our resident expert on the proper use of the word "literal," and as a writer on all-things religious, can you help us out?
Edited on January 19, 2013 at 7:35pmDec '12
Re: First Rule Of Fact-Checking
With such reliability firmly demonstrated, shouldn't they go the way of the Voter News Servic?
Jul '11
Re: First Rule Of Fact-Checking
I'm curious if accountability matters to them. May their pens chip and shatter.
Mar '11
Re: First Rule Of Fact-Checking
It's among the things that matter most to them, like consistency, journalistic integrity, and credibility. Just like the New York Times.
Feb '11
Re: First Rule Of Fact-Checking
Sometimes things are actual facts that cannot be considered to be open to interpretation.
The following are all either absolutely true or false:
Those are just examples.
Edited on January 19, 2013 at 7:37pmApr '11
Re: First Rule Of Fact-Checking
The Jeep thing is a farce, but the politifact claim that may have been decisive in the election was their decision, repeated on all major networks and broadsheets, to say that Romney's claim that Obama was gutting welfare reform was false. This was based on a: the Obama administration's claim that though they were giving themselves the power to gut welfare, they were going to use it responsibly and b: the fact that one of the most egregious reform gutters, Gov. Sandoval (NV) was a Republican. I don't know whether the assumption that the administration would never say something with political motives or that no Republicans would never engage in radical liberal buffoonery is more depressing.
Still, it turned what should have been Romney's most effective campaign into a devastating loss, particularly amongst poor whites; I was talking to a low information Ohio voter about it yesterday (she didn't vote as a protest against a non-existent electoral college fraud scheme, but otherwise would have backed Obama over this).
Incidentally, if anyone knows that the heck Sandoval was thinking, or what the story is behind this letter, I'd be very grateful for the information.
Sep '12
Re: First Rule Of Fact-Checking
"Fake but true" has been firmly enshrined in Progressive doctrine since the publication of I, Rigoberta Menchu. I expect them to cling to falsehood for the forseeable future.
May '10
Re: First Rule Of Fact-Checking
Politifact has established itself as a "fact-checker" of record in the minds of the mainstream media.
Whether or not it's pronouncements have any basis in objective reality or not is not the point.
Whatever they say will be trotted out by the MSM as dispositive of whatever argument they want supported.
War is Peace. Slavery is Freedom. &tc.
Aug '10
Re: First Rule Of Fact-Checking
Haven't there been some literary warnings about what has happened when the language gets turned on it's head ?
Lies are truth is heckuva way to start the year.
Does an assault on our sense mean the same anymore, was that a semi-automatic response ?
Now about those vote totals from 2008 and 2012 .....
Sep '12
Re: First Rule Of Fact-Checking
Irael P., you're right that there are facts in this world, but Politifact doesn't get into things that everyone agrees on. You don't see them pronouncing on who won the election. Generally what they do pronounce upon is subject to at least some interpretation. Even your last fact, while I would agree with you, would get you an argument from some people, who would say that DDT kills animals and therefore destroys life, which would get you into a big debate about environmentalism.
Nov '11
Re: First Rule Of Fact-Checking
In the weeks after the Gulf oil spill you'll recall that a virtual armada of cleanup ships was made to stand off, lacking the official permission needed to come in and help. As I recall, it had something to do with the crews being non-U.S. (bad) and/or non-union (worse).
I mentioned this to a liberal acquaintance who said in high dudgeon that this accusation was yet another slander against Obama, that he (my friend) had gone to factcheck.org and they stated unequivocally that it was "false". He further suggested that that I should go there and get myself enlightened.
So I did. Sure enough, it was labeled false, with the counter "fact" that Obama had denied only one-- count 'em-- one permit. That was it. Only one denial. Thus "false". Done deal.
What they didn't say was that all those ships were completely stymied until they received a permit to enter US waters. No need to deny a permit, just don't grant one, which was exactly how they were thwarted.
That's how it works.
And works, and works, and works...
May '10
Re: First Rule Of Fact-Checking
So can we name their choice of a true statement for 2012 "lie of the year" as the 2013 "lie of the year"?