PolitiFact's top eleven fake fact checks of 2016

We've promised a list of PolitiFact's top contributions to fake news--but we don't want to get into a useless semantic argument about what constitutes "fake news." For that reason, we're calling this list PolitiFact's top "fake fact checks," and that term refers to fact checks that misinform, whether intentionally or not.

11 Mike Pence denied evolution!

PolitiFact California rated "True" Governor Jerry Brown's claim that Republican presidential candidate Mike Pence denied evolution. The truth? Pence made a statement consistent with theistic evolution without affirming or denying evolution. We called out the error here. So PolitiFact California later changed its rating to "Half True." Because if Pence did not deny evolution that means that it is half true that he denied evolution. It's fact checker logic. You wouldn't understand.

10 Ron Johnson denies humans contribute to climate change!

When Democratic candidate Russ Feingold charged that his Republican opponent Ron Johnson does not accept any human role in climate change, PolitiFact Wisconsin was there. It rated Feingold's claim "Mostly True." The problem? PolitiFact Wisconsin's evidence showed Feingold making a number of clear statements to the contrary, including one where Johnson specifically said he does not deny humans affect the climate. PolitiFact Wisconsin went with its ability to interpret Johnson's more ambiguous statements as a denial of what Johnson said plainly. We wrote about the mistake, but PolitiFact Wisconsin has stayed with its "Mostly True" rating.

9 Social Security is not a Ponzi scheme!

PolitiFact has an established precedent of denying the similarities between Social Security's "pay-as-you-go" financing and Ponzi financing. PolitiFact reinforced its misleading narrative by giving voters advance warning that they might hear the Ponzi lie in 2016. The problem? Voters can find that supposed lie repeated commonly in professional literature, written by the kind of experts PolitiFact might have interviewed to learn the truth.

Will PolitiFact ever repent of misleading its readers on this topic?

8 LGBT the group most often victimized by hate crimes!

Attorney General Loretta Lynch declared in 2016 Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgendered folks are the group most often victimized by hate crimes. PolitiFact gave Lynch's statement a "True" rating, meaning the statement is true without leaving out any important information. The problem? Lynch's statement is only true on a per capita basis. In other words, large minority groups experience more hate crimes victimization than LGBT. But an individual in the LGBT group would more likely experience a hate crime than a member of the other groups.

How is that not significant enough to affect the rating?

7 The gender wage gap is real(ly big)! Or something!

Mainstream fact checkers are consistently awful on the gender wage gap. The game works like this: Democrat candidate wants to leverage concern over gender discrimination, so Democratic candidate cites a statistic that has hardly any relationship to gender discrimination. Democratic party candidates can count on fact checkers to go along with the game so long as they do not specifically say the raw gender wage gap is caused by gender discrimination.

PolitiFact Missouri's 2016 gender wage gap story, exposed here and here, did that approach one better by badly misinterpreting its source material to exaggerate the size of the gap caused by discrimination.

6 Torture doesn't work!

PolitiFact Florida weighed in on torture and waterboarding when a Florida Republican running for Marco Rubio's senate seat said waterboarding works. PolitiFact Florida ruled the claim "False," after admitting that nobody has tested the proposition scientifically. In short, we (including PolitiFact) don't know for a fact whether waterboarding works. PolitiFact Florida's error was pointed out at Flopping Aces and here.

5 France and Germany did not think Iraq had WMD!

When former Assistant Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz said the French and Germans believed Iraq had WMD, PolitiFact ruled it "Mostly False." The creepy "1984" nature of this fact check stems from PolitiFact turning lack of certitude into near-certitude of lack. And PolitiFact has to win some sort of award for avoiding French President Jacques Chirac's 2003 statement, during the approach to the war, that Iraq "probably" possessed WMD.

4 Colorado Republican tried to redefine rape!

PolitiFact Colorado makes our list with its liberal "Mostly True" rating given to abortion rights champion Emily's List. Emily's list charged a Colorado Republican with trying to "redefine rape" in an abortion-related statute. PolitiFact Colorado apparently neglected to look up the traditional definition of rape (and its forcible/statutory distinction) to see whether it had changed thanks to the proposed wording. It had not, leaving the impression that PolitiFact Colorado essentially took the word of Emily's List at face value. Fellow PolitiFact critic Dustin Siggins led the way in flagging the problems with this PolitiFact Colorado item.

