Media Matters
PolitiFact’s Fixers
The Truth-O-Meter at the St. Petersburg Times has a very long nose.
Journalistic bias is one thing, but journalistic arrogance is quite another.
When reporters claiming to be neutral political fact-checkers go beyond mere reporting to state with absolute certainty things they cannot possibly know, they run the risk of churning out political opinion masquerading as high-minded investigative journalism.
This is exactly what the reporters at the fact-checking operation PolitiFact.com sometimes do. A project of the St. Petersburg Times, the website’s “Truth-O-Meter” purports to check and rate “the accuracy of statements by candidates, elected officials, political parties, interest groups, pundits, talk show hosts.”
After PolitiFact writers research a statement, it then receives one of six ratings on a continuum of truthfulness: True, Mostly True, Half True, Barely True, False and Pants on Fire.
It sounds very Woodward and Bernstein with some hip Internet-savvy irreverence thrown in, doesn’t it?
That’s what I thought before I looked into the matter.
It turns out that those who serve the Truth-O-Meter often have strange ideas about what constitutes truth.
Let’s look at how PolitiFact handled Rep. Michele Bachmann’s recent claim that the much investigated activist group ACORN was eligible for up to $8.5 billion in federal funding this year.
Like everything having to do with ACORN, it’s very complicated.
Reporter Robert Farley sets the tone for the piece in his first paragraph, writing that “Bachmann’s latest outrage focuses on an old nemesis: ACORN.” As blogger Bryan White points out at Sublime Bloviations:
The first sentence is an attack on Bachmann. The statement implies that she is guilty of serial outrage, though PolitiFact has only previously rated two of her statements. And regardless of how many were rated, the opening statement is an editorial judgment with no place in an objective news story.
Farley conveniently offers a sinister motive to explain Bachmann’s anti-ACORN activities. ACORN has a “complex corporate structure,” but “[t]he ACORN that Republicans love to hate gets involved in political activity like voter registration.”
Farley quotes from Bachmann’s website which reposted an article by Kevin Mooney of the Washington Examiner:
At least $53 million in federal funds have gone to ACORN activists since 1994, and the controversial group could get up to $8.5 billion more tax dollars despite being under investigation for voter registration fraud in a dozen states.
Farley incorrectly identifies the statement as coming from a Bachmann press release and then systematically dissects the Minnesota Republican’s claim, repeated on television, that ACORN is eligible for as much as $8.5 billion in federal funding.
About the Author
Matthew Vadum is an award-winning investigative journalist at a conservative watchdog group in Washington, D.C. Vadum is also author of Subversion Inc: How Obama’s ACORN Red Shirts are Still Terrorizing and Ripping Off American Taxpayers.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (71) | Leave a comment
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WRTolkas| 5.28.09 @ 8:07AM
As well as "Remember Pearl Harbor" did Davy.
George Hayduke| 5.28.09 @ 8:12AM
Anyone who has followed Michele Bachmann's ugly political career can attest to the fact that she is, indeed, guilty of serial outrage--and it's always phony. Whether it's gays or light rail or compact fluorescent light bulbs or ACORN, Bachmann is a fraud and a pathological liar and frauds like Matthew Vadum get reeled in like the suckers they are every time.
Brooks Butler| 5.28.09 @ 8:19AM
David Matthews' comment on this article is what one would expect from a Marxist Alinskyite.
"Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, polarize it. " He uses ridicule, another Alinsky tactic.
Put Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann together in the right national venue and the leftists would probably all have strokes.
grzmlyk| 5.28.09 @ 8:32AM
1) When you're a liberal, you adhere to the NY Times's motto: Some stories are too good to fact check.
2) When you're a liberal, facts are the enemy.
3) When you're a liberal, you are a card-carrying member of the uber-menschen - those rarefied elites who "understand" that inconvenient facts may be crushed with impunity in the service of the "Higher Truth."
4) The "Higher Truth" is ravenous, insatiable, onminverous, brutal, naked power.
5) The only difference between Obama's ACORN and Hitler's Schutzstaffel (SS) is the uniforms.
6) That will change.
7) The American taxpayer has the distinct honor of picking up the exhorbitant tab for the bayonets that will eviscerate him/her.
grzmlyk| 5.28.09 @ 8:48AM
Anyone who has followed George Hayduke's ugly life can attest to the fact that he is, indeed, guilty of serial outrage -- and it's always phony.
Whatever the pet liberal project he's there lying about it: gays, light rail, compact fluorescent light bulbs and ACORN. Hayduke never deals with the issues; instead, predictably and unfailingly, he attacks the messenger.
Hayduke is is a fraud and a pathological liar and he has a temper tantrum when perspicacous reporters like Matthew Vadum refuse to be intimidated and tell the truth.
Facts are to the left what water was to the Wicked Witch of the West.
Old Texican| 5.28.09 @ 9:24AM
Brooks
What a great idea! Lets do try to get Sarah and Michelle in the same room!
