Three separate fact checking organizations took a look at Slow Joe Biden’s demagogic statement I mentioned the other day about violent crime rates and Flint, Mich.
According to The Washington Post’s Glenn Kessler, Biden’s claims are “absurd” and earns him 4 pinnochios – the most dishonest rating possible.
FactCheck.org referred to Biden’s remarks as a “whopper” and chided Biden that “he should get his facts straight to support his opinion.”
And Pulitzer Prize winner Politifact?
Politifact has dutifully taken note of the disagreement in the fact-checking fraternity, and came up with three conclusions:
• It matters what specific statement fact-checkers choose to check.
• Causal claims about complex social phenomena remain a fact-checking challenge.
• Independent fact-checkers often agree -- but not always.
I suggest that there may be yet another conclusion: Politifact is far less able to check its bias than its colleagues. You could go through case after case posted here at Hoystory (search term: “Politifraud”) or over at Politifact Bias or Sublime Bloviations and it’s not pretty. Politifact holds Republicans to a far higher standard than Democrats. Politifact searches for ways to make excuses for Democrat statements (this example is a perfect case) while failing to offer the same courtesy to Republicans.
Politifact is the most partisan and least trustworthy of the political fact checkers. This is just another confirmation of that sad fact.
Tags