Define non-partisan
By Matthew Hoy on October 11, 2010
Politifact likes to pat itself on the back for being non-partisan. It’s a crock. They’re little different than any major newspaper newsroom – they’re overwhelmingly liberal.
James Taranto over at The Wall Street Journal points out a little bit of hypocrisy.
- "It's unfair to call the DeKalb school board corrupt. School employees, not board members, were indicted. And no one has been convicted. . . . We give [Republican state representative Jill] Chambers a Pants On Fire for this one."--Atlanta Journal-Constitution "Truth-O-Meter," PolitiFact.com, Oct. 8
- "The board's behavior and alleged corruption that led to criminal charges against former schools superintendent Crawford Lewis and three other school officials have drawn the attention of accreditation officials."--Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Oct. 8
It’s such an outrageous claim that to earn a “Pants on Fire” rating, but apparently the Journal-Constitution has similar lying ways.
For a little more on Politifact’s “non-partisan” take on things, compare its coverage of Rep. Alan Grayson’s recent ads (they don’t even touch his ad accusing his opponent of dodging military service) and compare it to FactCheck.org’s analyses here and here.
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Look at Politifact's treatment of Jim DeMint and compare it to Grayson. Notice the Grayson "wives must submit" ad only garnered a "False" while DeMint earned the "Pants on Fire" for his claim that "94% of the bills that pass the Senate have no debate."
In Demint's case PF went out of their way to redefine what is considered a "bill". Once PF tossed out the bills they deemed "uncontroversial", they rated Demint Pants on Fire for bad math and "stacking the deck".
In Grayson's ad, despite his intentional distortion of an audio clip to mislead a viewer into thinking Webster claimed "Wives must submit to their husbands" (when Webster said the exact opposite) PF felt this was simply "heavy editing...taken out of context".
Politifact is a left wing hit squad masquerading as objective truth seekers. Calling themselves unbiased is nothing short of offensive.
Note-No one has done a more expert job of exposing Politifact's bias and flawed reporting methods than Bryan White at Sublime Bloviations.
http://subloviate.blogspot.com/2010/06/grading-politifact-sen-demint-and.html