{"id":1680056,"date":"2022-10-09T06:53:55","date_gmt":"2022-10-09T10:53:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1680056"},"modified":"2022-10-09T06:54:17","modified_gmt":"2022-10-09T10:54:17","slug":"the-fact-checkers-had-another-bad-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-fact-checkers-had-another-bad-week\/","title":{"rendered":"The Fact Checkers Had Another Bad Week"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">14<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fthe-fact-checkers-had-another-bad-week%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1680056&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p class=\"speakable\">Conservative frustration with fact-checkers continues to grow after a number of dubious <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/media\/politifact-hammered-arguing-dems-stolen-election-claims-about-2016-race-mostly-symbolic\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">PolitiFact articles,<\/a> penned in just the last week, sparked outrage from media critics and right-leaning Twitter users.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable\">Since October 1, PolitiFact has released four fact-checks quickly contested by critics, with some doubling-down on claims that fact-checking websites frequently act as shields for the Democratic Party, with partisan intentions.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>On Wednesday, PolitiFact\u2019s Warren Fiske rated a claim from Gov. Glenn Youngkin, R-Va., who recently alleged that Democrats &#8220;suggested that the [2016] election was stolen.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/media\/politifact-rates-youngkin-claim-dems-suggested-2016-election-stolen-half-true\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>POLITIFACT RATES YOUNGKIN CLAIM DEMS SUGGESTED 2016 ELECTION WAS STOLEN &#8216;HALF-TRUE&#8217;<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"image-ct inline\">\n<div class=\"m\"><source media=\"(max-width: 767px)\" \/><source media=\"(min-width: 767px) and (max-width: 1023px)\" \/><source media=\"(min-width: 1024px) and (max-width: 1279px)\" \/><source media=\"(min-width: 1280px)\" \/><\/div>\n<div class=\"caption\">\n<p>\n      Glenn Youngkin, governor of Virginia, speaks to members of the media following a cabinet swearing-in ceremony at the Virginia Executive Mansion, in Richmond, Virginia, U.S., on Saturday, Jan. 15, 2022.\u00a0<br \/>\n      <span class=\"copyright\">(Al Drago\/Bloomberg via Getty Images)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>&#8220;People have concerns about the election process and oh by the way, it\u2019s not just Republicans; it\u2019s Democrats. Let\u2019s just remind ourselves that in 2016 Democrats suggested that the election was stolen,&#8221; the governor reportedly said.<\/p>\n<p>Youngkin\u2019s claim was rated only &#8220;half-true&#8221; and Fiske shot down the governor\u2019s argument, writing that it was important to note that Democrats did not question the &#8220;actual counting&#8221; of ballots in 2016, or that Trump had won the election.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Fiske acknowledged that several high-profile Democrats, including Hillary Clinton, had questioned the legitimacy of Trump&#8217;s win. But, he argued, such skepticism was different from saying the election was actually &#8220;stolen.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>PolitiFact has previously written that Democrats\u2019 stolen election claims in 2001, 2005, 2016 and 2017 were &#8220;mostly symbolic.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Speaking with Fox News Digital, conservative KTTH radio host Jason Rantz pushed back on the idea that PolitFact could even be considered a fact-checking organization, calling them Democratic Party activists who have chosen to weaponize what should be truly objective analysis.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They routinely \u2018fact check\u2019 in bad faith, purposefully taking comments either out of context to make a point or willfully misinterpret comments so that they can rate them false. It&#8217;s also about their choices on what to fact-check. They will take a meaningless comment from a Democrat to fact check (Joe Biden said his favorite ice cream flavor is vanilla when it&#8217;s really vanilla bean, so we rate this somewhat false) so they can claim they hold both sides to account,&#8221; he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Rantz also said that PolitiFact is one of the most &#8220;transparently partisan&#8221; websites available, often used by left-wing media to amplify political propaganda.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/media\/politifact-rates-desantis-saying-county-hurricane-forecast-cone-mostly-false-due-1-small-island\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>POLITIFACT RATES DESANTIS SAYING COUNTY WASN\u2019T IN HURRICANE FORECAST CONE &#8216;MOSTLY FALSE&#8217; DUE TO 1 SMALL ISLAND<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"image-ct inline\">\n<div class=\"m\"><source media=\"(max-width: 767px)\" \/><source media=\"(min-width: 767px) and (max-width: 1023px)\" \/><source media=\"(min-width: 1024px) and (max-width: 1279px)\" \/><source media=\"(min-width: 1280px)\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/TRUMP-VANCE-OHIO-RALLY.jpg\" alt=\"US Senate Republican candidate JD Vance speaks to the crowd at a rally held by former U.S. president Donald Trump in Youngstown, Ohio, U.S., September 17, 2022. REUTERS\/Gaelen Morse\" \/><\/div>\n<div class=\"caption\">\n<p>\n      US Senate Republican candidate JD Vance speaks to the crowd at a rally held by former U.S. president Donald Trump in Youngstown, Ohio, U.S., September 17, 2022. REUTERS\/Gaelen Morse<br \/>\n      <span class=\"copyright\">(Reuters)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>On October 5, PolitiFact published two different articles that drew the ire of readers. Ohio Republican Senate nominee JD Vance\u2019s campaign in particular blasted the fact-checking website for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/media\/jd-vance-campaign-blasts-politifact-humiliating-display-partisanship-after-dishonest-fact-check-ad-tim-ryan\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">commenting on a campaign ad<\/a> tying his opponent Tim Ryan to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The Vance campaign called the fact-check a &#8220;humiliating display of partisanship.