FactCheck versus PolitiFact Part 2, 2011

Recently when PolitiFact decided to carry other fact-checkers on its website with “Beyond the Truth-O-Meter” (on its front page, lower right), it of course asked for comments at Facebook. I decided to add my two cents that this might be a good time to “eliminate redundancies” with the fact-checks, by not doing a fact-check if another fact-checker is doing it as well. Coming from my business background, I’ve heard “eliminate redundancies” over and over, because it makes the firm more efficient—although (well, because!) it often results in the elimination of jobs. Naturally, my conservative counterpart asked me “why” PolitiFact would want to do that. Well, in the case of the huge sea of political commentary, “eliminating redundancies” only means that more statements can be fact-checked (as opposed to the “same” statements)…and the more comments fact-checked, the less likelihood of certain people complaining that the fact-checkers check Republicans more than Democrats or neglect statements that should be checked…yea, when pigs fly.

On the other hand, when you have several fact-checkers coming to similar conclusions on the same statement, that means something too. As I think about “future projects” at this website, one would be to look at one individual in terms of the fact-checkers and compare all the statements that have been evaluated between (or among) them. I’ve tried that before in a more general sense. I think looking at one individual through several fact checkers might help readers make a more informed decision about whether the individual is more or less truthful, since it isn’t based on one source. For example, Obama has an 11.15 on PolitiFact’s Truth Index as of June 30, which places him at Number 8 out of 25 for those who have received 15 or more rulings from PolitiFact, which is not too bad given he’s had over 300 rulings. FactCheck has stated he’s been fairly truthful so far. So between the two, we have a pretty good reading on Obama’s truthiness.

A post from February, where I compared a number of PolitiFact and FactCheck.org rulings, is one of my most popular pages, according to Statcounter.com, my website stat tracker. So, “back by popular demand” I am doing it again with PolitiFact rulings published since that time.  This time, I am including a cross-reference to the Washington Post's (WaPo) The Fact-Checker where one has been done.  It will be an additional link in the PolitiFact column.

Yes, I’ve exercised my own selection bias, as Republicans are emphasized in this selection of statements, only to show that FactCheck is often in agreement with PolitiFact. I’ve posted before that FactCheck also appears to check Republicans more than Democrats. 

Topic	FactCheck	PolitiFact
Michele Bachmann, June 26: "Rep. Michele Bachmann says she's never received a penny from family farm that got federal crop subsidies."	"Bachmann falsely claimed that 'she and her husband never got a penny from the farm.'  She also left the wrong impression that she has nothing to do with the farm."	False:  "Unless or until Bachmann steps forward to explain the discrepancy...we have to rely [on her financial disclosures]which say she received at least $32,501 in income..."
Michele Bachmann, June 13:  "The CBO, the Congressional Budget Office has said that Obamacare will kill 800,000 jobs."	"Bachmann repeated a false Republican talking point...[also as noted by WaPo]. The CBO never said that."	Barely True: "Bachmann's statement leaves out so many qualifiers that it becomes misleading." WaPo's The Fact Checker covered her statement which was a rehashed Republican talking point, awarding it Three Pinnochios.
Rick Santorum, June 6: "Barack Obama has raised a 'stop sign' on oil exploration."	“Santorum was wrong when he said the Obama administration is 'against any kind of exploration offshore or in Alaska.'  The administration has approved 296 new permits...”	False:  "Just because the pace isn't as fast as some would like doesn't mean that Obama 'has put (up) a stop sign.'"
Newt Gingrich, May 13:  Did he flip flop on supporting Paul Ryan's budget?	“Newt Gingrich is engaging in some revisionist history by claiming he was not referring to Rep. Paul Ryan during his now infamous 'Meet The Press" interview.  That's absurd."	Full Flop on the Flip-o-Meter:  "...He certainly made clear he thought a key provision of the plant--the changes to Medicare--were 'too big a jump' for him to support...And by saying on Van Susteren's show that 'made a mistake in his 'Meet the Press' comments...seems like a tacit admission of a flip-flop."
Sarah Palin, June 5:  In American history, part of Paul Revere's ride was to warn the British.	Palin's statement was "badly twisted...he was riding to warn two fellow rebels that the British were coming to arrest them, not to warn them."	Barely True:  "Palin's comment clearly suggests that one of Revere's aims that night was to warn the British.  It was not." The WaPo's The Fact Checker's take on it:  "Sarah's Midnight Ride Twice over."
Marco Rubio, May 1:  "The Ryan Plan doesn't cut Medicare.  Actually, it increases funding in it.  And the only people in this town that have voted to cut Medicare are the people that supported Obamacare..."	“Sen. Marco Rubio offered a wildly inconsistent view of what constitutes a 'cut' from Medicare...Ryan's plan leaves in place many of the Medicare 'cuts' in the health care law."	Barely True: "Both parties have voted -- at different times and on different proposals -- to reduce future spending on Medicare."
Donald Trump (April 7) says President Obama's "grandmother in Kenya said he was born in Kenya."	If Donald Trump worked for us, we'd have to say: 'Donald, you're fired...' ...In fact, the recording to which he refers shows Sarah Obama repeatedly saying through a translator: 'He was born in America.'	False:  "Trump is serving up re-heated leftovers that have long ago been debunked."
Rachel Maddow (February 17), said that Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's tax-cut bills approved in January are responsible for the $137 million deficit. (This was a secondary PolitiFact fact-check to her statement that there's actually a budget surplus in Wisconsin, if not for these tax cuts.)	It's not true that Gov. Scott Walker's tax cuts are the cause of Wisconsin's current budget deficit--a false claim widely spread by MSNBC's Rachel Maddow.	False:  "The cuts are not even in effect yet, so they cannot be part of the current problem."
The DCCC (Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, April 18) in an ad   "The Republicans voted to end Medicare."  In the same vein, The Agenda Project (a liberal advocacy group, on May 17): The Paul Ryan Budget proposal would end Medicare.	"Democrats are claiming this is...doing away with Medicare --  but that's far from the truth."	Pants on Fire for the DCCC:  " to say the Republicans voted to end Medicare...is a major exaggeration." False for the Agenda Project: “We concluded that, while the Ryan plan represents a dramatic change in Medicare, it was not a proposal to 'end' Medicare."