Politifact Has A 'Dramatic Democrat Bias'

For International Fact-Checking Day on April 2, Eric Litke, the leader of the USA Today fact-checking squad, asked who should be fact-checking the fact checkers? His answer: “Everyone.” He argued: “Proper fact-checking requires critical thinking, deep reporting, precise writing and an obsession with fairness. But most importantly, it requires transparency.” As a website, PolitiFact is fairly transparent, but studying its work does not lead everyone to find an “obsession with fairness.” Instead, we have repeatedly found in its articles the implication of the old Stephen Colbert joke that “reality has a liberal bias,” and therefore the liberals are routinely more honest and factual than the conservatives.

A NewsBusters analysis of the first three months of this year's PolitiFact articles that evaluated a named politician or public official with a “Truth-O-Meter” ruling reveals that the site fact-checks Republicans more often than Democrats and is much harsher in its opinions of the GOP side. It broke down like this:

REPUBLICANS (63 fact checks)

True/Mostly True: 8 (12.7 percent)

Half True: 8 (12.7 percent)

Mostly False/False/ Pants On Fire: 47 (74.6 percent)

In the month of March, it's especially emphatic: one on the True side, 15 on the False side.

Now compare it to the other Party:

DEMOCRATS (39 fact checks)

True/Mostly True: 22 (56.4 percent)

Half True: 7 (18 percent)

Mostly False/False/Pants on Fire 10 (25.6 percent)

• More at: NewsBusters - PolitiFact's 'Truth-O-Meter' Has a Dramatic Democrat Party TILT
https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/tim-graham/2024/04/09/politifacts-truth-o-meter-has-dramatic-democratic-party-tilt