Huffington Post Column Hammers PolitiFact
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
The Research Director at Social Security Works, the leading Social Security advocacy group, has raised questions about the quality of research being conducted by the Providence Journal’s PolitiFact.
Ben Veghte charges in a Huffington Post column, “In short, Rep. Cicilline's statement was not inaccurate or unfounded; rather, it demonstrated an impressive command of the issue. PolitiFact could find nothing untrue in what the Congressman said. Both the percentages he cited and his larger argument were correct.”
The PolitiFact platform is a franchised media tool. It was originally created by a Tampa newspaper and self describes as, "PolitiFact is a project of the Tampa Bay Times and its partners to help you find the truth in politics."
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Veghte is not the first to question the Providence Journal’s ability to evaluate critical questions and facts. GoLocal MINDSETTERS™ both conservative and liberals have raised serious questions about the ability of the newspaper’s researchers to properly conduct research.
Conservative Travis Rowley, GoLocalProv's MINDSETTER™ analyzed the Providence Journal’s research and wrote, “Please excuse the boring minutia of this controversy, but it is important to point out the political bias from which PolitiFact operates.”
Progressive writer Tom Sgouros wrote in a GoLocalProv MINDSETTER Column, “The level of debate that PolitiFact encourages about these issues is, well, let's just say it's not very edifying. If they actually cared about any of the issues about which they write, they would have the sense to be embarrassed by their performance. They could be much better than this, but have chosen otherwise."
National Charges
According to Veghte, “PolitiFact has been called out numerous times for judging factually true statements to be less than fully true on the basis of interpretations and assumptions that PolitiFact's staff themselves make. Media Matters, Paul Krugman, and others have called PolitiFact out for this, and Rachel Maddow has found their malfeasance so grave that she argues that by calling themselves a fact-checking organization, PolitiFact is undermining the definition of the word "fact" in the English language."
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