Bewz Newz 'n' Vewz: "One Of These Facts Is Not Like The Others"

PolitiFact Bias collaborator Jeff Dyberg illuminates an additional dimension of PolitiFact's selection bias problem through an examination of the treatment given Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio).  Kucinich performed some notable gum-flapping over how President Obama operated outside the law with his Libyan intervention.  PolitiFact ignored the accusation and instead dug up Kucinich's month-old comment that "To my knowledge, none of these existing programs appeared on the GAO's list of government programs at high risk of waste, fraud and abuse."

Jeff's summary of the problem:

What this teachable moment has exposed is that PolitiFact's bias isn't always as obvious as simply picking more statements on the left or the right or rating one group more harshly than the other. Their bias is evident in the specific claims and specific people they choose to rate as well as the things they choose to ignore.

This type of bias is one of the toughest to quantify, but examples such as the one Jeff offers nonetheless help build a cumulative case showing PolitiFact's affinity for the political left.

You can read the whole article here.