2012 PolitiFact Wacky Awards

PolitiFact has its Lie of the Year, but I don't think anyone's considered all the ones that were....just maybe too plain weird, wacky, dumb, or silly for a Truth-o-Meter ruling from PolitiFact.  So here are the Politi-Psychotic Awards for PolitiFact's Wackiest Fact-checks of the Year. (BTW, here's my prediction for 2012 PolitiFact Lie of the Year, posted in August.)

 

□  The "Really Bad Economic Indicator" Award.  If Rick Scott wanted to overplay the Florida economy with this one, he should have waited just a month more for Fat Tuesday and counted pazckis.  How many donuts you say you sold in one morning pretending to work at a donut shop is SUCH  a profoundly brilliant way to preface your state-of-the-state address and I can't wait to see the "donut sales indicator" in all econ books.  But seriously....

I bet PolitiFact enjoyed investigating this one.

□  The "Excuse To Go To Vegas" Award.  A PolitiFact ruling onTampa being the strip club capital of the world (uttered by Florida State senator Ellyn Bogdanoff) was written by Angie Drobnic Holan, who had to call around to find out for sure, besides, perhaps, I'm curious...did Bill Adair, Lou Jacobson and Alan Sharockman go on any field trips to determine that "evidence [was] lacking" to help Angie?

□  The "Who was Buried in Grants Tomb" Award.  Dave Weldon, a Florida senate candidate, said there was no wildlife in ANWR, which stands for Alaska National Wildlife Refuge.  PolitiFact's writer Katie Sanders quotes an interviewee: " With regard to the lack of animals, he appears to be very uninformed."   Well, DUH.

□   The "Best of the Birthers" Award.  So, the governor of Hawaii actually went to Kinko's in person to forge Obama's birth certificate?  Gee, he could have  had someone in his office do it instead of getting his picture taken while there.  I mean, I've got the Onion to read stuff like this, I don't know what it's doing in PolitiFact.

□   The "Terribly Twisted Taxonomy Award".  So a Congress is a bunch of baboons, or vice versa?  I still see this "fact" come up on Facebook shared by well-meaning friends.  It's another joke, and I don't know why PolitiFact wasted its time rating it.  While there's a lot of groupings of like animals I haven't heard of, I just don't think congress of baboons is one that merits a fact-check.  Leave it for Snopes, instead of being so monkey see, monkey do.

□   The "Flinging Poo Award."  Conservative firebrand Michele Malkin got a True for saying Gloria Steinem called Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison a "female impersonator" back in 1993.  While Steinem's characterization seems ill-formed to me, it's not a sufficient "tu quoque" argument by Malkin to defend Rush Limbaugh for calling Sandra Fluke a "slut" as "slut" carries a lot more baggage than a (female as a) female impersonator.  Other than that, if anyone's a female impersonator, it's Ann "Adams Apple" Coulter...

□   The "Too Much Information Award." Wisconsin state senator Joel Kleefisch got into trouble for voting on behalf of two state senators who were in the bathroom, on his (found Mostly True) claim that the bathroom is considered part of the chamber.  PolitiFact Wisonsin's James Nelson tries to answer the question we all want answered " Are Assembly members really considered in the chambers when they are, um, on the chamber pot?"   Um, I was expecting PolitiFact to tell me the two state senators Kleefisch voted on behalf of had constipation which was why they couldn't make it back on time to vote.  Well, maybe (not) the next time.