There are ten
PolitiFact (PF) writers who have produced just about half of PolitiFact's
rulings, from its beginnings in 2007 up until I ended my compilation on
Election Eve, 2012. Another roughly 160 writers
composed the rest of them, many serving multiple functions of writer,
researcher and editor. There were 47
writers who wrote just one to two rulings each.
The highest
producer by far is Lou Jacobson, whose 676 fact-checks (some done in association
with other writers at PolitiFact) make up a bit over 10% of PolitiFact's
total output. Number 2 is Angie Drobnic Holan, now the Editor at PolitiFact Florida, at 571.
Below is the
Truth Index+ for the Top Ten, with scores for Republican versus Democrat. The best way to look at these averages in
terms of "bias" or "lean" would be the percent variance in
the Truth Index+ between party for each writer.
Lou Jacobson, Angie Drobnic Holan, Robert Farley and PF Georgia's
Willoughby Mariano have about a 22% variance leaning toward the Democrats, only
to be exceeded by Number One C. Eugene Emery of PolitiFact Rhode Island, who has
a whopping 38% Democrat lean. Tom Kertscher at PolitiFact Wisconsin swings 22% in the opposite direction; the
remainder go from 3% in favor of the Republicans to around 10% in favor
of the Democrats.
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| Click to enlarge: NA in parentheses = PF National; then number of rulings written. |
So, what can
we learn from the Truth Index+ for each writer?
I decided to take a closer look at the top four writers and an
"outlier" in terms of some of the items I had keyed in: party, titles, people, subjects.
Lou Jacobson,
for example, was No. 5 in "lean" variance as noted above, although
other than Emery he was in a virtual tie with four others. But he had a few features in his 676 rulings
that stood out: he is definitely
"the economics guy" on the PolitiFact team. The subject of about 40% of his rulings was
a fiscal one: economy, federal budget, stimulus, taxes etc.. This was a far larger percentage than any
other writer. Healthcare was the subject
of 25% of his rulings. In terms of
"occupation" his being on PolitiFact National's team meant that about
30% of his rulings were on the president and vice president and the
presidential/vice presidential candidates (in 2008 and 2012).
A check on
names revealed a notable person who seems one of Jacobson's "fact-check
favorites"--Michele Bachmann. He
did almost a third (17) of her 54 rulings, and gave her 5 of her 12
Pants on Fire awards, as well as five Falses (in other words, when a claim was
found False for Bachmann, Jacobson determined it was Pants on Fire half of the time.) In comparison, Angie Drobnic Holan only gave
Bachmann one Pants on Fire out of five rulings found False.