3 In California, it's easier to buy a gun than a Happy Meal!

Matthew Hoy, another one of our favorite PolitiFact critics, flagged this hilarious item. This was not a fact check, but rather a Twitter incident where PolitiFact California retweeted somebody else. California Democrat Gavin Newsom received bogus PolitiCover for claiming there are more gun dealers in California than McDonald's. Newsom tweeted out the bogus vindication under the absurd headline "FACT: It's easier to get a gun than a Happy Meal in California." Partly because a gun costs less than a Happy Meal?

2 Donald Trump is causing an increase in bullying in our schools!

PolitiFact ostensibly checked Hillary Clinton's claim that teachers noticed a "Trump Effect" that amounted to an increase in bullying behavior in the nation's schools. But anecdotal reports ought to mean close to squat in fact-checking circles, so PolitiFact accepted a motley collection of anecdotes from the left-leaning Southern Poverty Law Center as reason enough to give Clinton a "Mostly True" rating. We chronicled the numerous problems with the so-called "Trump Effect" here and at Zebra Fact Check here and here.

1 Mike Pence advocated diverting federal funds from AIDS patients to gay conversion therapy!

PolitiFact California heads the list with its second mostly fact-free fact check of Mike Pence. Back around the year 2000, when Pence was first running for the House of Representatives, he suggested that AIDS care dollars under the Ryan White Care Act should not go to organizations that celebrated behavior likely to spread AIDS. Pence said funds under the Act should go to people seeking to "change their sexual behavior." About 15 years later, Pence's statement was construed to mean that he wanted AIDS care funding to go toward gay conversion therapy. There's no serious argument supporting that notion, and Timothy P. Carney pointed that out even before PolitiFact checked the claim. But PolitiFact California gave Gavin Newsom a "True" rating for the accusation.

PolitiFact California's recent publication of its most popular fact checks for 2016 helps explain why this item tops our list. PolitiFact claimed its "Half True" rating of Newsom was its most popular story. But for months the story ran with a "True" rating. Which version of the story got the most clicks, eh?

Hoystory: "PolitiFact California is Stupid ..."

Reformed California journalist Matthew Hoy chimes in agreeing with our "Is PolitiFact California stupid?" post before sharing his experience with PolitiFact that expands on the point.

Hoy notes that PolitiFact California is stupid "…and dishonest. And not transparent. And thin-skinned."

It's another account of PolitiFact resisting correction and hiding or downplaying evidence of its misdeeds. Hoy was trying to hold PolitiFact to account for its support of a false claim spread by Democrat Gavin Newsom. Newsom tweeted that it's easier to buy a gun in California than a Happy Meal. PolitiFact retweeted it. Hoy wrote about it.

Read both of Hoy's posts to get a picture of how the top-flight journalists at PolitiFact take the low road.


Correction Aug. 23, 2016: Our title omitted mention of "California," amounting to a misquote of the title of Hoy's article. We apologize for the mistake.

Hoystory: "Abetting Gavin Newsom's Big Lie"

Reformed journalist Matthew Hoy today delivered an exquisite knockout to PolitiFact California over its gun-related fact checking.

California Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom and an associated gun-control advocacy group, Safety For All, claimed that gun dealers outnumber McDonald's in California. PolitiFact California rated that "True." Hoy covers the problems with that rating (which we also noted), and looks at how PolitiFact has since ignored Newsom's triumphant tweet saying that it's easier to buy a gun in California than it is to buy a Happy Meal.

Hoy notes that PolitiFact seems unconcerned over the leftward shove Newsom gives its already left-leaning reporting:

I wanted to see if Politifact would do anything about Newsom’s tweet. After all, it’s their reporting that’s being misused.

And a week later? Nothing new from Politifact on the topic. I emailed the reporter on the original fact check and the editor Tuesday evening. As of press time I had not received a response to my query of whether they would be fact-checking Newsom’s tweet.

