Politifact? Try Politijoke!
Are you familiar with St. Petersburg Times' Politifact? They aim to explain the difference between what politicians say and what the truth is. More often than not, though, they just engage in partisan advocacy. I last pointed this out in August when they spent many paragraphs disputing the claim that "Obama’s stimulus, passed in his first month in office, will cost more than the entire Iraq War -- more than $100 billion more." Except that it was true. So on their truth-o-meter, they gave it a "barely true." Very similar to barely pregnant, I hear.
But now it's gotten worse. Rand Paul pointed out last week, correctly, that the average federal employee makes twice what the average private employee makes. That's just factual. The average fed in 2009 made an unbelievable $123,049, which was double the private-sector average of $61,051.
But, but, but, says Politifact, that figure is total compensation. So the fact that federal employees get every holiday, tons of sick leave, and accrue comp days much more easily than private sector employees means that Rand Paul is lying. And besides, the jobs in the federal sector are different than the jobs in the private sector (And they don't mean that private sector jobs are "necessary.").
It's an unbelievable hatchet job. While Paul's "facts" are correct, they think his failure to explain the nuance of all the ways taxpayers help make federal employment cushy . . . means that he's lying.
Speaking of nuance, I wonder why Politifact didn't mention that it is nigh near impossible to get fired as a federal employee. When I was a reporter for Federal Times a few years ago, I went through the data and discovered that something like a dozen employees had been fired at cabinet-level departments in the previous five years. Somehow that guaranteed job security "nuance" didn't make it into Politifact's investigation.
- Comment (8)
- · Quote
- · UnfollowFollow (1)
Comments :
Re: Politifact? Try Politijoke!
My husband just read this post and pointed out that Politifact and the loony Media Matters for America (the Soros-funded media watchdog notorious for being wrong about a lot of things) agree on the veracity of Paul's statements. Here's Mickey Kaus mocking MM4A's take.
Hint to Politifact. When your analysis is equivalent to Media Matters for America's, go ahead and drop the "fact" part of your name, mmkay?
Sep '10
Re: Politifact? Try Politijoke!
NPR's On the Media trotted out Politifact this weekend to debunk Eric Cantor's statement that:
In the past two years, Democrats have "spent more money than this country has spent in the last 200 years combined."
This got Mr. Cantor a "Pants on Fire" rating. However, his statement that:
"The budget submitted by Obama will add more to the debt than the outstanding debt of the previous 43 presidents combined."
Got a True rating. I will be looking for an update from Brooke Gladstone next week.
Jul '10
Re: Politifact? Try Politijoke!
On my friend's (who works for the government) Facebook page, she wrote:
Last full week of work until 2011..... I love this time of year!
On October 25th.
Jul '10
Re: Politifact? Try Politijoke!
Michael Tee: On my friend's (who works for the government) Facebook page, she wrote:
Last full week of work until 2011..... I love this time of year!
On October 25th. · Nov 14 at 5:42pm
Well, Halloween is a holiday. We can't have all these important professionals (lawyers and scientists no less!) overworked.
They only really make about 80K a year in salary; now you want them to work in November & December?
What's up? It's not like their pay is coming out of your... oh.
Aug '10
Re: Politifact? Try Politijoke!
St Petersburg Florida ? or Leningrad ?
Politicfact is a response to the popularity of blogs, the MSM guys ,whenever they're reminded that the blogs are killing them, bluster something about fact checking. This is their invention of self-importance, but they had their own people do it so they have ,once again, denied the basic problem. Their people are addled with bias, their papers can't even keep the bias from the truthtelling, and they bump into each other and themselves whenever they try to circle the wagons. What a joke.
Joke 2 is that they do this to the nice people of St Petersburg, who are a mostly older, conservative bunch who are less capable with computer and can't find the blogs to escape.
You see, we've escaped and they can't get us back. Especially with facts that are wrapped in halftruths and lies.
Edited on Nov 15, 2010 at 5:51amMay '10
Re: Politifact? Try Politijoke!
Gee, Mollie, if they took away the "fact" part of the name, they couldn't fool anyone. Don't look for that to change. Silly rabbit.
The voters inexplicably ignored these "facts", however. Who's up for starting a non-partisan watchdog group called Politimisinformation? Or Politifear? Politifaultymessaging, anyone? Politivoterignorance?
Politibasestinstincts is my pick.
Re: Politifact? Try Politijoke!
Also worth reading is Nick Gillespie's take over at Reason.
Jul '10
Re: Politifact? Try Politijoke!
While we're on the subject, why is Scopes regarded as the final word by so many? It is a man-and-wife team working out of a double-wide in California. Evidently quite known for their left-wing politics.