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Vance unveiled a new campaign ad last month that showed Ryan, a Democrat, telling MSNBC\u2019s Rachel Maddow, &#8220;I do love her,&#8221; when asked about Pelosi, adding that he votes with her 100% of the time. PolitiFact, a product of The Poynter Institute, decided to investigate the ad and declared it was only &#8220;half true,&#8221; because Ryan challenged Pelosi, D-Calif., for the minority leader position in 2016.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>One critic called it &#8220;truly one of the best \/ worst examples of PolitiFact picking sides,&#8221; while radio host Joe Cunningham added, &#8220;The ad was entirely accurate, so it\u2019s half-true.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Politifact is basically a Democrat SuperPac masquerading as below-average journalism. It is obvious that it exists to label as false those claims that are damaging and inconvenient to the left wing cause. A false rating tends to mean \u2018True, but said by a Republican,\u2019&#8221; Fox News contributor Mollie Hemingway told Fox News Digital.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>She added that PolitFact&#8217;s track record has been &#8220;abysmal&#8221; and that no one takes them seriously as a fact-checking website any longer.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>PolitFact\u2019s managing editor Katie Sanders provided comment to Fox News Digital, stating that the fact-checking website stands by its reporting.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We stand by our reporting, which relies on independent experts, primary documents and on-the-record information to reach its conclusion. All the sources we use to determine our ratings are made available for the public \u2014 and critics \u2014 to scrutinize, debate, agree or disagree. In addition, every politician whose claim we fact-check is given the opportunity to contribute evidence to support the claim they made.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Sanders also noted that the six major party nominees for president since 2007 are among the people the site has fact-checked the most. Additionally, Sanders said that reporters for the site are currently being assigned to both Republican and Democratic candidates in key Senate races to cover the midterms. She also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politifact.com\/article\/2018\/feb\/12\/principles-truth-o-meter-politifacts-methodology-i\/#Truth-O-Meter%20ratings\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">provided a link<\/a> to the process of how PolitiFact decides their Truth-O-Meter ratings and said the site welcomes &#8220;thoughtful, evidence-based conversation&#8221; about what they publish and the process behind it.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;As for the particular stories you have asked about, the questions raised about them in this query and in similar, choreographed complaints by a small group of partisans, don\u2019t provide any rigorous examples of fact-errors that would merit further response from us. Any pundit at Fox or elsewhere is entitled to disagree with our findings, though we urge detractors to end their continuous personal attacks on journalists, which undermines civil conversation and diminishes any cause for further conversation,&#8221; she added.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>PolitiFact also faced ridicule by social media users on October 5 for claiming that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was incorrect when he said that Lee County was not inside Hurricane Ian\u2019s forecast cone. The fact-checking site deemed his statement &#8220;Mostly False&#8221; because of a single barrier island, Cayo Costa, belonging to the county inside the storm\u2019s path. Twitter users pointed out that Cayo Costa is largely uninhabited, with fewer than 20 private residences.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There is an element of truth in that most of Lee County was not in the forecasted center of the storm 72 hours of landfall; but one of the county&#8217;s barrier islands was, and focusing on the cone itself downplays the impacts of a storm as large as Ian. We rate his claim Mostly False,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/media\/politifact-rates-desantis-saying-county-hurricane-forecast-cone-mostly-false-due-1-small-island\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">PolitFact wrote.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>A day earlier, PolitiFact rushed to defend Kamala Harris after the vice president suggested that the disbursement of hurricane relief should be based on &#8220;equity.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/media\/politifact-rushes-defend-harris-vps-controversial-equity-comments-hurricane-relief\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>POLITIFACT RUSHES TO DEFEND HARRIS AFTER VP&#8217;S CONTROVERSIAL &#8216;EQUITY&#8217; COMMENTS ABOUT HURRICANE RELIEF<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"image-ct inline\">\n<div class=\"m\"><source media=\"(max-width: 767px)\" \/><source media=\"(min-width: 767px) and (max-width: 1023px)\" \/><source media=\"(min-width: 1024px) and (max-width: 1279px)\" \/><source media=\"(min-width: 1280px)\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/KamalaHarris.jpg\" alt=\"US Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during the Democratic National Committee Women&#039;s Leadership Forum in Washington, DC, US, on Friday, Sept. 30, 2022.