Currently (as
I've posted about before) I am doing a very tedious, time consuming task with
regard to past PolitiFact rulings (about 4,000 of them from 2007 through 2011): I am refining my "rough" database to
include specific dates, statement descriptions and claimant's (current)
position. When done, the database will
be much more accurate than before with regard to these details, and hopefully
will provide some greater insight into statistics regarding PolitiFact's Truth Index, as well as more reference material for general posts.
My biggest
errors thus far have not been with the Truth-o-Meter rulings themselves, it has
been with the "claimant position."
This was added when the scholarly Eric Ostermeier study of 500 rulings
in early 2011 came out: he had separated
those in an official position with those who were not. To some "not an elected official"
might mean the party boosters, the media pundits, the organizations. This was basically how I quickly classified
them when I thought I'd try to replicate Ostermeier's results. But there are many individuals who were not
elected officials when they sought office, or were in a different office. For example, before running for governor of
Florida, Rick Scott was a businessman. Senator Marco Rubio was not in any
official position when he ran for senator, although he had been prominent in
state government. The way these two
should be recorded, up until they assume office, is not as an official. In other words, a PolitiFact
"rulee's" position should be recorded as the one they were in at the
time they made the statement. In the Scott/Rubio examples, I had them
recorded (mistakenly) as officials up through 2010. While most strictly Democrat-Republican Truth
Index comparisons would hold, anything with regard to official/non-official
would be suspect, because Scott and Rubio comprised a large number of rulings (as well as others).
Other than
that, when complete, there should be new, very accurate chart data to report. I am also considering a new statistically
"relative" approach other than PolitiFact's own Truth Index and the
Politi-Score, which I will be testing with the new "cleaned up"
database. In the mean time, thank you
for your patience!
No comments:
Post a Comment