The numbers are in: 484 total PolitiFact (PF) rulings, nationally and state-wise, for the first three months of 2011. They break down as follows, along with the Politi-Score, which averaged 44.4.
Beginning about the month of February, there were outcries, protests and much contentious back and forth between the Wisconsin state government and public employees and teachers in their capitol of Madison, as Governor Scott Walker sought to curtail collective bargaining. And if the Politi-Score is any evidence, that back and forth just managed a "Barely True", far less than the general average. Yes, among the other states, PF Rhode Island may have a Politi-Score of 27, very close to that of PF Wisconsin, but they only had 22 rulings, not enough for a good measure (also, the Politi-Score for "current and former officials" at PF Rhode Island was a more average 42; not so for Wisconsin). Wisconsin had the second highest number of rulings to PolitiFact National for the first quarter.
This seems to support the theory that PolitiFact selects statements based on what's in the public eye at the moment, because the Wisconsin protests were certainly garnering a lot of attention.
The Politi-Score for PF Wisconsin was even lower, a paltry 19.3 for the month of February, when most of the protests had began. But MOST interesting: the Democrats' Politi-Score average in February was 17.9...but the Republicans were higher at a slightly more "truthful" 20.0. More later.
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