Hoy's experience tracks with mine when I tried to get PolitiFact Missouri to fix a terminally flawed fact check. The fact checkers don't seem all that interested in the facts sometimes.

It's good use of your time to visit Hoystory and read his whole post.

Hoystory: 'The Hacks at PolitiFact'

We're delighted to point readers toward a new(ish) critique of PolitiFact by Matthew Hoy, one of the critics who saw PolitiFact for what it was very early in the game.

Hoy takes a look at PolitiFact Texas' gnat-straining rating of Ted Cruz's claim the Democratic Party is shrinking. Then Hoy contrasts PolitiFact's treatment of Cruz with the national PolitiFact's kid gloves treatment of President Obama's claim of having contained ISIS (ISIL).

As we said, it did not take Hoy long to see PolitiFact's true face:

They are not fact-checkers, they’re political operatives with bylines.

Please visit Hoystory and read it all.

Hoystory: "Fact checking frauds"

Self-described "reformed journalist" Matthew Hoy's disgust with PolitiFact only occasionally bubbles over into blog posts at his blog, Hoystory, but this week we have a double helping.

Hoy starts out by pulling the rug out from under PolitiFact's "Pants on Fire" rating of Jeb Hensarling's claim that Congress leaves itself as the only ones not receiving subsidies on the "Obamacare" exchanges.

Hoy:

The point Hensarling was making, which is obvious to anyone with half a brain (which explains Politifraud’s problem), was not that no one was getting subisides, but that Congressional staffers, many of whom make north of $100,000 a year, would be the only ones at that income level who get subsidies from the federal government.

And Hoy continues by pointing out PolitiFact's failure to apply its own standards consistently in rating "False" an obvious use of hyperbole, this time when conservative bloggers mocked the Obama administration for closing the ocean as a result of the partial government shutdown:

In their effort to protect their lord and savior, Barack Obama, from himself, Politifarce conveniently disregarded two of  their own rules on what statements deserve their attention:

In deciding which statements to check, we ask ourselves these questions:

• Is the statement rooted in a fact that is verifiable? We don’t check opinions, and we recognize that in the world of speechmaking and political rhetoric, there is license for hyperbole.
  
• Would a typical person hear or read the statement and wonder: Is that true?

Visit Hoy's Hoystory blog for the whole takedown, and let this serve as a reminder that PolitiFact's problems are legion. We don't have the hours in the day to expose them all, so we're grateful to people like Hoy who take the time to expose PolitiFact's errors and distortions.

Hoystory: "Dishonest hacks"

Frequent PolitiFact critic Matthew Hoy weighed in about a Crossroads GPS rating about President Obama's claim that "If you like your health care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health care plan."

Hoy gets right to the issue with his trademark eloquence:

It was a lie. Anyone with half a brain knew it.
...

Since I don’t think that [PolitiFact editors] Angie Drobnic Holan and Bill Adair are slack-jawed drooling idiots, that makes their assessment of Obama’s promise evidence that they are dishonest, lying hacks.

Hoy then zeros in on the way PolitiFact interpreted, and assigned a new meaning, to Obama's specific words:

Politifraud:

Obama often said during his 2008 campaign for president that if people liked their health insurance, they wouldn’t have to change it under his proposal, and he continued to say it as president.“If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan,” he said at a 2009 town hall meeting.

Stop there for a moment and think about that quoted statement. When you as an English-speaking individual read those 14 words, do you think Obama’s saying this:

What Obama was talking about was the way his plan left in place the current health care system in the United States.

Seriously? So, according to Politifraud, “If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan” = “We will not institute a single-payer system.”

Well, if you’re going to twist the plain meaning of Obama’s words into that, then I suppose Politifraud should make Humpty Dumpty its mascot.

In all fairness to PolitiFact, subsequent to Hoy's post, they backtracked explained that they weren't really checking Obama's claim at all. They issued this editors note clarification correction update:

We have adjusted the statement to clarify that we are fact-checking the Crossroads GPS claim that "millions could lose their health care coverage and be forced into a government pool." The ruling is unchanged.

