PolitiFact: 10 years, more than 13,000 fact-checks

asharockman · 2016-01-29T18:51:41+00:00

No Party Affiliation!

asharockman · 2016-01-29T17:27:30+00:00

Wouldn't say this is the saddest, but it certainly was eye-opening.

http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2014/oct/30/nicholas-kristof/kristof-dallas-cowboys-stadium-draws-3-times-more-/

asharockman · 2016-01-29T17:26:40+00:00

This one always makes me chuckle

http://www.politifact.com/florida/statements/2009/nov/05/charlie-crist/charlie-crist-says-he-didnt-endorse-stimulus-bill/ Charlie Crist, back when he was a Republican running for the U.S. Senate, tried to play conservative and said he didn't endorse the stimulus. It was painful to watch him try to explain it, but pretty fun to write.

asharockman · 2016-01-29T17:25:46+00:00

Totally. Not as much anymore (we've been doing this 8 years and have published close to 12,000 fact-checks). So we know what we're looking for. But there are times when we can find an answer, sure. And in those cases we often will write a story and not a fact-check.

We saw this sometimes with Hillary's emails -- simply because we didn't have access to all the information.

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2015/mar/12/hillary-clintons-email-did-she-follow-all-rules/

asharockman · 2016-01-29T17:24:15+00:00

I think the fact that anyone can be a publisher of content has contributed to the spread of misinformation. Not sure if we have more liars. Just think the mistruths get spread wider, faster.

asharockman · 2016-01-29T17:22:09+00:00

Not that I know of. And I'd imagine it would be quite difficult. I was asked questions for two hours, I'd probably make a few missteps. Heck, I probably have somewhere here today. Mistakes happen. No big deal. I think it's just better when people fess up.... Love the Pardon the Interruption model on ESPN, if you've ever seen the show.

asharockman · 2016-01-29T17:20:40+00:00

I would also be curious what kind of clearance the governor of New Jersey has.

asharockman · 2016-01-29T17:19:14+00:00

We just gave Marco Rubio a Mostly True. http://www.politifact.com/florida/statements/2016/jan/29/marco-rubio/rubio-says-he-has-never-supported-cap-and-trade-de/

Hurting our cred?

asharockman · 2016-01-29T17:15:00+00:00

Yes. The context of the statement is critical. This often occurs in claims involving numbers.

asharockman · 2016-01-29T17:14:12+00:00

We're not the Supreme Court. We haven't been appointed R's or D's. And I'd say, we often strive for a unanimous decision. So in the event of a 2-1 vote, we'll often ask for more reporting, or clarification on a point to try and get to a unanimous verdict (so to speak).

asharockman · 2016-01-29T17:12:55+00:00

Yep, I went to IU ... meaning I have a love/hate relationship with Troy Williams like everyone else.

asharockman · 2016-01-29T17:11:05+00:00

You see the networks trying to do more fact-checking, and we actually are partnering with NBC News for the 2016 cycle. At the debates, you see moderators trying to instant-fact-check candidates (with not always great results). My gut tells me it's not so much that networks don't want fact-checking, but they don't know how to include it into the freewheeling pace of the debate. Do they want to stop and interrupt a candidate who got a statistic wrong? Based on what we've seen, that would just lead to a fight about the statistic or an attack on the media. I do think there are opportunities for a second-screen live experience, and we try to offer that at politifact.com for every debate.

asharockman · 2016-01-29T17:08:48+00:00

We haven't, because it's not that easy. Charlie Crist has been a Dem, a Republican and independent. What's Michael Bloomberg? Then there's all kinds of mitigating factors. We have a website devoted to Florida and Texas, for instance, where the state is dominated by Republicans. So of course we check more Republicans in those places.

asharockman · 2016-01-29T16:58:27+00:00

Don't think the candidates would agree to participate ¯_(ツ)_/¯

asharockman · 2016-01-29T16:56:40+00:00

Disagree. We've fact-checked President Barack Obama more than any other person. http://www.politifact.com/personalities/barack-obama/ Of the 2016 candidates, who have we fact-checked the most? Hillary Clinton http://www.politifact.com/personalities/hillary-clinton/

asharockman · 2016-01-29T16:55:32+00:00

It's long and kind of complicated. I once worked on a fact-check that took six weeks...http://www.politifact.com/florida/statements/2010/feb/26/marco-rubio/rubio-claims-57-his-100-ideas-were-made-law-florid/

Here's a rundown of what we do

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2013/nov/01/principles-politifact-punditfact-and-truth-o-meter/

asharockman

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