A case of PolitiFact inflating Michael Moore's grade

An old post at PolitiFact Bias slammed PolitiFact for grading "False" Rush Limbaugh's claim that some of the wealthiest Americans are Black.

We started a more formal survey today of the way PolitiFact treats the term "wealthiest Americans." The first hit gave us a new story to write, albeit PolitiFact used the term of the 400 wealthiest Americans precisely because filmmaker/activist Michael Moore was talking about the 400 wealthiest Americans.

We assert that the "True" rating represents grade inflation. "True" supposedly applies when "The statement is accurate and there’s nothing significant missing."

What do we say is missing?

Moore doesn't specify the least-wealthy half of Americans.  PolitiFact automatically treats Moore's claim as though he did specify the bottom half.

Since Moore’s statistics were for 2009, we sought figures for 2010.

The 2010 net worth of the Forbes 400 was $1.37 trillion, Forbes reported in September 2010. That same month, the total U.S. net worth was $54.9 trillion, according to the Federal Reserve Board report cited by Moore.

Wolff hasn’t updated his 2009 figures. So we used his 2.3 percent figure again, multiplied by the 2010 total net worth of $54.9 trillion, and found that the net worth of the poorest 60 percent of U.S. households was $1.26 trillion in 2010.

That’s less than the 2010 net worth for the Forbes 400.

There it is.

PolitiFact does calculations to estimate the "poorest 60 percent" of U.S. households possessed a net worth of $1.26 trillion, which counts as less than the estimated $1.37 trillion for the Forbes 400. Then in its summary paragraph PolitiFact represents the results of its calculations as a confirmation of Moore's claim:

(O)ur assessment indicates that as of 2009, the net worth of the nation’s 400 wealthiest individuals exceeds the net worth of half of all American households.

An alternative calculation (let's call these "alternative facts" to tweak the fact-checkers for taking that famous comment out of context) says $54.9 trillion minus [$1.37 trillion plus $1.26 trillion] equals $52.3 trillion. One-half of $52.3 trillion is over $26 trillion, and $26 trillion in wealth exceeds $1.37 trillion in wealth.

Moore's statement was imprecise. PolitiFact excused the imprecision as though it did not exist, despite claiming in its statement of principles that it considers "Is there another way to read the statement? Is the statement open to interpretation?"

Yes, there's another way to read the statement. Moore's statement may be read as referring to half of all Americans without a focus on the poorer half.

We cheerfully grant that Moore's audience was likely to assume he meant the least wealthy half of Americans. On the other hand, Michele Bachmann's audience was likely to assume she was referring to income taxes and not all forms of taxation when PolitiFact assumed otherwise and panned Bachmann with a "False" rating.

Sometimes you get a pass. Sometimes you don't. And if you're a Democrat or a liberal, PolitiFact is more likely to give you a pass.