This PolitiFact rating is only the latest in a long string of examples showcasing their defense of ObamaCare. (Not to mention their symbiotic defense of RomneyCare). Readers would be hard pressed to find unfavorable ratings of the law in PolitiFact's archives. It's enough to leave discerning observers with the impression that PolitiFact loves the ACA and is willing to protect it with the sophistry and semantic hair-splitting common among partisan actors.

Hoy's trenchant observations and wonderful way with words make it well worth heading over to his site and reading the whole thing.   Don't miss out on the rest.

Hoystory: "Also known as 'Promise Kept'"

When does a promise qualify as being kept?  It depends.

Matthew Hoy of Hoystory highlights the stratospheric standards of the self-appointed Valuator of Vows. This time PolitiFact checks in on John Boehner's promise to fly commercial planes as opposed to military aircraft (a'la Nancy Pelosi).

What titillating travel tidbits did PolitiFact uncover?

[Boehner] spokesman, Michael Steel, told The Hill that Boehner had no intention of reconsidering a decision he previously made to forgo the use of a private jet for transportation to and from his Ohio district.

When we contacted Steel about this pledge, he said Boehner still flies commercial, and the only time he has flown on a military jet was for an overseas congressional delegation.

Promise Kept, right? Hoy fills us in on the promissory particulars:

His spokesman says he’s flying commercial. They’ve gone through his travel records and have uncovered no evidence that he’s using military jets.
...

So, they’ve got zero evidence that he’s not flying commercial. Zero evidence that he has failed to keep his pledge.

And the best they can muster is: “In the works?”

Poor Boehner. If only he had been rated back in the olden days of eight months ago when PolitiFact's standards for Promise Kept weren't so high.

In a Promise Kept rating we reviewed, Obama was given credit for his promise to "...establish a 10 percent federal Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) to require that 10 percent of electricity consumed in the U.S. is derived from clean, sustainable energy sources, like solar, wind and geothermal by 2012." To this day, PolitiFact has yet to cite the actual legislation that Obama signed establishing the 10 percent RPS standard. Our best guess is they haven't done so because it doesn't exist. Rather, Obama was given a Promise Kept simply because market conditions caused energy sources to meet the 10 percent figure, not because of any requirement Obama was able to enact.

Boehner honors his commitment, and it's considered In the Works. Obama fails to act, and earns a Promise Kept for something that happened without his action that was only tangentially related to his pledge in the first place. But it don't worry, PolitiFact is still objectively on the case:

We will continue to seek more concrete records of Boehner"s travels and follow this pledge. If readers see him flying commercial -- or on a military jet -- please let us know.

PolitiFact's inability to maintain consistent standards for the statements and people they rate offer a great example of how the editors' and writers' personal bias creeps into their work. PolitiFact is a collection of partisans convincing each other of their own impartiality. They should not be trusted as a news source, let alone as a fact checkers.   

Check out Hoystory for the full article. His snark is always worth the visit. And for more from Hoy on PolitiFact go here. And see our reviews of Hoy's work here.


Bryan adds:

When I read the PolitiFact item on Boehner I had little problem with it as an interim rating--but when I recall that PolitiFact gave President Obama a "Promise Kept" for troop increases that he's now in the process of reversing it does create some puzzlement.  Obama was, after all, supposedly preparing us for "meeting the challenges of the 21st century."  Inconsistency remains a rampant problem at PolitiFact.

Hoystory: "Obama’s War on Religion and Conscience"

Matthew Hoy is back at it with his usual biting commentary on PolitiFact. This time he shares his thoughts on the current debate about the effect of PPACA mandates on institutions of the Roman Catholic Church.

Hoy deals broadly with the controversy, but we'll highlight his mention of PolitiFact. At issue is PolitiFact's treatment of Newt Gingrich's statement that the PPACA requires religious institutions to provide insurance coverage for contraceptives:

After honestly analyzing the rule and the law, Politifraud labels Gingrich’s charge “mostly false” as they engage in an amount of hand-waving that would enable human flight without the aid of wings, engines or the other commonly required tools.

