San Diego Rostra: "When Fact Checks are False"

Back in July of last year, Bradley J. Fikes unloaded a broadside against PolitiFact at San Diego Rostra.  Fikes used a fact check of Michele Bachmann as an example of fact checks gone awry:

Last year during the health care debates, PolitiFact rated this statement by Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn, false: “Ezekiel Emanuel, one of President Obama’s key health care advisers, “says medical care should be reserved for the nondisabled. So watch out if you’re disabled.”

I think Bachmann was mostly right, after examining the evidence she presented. PolitiFact misrepresented that evidence, following guidance from an Obama Administration spokesperson.

Fikes offers a detailed takedown of his chosen example along with some trenchant observations of PolitiFact's approach to fact checking.

Fikes' review overlaps somewhat with a criticism I did some months after his on the same PolitiFact fact check.

I recommend his longer and more thorough version.