The PolitiFact (PF) state or regional analysis requires (in my view) that all the rulings through 2011 be included (adding those from 2010 and prior) to get the best statistical picture. That’s how it’s been handled in the past. PolitiFact New Jersey and New Hampshire were 2011 PolitiFact start ups, and some of the states don’t do as many rulings as others for obvious reasons. PolitiFacts Oregon and Rhode Island did the fewest rulings, generally about a quarter of what PolitiFacts Florida and Texas do. I’ve posted about this before; the state’s quantity of rulings roughly follows the population/amount of political representation, but not always.
PolitiFact New Hampshire is an anomaly because it only reports on the presidential candidates as "PolitiFact 2012" and does nothing of a “local” nature. I’ve been tempted to include New Hampshire with National. And today, the day of my post, is the New Hampshire primary. I’m almost wondering what happens next when the primary is over? Was this just a project for a large staff of interns? We’ll know very soon.
New Hampshire also holds the distinction, although with only 60 total rulings, as having the highest Truth Index for the Democrats as well as the largest variance between Democrats and Republicans. Since New Hampshire is only covering issues related to the presidential race at a national level, this serves to contrast the Republican’s higher “truthiness” at a local level discovered previously. It also makes me bring up another theory of mine: that Bill Adair is relegating some of the "liberal bias" to a "state" to lower the truth index variance between Republicans and Democrats at PolitiFact National. I will save doing an analysis on this for later.
PolitiFacts Virginia and Wisconsin still favor the Republicans by a small margin. Most variances between Democrats and Republicans have stayed pretty steady; PolitiFact Virginia, the "reddest" PolitiFact state (where the Richmond Times-Dispatch has been established to endorse Republicans), still favors them by a small margin, going positive on its Republican Truth Index. PolitiFact Wisconsin has the worst Truth Index in terms of “lying”, at an overall average of negative 42.4, with the Republicans slightly more truthful than Democrats.
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| Click to enlarge: The non-affiliated numbers are not included so the chart would look less cluttered. |
Here’s how it looks when PF National is compared to all the states combined. This graph also includes the numbers on rulings on those with “Other” Independent, non-partisan or unknown political affiliations.
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| Click to enlarge: Politically unaffiliated ratings are included here as "Other." |
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