Still, if you consider a Catholic church to be a "Catholic institution," or a synagogue to be a "Jewish institution," Gingrich isn’t correct that the recent federal rule on contraceptives applies. Those nonprofit religious employers could choose whether or not they covered contraceptive services.

It’s pretty clear that Gingrich chose his words carefully here and Politifraud is muddying the waters. When I hear the words “Catholic institution” I think of everything Catholic that isn’t the church. I think of hospitals, soup kitchens, homeless shelters, adoption services, the Knights of Columbus, etc. Maybe it’s just because I’m likely more familiar with religious terminology than the (snark on) godless heathens (snark off) who populate many newsrooms, that I interpret it this way. But if the difference between a “True” or “Mostly True” ruling and a “Mostly False” ruling is over whether the word “institution” includes the church or not, then there’s way too much parsing going on.

Parsing words is nothing new for PolitiFact. But that's not the biggest flub Hoy spots:

In the video Politifact links to of Gingrich’s statement (provided by none other than Think Progress), Gingrich makes it clear that he is talking about the rule issued “last week.” The rule issued last week was the one regarding religious employers covering contraceptives in their health plans. Politifraud dishonestly expands that specific criticism of that specific rule into states can set their own benchmarks. No, they can’t. Not when it comes to the rule that came down “last week.” That rule says they MUST cover contraceptives.

Once again Hoy is spot on, though as usual our brief review doesn't do his work justice. Head over to Hoystory and read the whole thing.

Hoystory: "Same idea, different results"

We at PFB noticed something amiss with the Romney rating on jobs recovery, but eagle-eyed Matthew Hoy of the Hoystory blog takes note of a mind-boggling inconsistency regarding the rating:

Here’s Mitt Romney:

"It’s been a failure in the last several years to get America back on track again. It’s taken longer to get Americans back to work than it took during the Great Depression. This is the slowest job recovery since Hoover. It breaks my heart. I want to get us back to work."

Politifact has rated this statement “false.”

Here’s GOP Senate candidate from Florida, Adam Hasner:

"Obama-Nelson economic record. Job creation … at slowest post-recession rate since Great Depression," Hasner tweeted on May 23, 2011.

Politifact has rated this statement “mostly true.”

Hoy has more to say, so please visit Hoystory to devour the rest.

Our take: The two PolitiFact versions are irreconcilable given that they interpret Mitt Romney to say what Adam Hasner said specifically. The PolitiFact rationalization literally makes no sense. Romney's statement appears easily reconcilable with charts similar to the one Hoy posted showing job recovery as the percentage of jobs recovered since the start of the recession.

Somehow PolitiFact overlooked the existence of those ubiquitous charts as they fact checked these statements (make that when they fact checked Romney's statement, where it should have made a big difference). Go figure.


Jeff adds:

Readers may wonder why we highlighted this post from Hoy. As the subjects of the two ratings are both Republicans, it hardly qualifies as an obvious example of PolitiFact's liberal bias. However, the incomprehensible inconsistency between the two ratings provides evidence that PolitiFact arrives at their conclusions by whim and the subjective opinion of their staff rather than by objective standards and verifiable facts. It's exactly this type of inconsistent formula that allows the personal ideology of the writers to determine the outcome of PolitiFact's ratings. That lack of objective standards has overwhelmingly harmed Republicans more often than Democrats.

I'll add that Matthew Hoy has critiqued PolitiFact nearly since its inception and has done a consistently outstanding job of it. We enthusiastically recommend his PolitiFact posts featured at the link on our sidebar.


Bryan adds:

A pox on the "Save As Draft" button, the use of which temporarily removed this post from view.

Hoystory: "How About 'True?'"

Matthew Hoy of Hoystory points out PolitiFact's flawed rating of Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.). PolitiFact gave West a "Mostly True" for his statement that the Libyan operations cost $115 million in the first 36 hours. What's so wrong with a Mostly True? As Hoy explains, West was absolutely correct. Even PolitiFact acknowledges this.

