Monday, December 21, 2015

The unbearable lameness of PolitiFact's 2015 "Lie of the Year"

PolitiFact has chosen statements by Donald Trump as its "Lie of the Year" for 2015, effectively making Donald Trump PolitiFact's liar of the year.

Why do we say it's lame?

PolitiFact's "Lie of the Year" has always been the fact checkers' editorial. As such, it will show a tendency to follow a journalistic narrative.

What's this year's key journalistic narrative? Donald Trump vs. the media.

Out of one side of its mouth PolitiFact denies it charges people with lying. With the other side ...

Two years in a row (arguably three), PolitiFact chose a winner that was not on the list of candidates readers were given when voting for the readers' version of PolitiFact's "Lie of the Year."

Picking a group winner works well for PolitiFact since it's hard to contest the choice. Contest one of the supposedly false claims on the basis of fact and PolitiFact can always point to another on the list and emphasize that one. Justified, see?

It's so predicable that I predicted it shortly after PolitiFact announced its candidates:
I'm going to invoke PolitiFact's history over the last two years of not putting the eventual winner on the list of candidates. My pick is "Statements by Donald Trump" as a parallel to last year's "Statements about Ebola."
It shouldn't be that easy.

Lame.

5 comments:

  1. Which of these were rated incorrectly? Should any of these be rated as true?

    DONALD TRUMP
    President Barack Obama "wants to take in 250,000 (people) from Syria."
    — PolitiFact Texas
    Pants on Fire!


    DONALD TRUMP
    Says crime statistics show blacks kill 81 percent of white homicide victims.
    Pants on Fire!

    DONALD TRUMP
    "I watched in Jersey City, N.J., where thousands and thousands of people were cheering" as the World Trade Center collapsed.
    Pants on Fire!

    DONALD TRUMP
    The federal government is sending refugees to states with governors who are "Republicans, not to the Democrats."
    Pants on Fire!

    DONALD TRUMP
    The Trans-Pacific Partnership "was designed for China to come in, as they always do, through the back door and totally take advantage of everyone."
    Pants on Fire!

    DONALD TRUMP
    "I never said that" Marco Rubio was Mark Zuckerberg’s personal senator.
    Pants on Fire!

    DONALD TRUMP
    Says Bernie Sanders is going to "tax you people at 90 percent."
    — PolitiFact Virginia
    Pants on Fire!

    DONALD TRUMP
    The unemployment rate may be as high as "42 percent."
    Pants on Fire!

    DONALD TRUMP
    "The Mexican government ... they send the bad ones over."
    Pants on Fire!

    DONALD TRUMP
    The number of illegal immigrants in the United States is "30 million, it could be 34 million."
    — PolitiFact Florida
    Pants on Fire!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If you want to interview us, DRG, use email.

      When you're leaving comments at PolitiFact Bias, try to make it relevant to the post to which you reply.

      Thanks.

      Delete
  2. Apparently Politifact doesnt keep up with the senate..as the Omnibus allows 300k Immigrant/refugees into the USA.. did Trump lie..NO, he was off by 50,000

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That bill came too late to help Trump on that claim. As with DRG, we appreciate it if commenters stick somewhat with the topic of the post. In this post we do not bother to question the accuracy of PolitiFact's rulings.

      Delete
  3. Wow, actually a lot of those are true.

    A) Obama is wanting to bring in approximately 200,000 Syrian refugees over the next two years, and would probably bring in more if he could.

    B)HE stated what he saw, and there was even a Washington post paper written on how tail-gate style parties were being thrown in celebration of the attack...more proof than his critics have. this also happened at a time before cellphone cameras/video. Also, Many Muslim groups in western countries like England and France were caught celebrating and were overjoyed at the attacks. The thousands number is probably off, but still, if this were a
    liberal saying it they would have probably rated it at mostly false or half true.

    C)I skipped over the crime statistics, so I will address it here. His numbers were not all that off, the statistic actually came from San Francisco so it probably doesn't represent the entire population. However, the violent crime rate among blacks compared to NON-HISPANIC whites is unbelievable, and the rape of white women by blacks compared to the rape of black women by whites is not even comparable and is unbelievable.

    D) Trump was right about the TPP, I don't get what you are implying about it, people like Bernie Sanders are against it for that very reason, and although China is not in it at the moment there is room for them to join later. This comment should be rated mostly true. If Bernie had said it than it would be rated mostly true.

    E)Trump never said Marco Rubio was Marks personal senator, on his website there was a little statement where it stated that people like Mark who by out senators like Rubio (which is probably true)to push for more H-1B visas to screw over the American workers....totally fact. If Bernie had said this then it would be rated mostly true.

    F)It wouldn't surprise me if Bernie wanted to tax the rich at 90%, he makes references to the past were this occured, and if we implement his socialist policies than I wouldn't be surprised if we went to that high of tax rate. HALF TRUE.

    G)This is probably the only thing he exaggerates, it is true that the unemployment rate and underemployment rate is way higher than the liberals say (Bernie has even said this), but if Trump had stated this as under employment and unemployment it would be somewhat true....mostly false rating for Trump and the liberals on this subject.

    H)The Mexican government is crooked as hell, it would not surprise me if they enjoyed the drug money flooding into Mexico. Also, the business tycoon Carlos Sims in Mexico makes a killing off illegal immigration...read the chapter in Ann Coulters book "Adios America" it explains this issue very well, and is VERY WELL sourced. Plus, most Mexicans that cross illegally are not the cream of the crop and many of them are involved in the sex trade, drug trade, and they do commit a lot of crimes (doctors and engineers do not cross borders illegally)...the largest criminal gangs in Texas are all Mexican, and they commit most of the crime in Texas, and they have a huge illegal alien presence among them. I would rate this half true, or maybe even mostly true.

    I)We don't really know how many illegals are in this country, hence the statement by Trump "there could be" up to 30 million illegals in this country. Ann Coulter also makes good points about this in her book. ICE recently revised the number of illegals up to 15 million just recently, and I guarantee you there are plenty more. As Ann Coulter stated..."How many illegals do you think fill out a census form?" I would rate this statement Mostly TRUE

    Not to bad eh, now go onto google and type in "Hillary's list of lies" and have yourself a real laugh.

    ReplyDelete

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