Gryzmlyk...or whatever (say, is that the name of the Superman character from the fifth dimension?)
You just posted the comment I was going to try to write.
You did a splendid job though and I am going to just quote you!
""When you're a liberal, you adhere to the NY Times's motto: Some stories are too good to fact check.
2) When you're a liberal, facts are the enemy.
3) When you're a liberal, you are a card-carrying member of the uber-menschen - those rarefied elites who "understand" that inconvenient facts may be crushed with impunity in the service of the "Higher Truth."
4) The "Higher Truth" is ravenous, insatiable, onminverous, brutal, naked power.
5) The only difference between Obama's ACORN and Hitler's Schutzstaffel (SS) is the uniforms.
6) That will change.
7) The American taxpayer has the distinct honor of picking up the exhorbitant tab for the bayonets that will eviscerate him/her. ""
I would only demur on your point 7.
I might begin that point with these words:
The American tax-payer will ultimately decline the distinct honor...
Turk| 5.28.09 @ 9:46AM
Matttyouse oh lenin/hiss lover. Back trying to smother conservative discourse??? You dont exist do you? Thats why you wont/can't answer the questions! Youre just a radical GROUP hoping to stifle America, aren't you? Let me repeat my last in the list: what did your bunch of leftists do on Memorial Day? What branch did you serve?? C'mon; answer the questions!!!
PS I missed you guys on Tyrells article today. Sensitive about the ACLU scum???
KevlarKevin| 5.28.09 @ 10:29AM
It's good to see that David Mathews is back.
Without comments from lying, undermedicated scumbags like him this blog just ain't the same.
Dai Alanye | 5.28.09 @ 10:37AM
ACORN seems the proper target for a RICO investigation. Too bad that when Republicans are in power the Justice Department never seems to go after anti-American organizations and individuals with the zest the Dem-controlled Justice Dept goes after—let us say, for example, among other patriots—the American Spectator.
As for Michelle Bachman, it's good to know she's such a stand-up kind of woman. I think I'm ready for an all-female ticket in 2012. Sarah and Michelle—beauty and fortitude on both sides.
Pete| 5.28.09 @ 10:43AM
Keep up the good work, Mr. Vadum. This kind of crap needs to be exposed and re-exposed until the MSM can no longer ignore it. Next up, the Chicago style treatment of GOP donor Chrysler dealers. You just can't make this stuff up, these people are the scum of the earth.
Gill O'Teen| 5.28.09 @ 10:54AM
I recall something about an allegedly neutral fact-checking organization claiming last year that obumassiah never voted to kill American Citizens who had just managed to beat the odds and survived the attempts of so-called doctors to shred their newborn bodies, and that any attempts to claim such was simply false. True, he never voted FOR the Born Alive Infant Protection Acts; he did vote AGAINST. But the bill sought to protect the lives of these babies, so his vote was to deny them the basic health care they needed to survive. The obumarrhoid truth is whatever they say it is. It is a variable, revised to fit their argument as convenient. I’m sorry that I don’t recall which truth checker I’m thinking about, but it was used as verification that I was full of it when I commented on obumassiah’s votes last year. I still don’t get why the lemmings continue to attack Governor Palin. Her team lost last November and she has been exiled as close to Siberia as it gets in this country.
JoeJazz| 5.28.09 @ 11:32AM
Dave? Where's Dave? Did I arrive too late?
Mike| 5.28.09 @ 1:14PM
gryzmlyk
When you're a conservative, everything uttered by Limbaugh, Hannity, Coulter, Malkin and Ingraham is gospel.
When you're a conservative, reason is the enemy.
When you're a conservative, you think your ideology is the "Only Truth."
When you're a conservative, you love Tom DeLay and the idea of a single party system. In other words, you lust for absolute power - Lord Acton be damned.
The only difference between "W," McConnell, John Boehner and the Scare Crow in the Wizard of Oz is that the latter had a brain.
If you're a conservative, you'll gladly pay for star wars and then wonder why it didn't prevent another terrorist attack.
All that I have written above is ridiculous, but it is fun the mirror the bs of some writers to this forum.
o2miller| 5.28.09 @ 1:16PM
Yeah - where is Dave?? I am new at this, but I like Dave already.
Turk| 5.28.09 @ 1:32PM
Dave bugged out. He refuses to answer questions! He's not a real person! A figment of the imagination of several leftists.
Angel| 5.28.09 @ 9:15PM
Mike, star wars was supposed to prevent terrorist attacks? You mean 'star wars' should have knocked those airliners down on September 11, 2001 before they flew into our buildings? I never knew that--I thought 'star wars' was a missile defense shield designed to protect us from nuclear attack. Could you be any more stupid?
wrinkle cream | 5.29.09 @ 5:52AM
i like this article and its all comments are very nice.