But not content with simply "sorting out the truth" of West's statement, PolitiFact went fishing for the elusive red herring. Their interview with Zack Cooper of the Center for Strategic Budgetary Assessments hauled in the catch:

"The cost of the first day or first couple of days was largely Tomahawk missiles and maybe some other munitions, but for the most part that’s why it was so expensive," Cooper said. "The cost in the long term of a no-fly zone is typically fuel and operational costs so the two are very different. The upfront cost of imposing a no-fly zone are typically substantially higher than the week-to-week cost of flying planes above Libyan territory."

"So What?" asks Hoy. PolitiFact has taken an irrelevant point about the dynamic nature of military action and labels West less than totally honest. Because the initial 36 hours had higher costs than on-going operations, according to PolitiFact, West's statement wasn't True.

Says Hoy:

West’s point is that the Libyan intervention has not insubstantial costs. He uses an easy-to-comprehend and admittedly accurate line item to illustrate those costs. The fact that the amount of money being spent changes from hour to hour is irrelevant.

Is giving a Republican a simple “True” so hard?

As the anecdotes continue to mount, the answer appears to be "yes".

Read Hoy's entire post here. And see another review of Hoystory here.


Bryan adds:

It is tough to see how West failed to earn a "True" rating, though West was apparently slightly off regarding the number of Tomahawk missiles fired by the US.  As PolitiFact put it in the conclusion:

On Fox News West said that the United States launched about $115 million worth of missiles within the first day or day and a half in Libya. That's about $6 million less than the figure we received from the Navy. And West didn't note that some of the Tomahawks were fired by U.S. allies. But still, close enough. But there are a couple of caveats -- namely, that the U.S. already had those missiles in stock, so it doesn't represent new spending. And initial costs in a military intervention are always higher, experts told us. We rate this claim Mostly True.

It seems totally irrelevant that the U.S. had the missiles in stock already.  If they're not replaced with new ones then the number we have is decreased by the operation in Libya.  As for the "initial costs are always higher" caveat, West did nothing at all to suggest that the initial costs were representative of day-to-day operations.

Props to Matthew Hoy.

Hoystory: "PolitiFraud"

Matthew Hoy of the Hoystory blog blasted two recent PolitiFact stories in a recent post.

The first of the two we have already highlighted.  The second had PolitiFact finding "Half True" a Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) claim that the Bush administration turned the $5.6 trillion surplus it inherited from the Clinton administration into an "$11-plus trillion debt."

Hoy:

Normal people might conclude that being off by 98 percent would earn you a false. You’d be wrong. Politifact deemed this statement “half-true.”

Why?

Well, Politifact writer Louis Jacobson and editor Bill Adair apparently really wanted to believe Hoyer, so they allowed themselves to be convinced by this ridiculous explanation:

But when we spoke to Hoyer’s office, they said he was actually using a different yardstick for the first figure.

They said Hoyer was referring to the $5.61 trillion in surpluses that the Congressional Budget Office — the nonpartisan number-crunching arm of Congress — had predicted in January 2001 would materialize over the next 10 years, based on the fiscal outlook at the end of Clinton’s tenure. (Hoyer’s office confirmed our conclusion about the second figure.)

Not only was Hoyer comparing apples to oranges when he made his statement—conflating annual deficit numbers with the overall national debt—but his extended explanation to Politifact suggests he meant to compare apples to kumquats. That apparently makes it half-okay.

Visiting Hoystory to read the whole thing is mandatory.

The same outfit that wants you to believe it "Barely True" that the U.S. ranked 25th in defense spending as a percentage of GDP wants you to believe it's "Half True" that Bush inherited a $5.6 trillion surplus.

That's the wonderful world of PolitiFact fact checking.

Michelle Malkin: PolitiFact to “debunk” my Gwen Moore/abortion post

Conservative pundit Michelle Malkin blasts PolitiFact for its plan to fact check the title of one of her blog post headlines, among other things.

As usual, I have a favorite part:

Matthew Hoy points to this statement from PolitiFact editor Bill Adair posted yesterday:
“We don’t check opinions, and we recognize that in the world of speechmaking and political rhetoric, there is license for hyperbole.”

Um, Bill Adair, meet your employee, Lou Jacobson.

Malkin posted her e-mail interaction with Jacobson.  Good stuff well worth the read, and good to see Matthew Hoy get a shout.