The Weekly Standard Notes PolitiFact's "Amazing" Fact Check

The Weekly Standard took note of PolitiFact's audacity in fact-checking Donald Trump's claim that the economy grew at the amazing rate of 4.1 percent rate in the second quarter.

The Trumpian assertion that moved the PolitiFact’s scrutineers to action? This one: “In the second quarter of this year, the United States economy grew at the amazing rate of 4.1 percent.” PolitiFact’s objection wasn’t to the data—the economy really did grow at 4.1 percent in the second quarter—but to the adjective: amazing.

That's amazing!

PolitiFact did not rate the statement on its "Truth-O-Meter" but published its "Share The Facts" box featuring the judgment "Strong, but not amazing."

PolitiFact claims it does not rate opinions and grants license for hyperbole.

As we have noted before, it must be the fault of Republicans who keep trying to use hyperbole without a license.



Correction Jan. 2, 2018: Fixed hotlink to the Weekly Standard, which mistakenly linked directly to the PolitiFact story.

The Weekly Standard: "Fact Checking the 'Fact Checkers'"

The Weekly Standard's "The Scrapbook" section this week highlighted the work of PolitiFact, the objective and nonpartisan fact checker that we so enjoy exposing for its lack of both objectivity and nonpartisanship.

The article reviews a few of PolitiFact's recent newsworthy problems, including the conflict of interest it showed in defending the Clinton Foundation with help from a grant from another nonprofit that shares a major donor.

It's worth a read. Here's a taste, from the conclusion:

PolitiFact publishes enough fact checks that it no doubt gets some right. But whether as a result of bias, incompetence, dubious financial incentives, or perhaps all of the above, PolitiFact has taken a wrecking ball to its reputation. It should be ignored altogether, but so long as PolitiFact remains a useful vehicle for applying a veneer of credibility to politicized judgments, the rest of the media will no doubt continue to cite it as an authority and use it as a cudgel.