Tyson| 4.24.10 @ 11:36AM
Aloittaja, ole huoleti. Infrapunasauna on kuin onkin täysin vaaraton. Ei siellä käristy silmät, sydän tai muutakaan elimet. Infrapunasauna toimii täysin samoin, kuin olisit kuumeessa, paitsi että voit kuumettasi säädellä. Infrasauna on terveellinen ja virkistävä. Jokainen, joka näillä keskustelupalstoilla sanoo jotakin muuta, ei tiedä asiasta mitään. Mutta sellaistahan nämä keskustelupalstat yleensä ovatkin. Oikeata tietoa infrapunasaunoista saat hoitoloista ja viime kädessä niitä valvovalta valtion virastosta.
CONSTITUTION AL| 5.30.09 @ 10:22PM
ACORN IS NOTHING MORE THAN AN OBAMA DEMOCRAT CRIMINAL ORGANIZATION WHOSE SOLE PURPOSE IS TO STEAL TAXPAYERS MONEY TO COMMIT VOTER FRAUD TO KEEP DEMOCRATS IN OFFICE BY STEALING ELECTIONS. CAN SOMEONE GET ACORN'S FINACIAL RECORDS THROUGH THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT? THIS CRIME MUST BE STOPPED AND THE GUILTY PUT UNDER THE JAIL BUT IT SEEMS LIKE THE REPUBLICAN LEADERSHIP ARE GUTLESS CO-CONSPIRITERS BECAUSE THEY KEEP LETTING THE DEMOCRATS GET AWAY WITH THESE CRIMES. IT'S TIME TO GET RID OF THESE COMPROMISING RINOSAURS AND REPLACE THEM WITH SOME FRESH FREEDOM FIGHTERS WITH SPINES WHO AREN'T AFRAID TO STAND UP FOR WHAT IS RIGHT.
Pingback| 6.3.09 @ 10:17AM
Biased PolitiFact.com Covers for ACORN, Attacks Michele Bachmann | Got Access News links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 6.3.09 @ 11:01AM
Biased PolitiFact.com Covers for ACORN, Attacks Michele Bachmann | Latest Technology links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Tenn Slim| 6.10.09 @ 10:46AM
Cap(italist) and Soc(ialist) Socratic Discourse, again.
Cap: A very well detailed piece on ACORN. Lots of stuff there to digest. ACORN does indeed, seem to have circles within circles. Soc, can you cut thru this Gordian knot to the truth?
Soc: Of course. ACORN serves as the Funder Money laundering system. A fine organization, dedicated to moving dollars, to support the various causes. It is simply a group of accountants, green eye shaders, (Not my social group at all, all they discuss is money), doing thier appointed tasks.
Cap: Seems the knot extends well into the bowels of the Congress, the OBNA, the Funders Progressive Media networks and who knows where. Can we untangle the knot, can we stop the money flow.?
Soc: Why would you want to do that? The money flow, from the Funders, to the deployed grunts on the streets, keeps the movement going. Read the Text "Masters of Deceit" circa 1953, Re Read old Sauls' texts, its all in there. The tactics, the methods, the controls of money via NGOs, ACORNs etc, no deviation here.
Cap: If this goes forward, can we expect to see ACORNers guiding the elections, the polls, the NGOs, the local city communities action groups, etc.?
Soc. Money and as you know, the results, always flow down to the lowest common denominator, the Streets. Follow the money, dont listen to the rhetoric, watch the actual results, and if possible predict the event prior to thier implementation. Only then can youall survive. Probably let the cat out of the bag here, but I enjoy talking.
end
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politifact | Most Popular Daily Trends, News, Searches links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
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PUBLIUS| 12.28.09 @ 11:40AM
When Mike wrote the following, the rest of us should bear in mind that the liberal in always projecting. That is, the liberal is actually telling us how he/she thinks, what their methodology is.
When Mike says that conservatives wonder why Regan's star wars technology did not prevent terrorists attacks, he is the one who actually wonders why.
Mike's maxims:
"When you're a conservative, everything uttered by Limbaugh, Hannity, Coulter, Malkin and Ingraham is gospel.
When you're a conservative, reason is the enemy.
When you're a conservative, you think your ideology is the "Only Truth."
When you're a conservative, you love Tom DeLay and the idea of a single party system. In other words, you lust for absolute power - Lord Acton be damned.
The only difference between "W," McConnell, John Boehner and the Scare Crow in the Wizard of Oz is that the latter had a brain.
If you're a conservative, you'll gladly pay for star wars and then wonder why it didn't prevent another terrorist attack.
"
Replace "conservative" with "liberal" and you are closer to the truth. Liberals project.
Pingback| 3.22.10 @ 7:57PM
The American Spectator : PolitiFact’s Fixers « America Most Wanted links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
tunia| 4.7.10 @ 8:43PM
PolitiFact's Fixers is good article thanks you very much for your information
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Toxic Avenger | 9.22.10 @ 6:06PM
"George Hayduke" is really Ken "Avidor" Wiener, posting under yet another pseudonym.
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