\" \/><\/div>\n<div class=\"caption\">\n<p>\n      US Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during the Democratic National Committee Women&#8217;s Leadership Forum in Washington, DC, US, on Friday, Sept. 30, 2022.<br \/>\n      <span class=\"copyright\">(Leigh Vogel\/Abaca\/Bloomberg via Getty Images)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>&#8220;It is our lowest income communities, and our communities of color that are most impacted by these extreme conditions,&#8221; Harris said, referring to hurricanes Ian and Fiona, on September 30.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;[A]nd so we have to address this in a way that&#8217;s about giving resources based on equity, understanding we fight for equality, but we also need to find for equity,&#8221; she added.<\/p>\n<p>PolitiFact wrote that the Vice President had been taken &#8220;out-of-context&#8221; in clips from the event on social media shared by conservatives. The fact-check specifically called out Florida Sen. Rick Scott&#8217;s claim that Harris had said, &#8220;if you have a different skin color, you&#8217;re going to get relief faster.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Harris said no such thing in a response to a question that touched on several topics, including Hurricane Ian, climate change policy and disparities in who is most harmed by climate change and extreme weather,&#8221; PolitiFact wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/media\/politifact-slammed-fact-check-ocasio-cortez-arrest-seemed-pretend-wear-handcuffs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>POLITIFACT SLAMMED FOR &#8216;FACT-CHECK&#8217; ON OCASIO-CORTEZ ARREST WHERE SHE SEEMED TO PRETEND TO WEAR HANDCUFFS<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"image-ct inline\">\n<div class=\"m\"><source media=\"(max-width: 767px)\" \/><source media=\"(min-width: 767px) and (max-width: 1023px)\" \/><source media=\"(min-width: 1024px) and (max-width: 1279px)\" \/><source media=\"(min-width: 1280px)\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Biden-42.png\" alt=\"President Biden at the IBM factory.\" \/><\/div>\n<div class=\"caption\">\n<p>\n      President Biden at the IBM factory.<br \/>\n      <span class=\"copyright\">(The Image Direct for Fox News Digital)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/media\/politifact-focuses-fact-checks-more-bidens-critics-president-himself-study-finds\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">A recent report<\/a> from Media Research Center\u2019s NewsBusters found that during Biden\u2019s first 20 months in office, there were 58 pieces published by PolitiFact to fact-check the president, compared to a staggering 338 pieces designed to fact-check Biden critics.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Overall, there were 5.8 fact checks of Biden critics for every one of the president,&#8221; NewsBusters executive editor Tim Graham wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The MRC study indicated that Biden\u2019s critics are often given harsh commentary. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Over his first year and a half, Biden landed on the \u2018Mostly False\u2019 or worse side in 28 of 58 fact checks (48 percent). But the \u2018Fact Checks About Joe Biden\u2019 were overwhelmingly negative \u2013 298 out of 338 were \u2018Mostly False\u2019 or worse (88 percent). There were only three that were \u2018True,\u2019 six that were \u2018Mostly True\u2019 &#8212; making 9 out of 338 (2.6 percent). Another 31 were \u2018Half True,\u2019&#8221; Graham wrote. &#8220;There were zero \u2018Pants on Fire\u2019 rulings about President Biden in his first 20 months. By contrast, Donald Trump has 10 in that time span.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/download\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Politifact, a product of The Poynter Institute, uses a &#8220;Truth-O-Meter&#8221; to determine whether claims are &#8220;True,&#8221; &#8220;Mostly True,&#8221; &#8220;Half True,&#8221; &#8220;Mostly False,&#8221; &#8220;False&#8221; or the dreaded &#8220;Pants on Fire.&#8221; The website insists that &#8220;fact-checking journalism is the heart of PolitiFact&#8221; and claims that its &#8220;core principles are independence, transparency, fairness, thorough reporting and clear writing.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><i>Fox New\u2019s Kristine Parks and Brian Flood contributed to this report.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n<div class=\"article-meta\">\n<div class=\"author-bio\">\n<p>Nikolas Lanum is an associate editor for Fox News Digital.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Conservative frustration with fact-checkers continues to grow after a number of dubious PolitiFact articles, penned in just the last week, sparked outrage from media critics and right-leaning Twitter users.\u00a0Since October<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1680059,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1680056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1680056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1680056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1680056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1680059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1680056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1680056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1680056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}