Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) speaks after leadership elections for the 114th Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington November 13, 2014.REUTERS/Joshua Roberts
Posted on 04/15/2015 7:46:11 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) speaks after leadership elections for the 114th Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington November 13, 2014.REUTERS/Joshua Roberts
WASHINGTON — Journalists highlighted the recent explosion of political fact-checking stories, and their “happy consequences” on the behavior of politicians Wednesday at the Woodrow Wilson Center.
“This is a very skeptical age,” said Angie Drobnic Holan, editor at PolitiFact.
“The work does not go unnoticed. It’s not like a rock thrown in a pond that sinks to the bottom, there are ripple effects.”
She said that whether politicians actually change or not, they notice the reports, and are usually called to account in some way, usually through their peers, constituents or other political reporters.
The frequency of fact checking stories increased by 50 percent between 2004 and 2008, and exploded by more than 300 percent between 2008 and 2012, according to new research data shared by the American Press Institute.
While fact checkers maintained that their primary goal is to inform citizens, there are undeniable and measurable effects on the conduct of politicians.
“The politicians who were told, warned, or threatened with these letters that they were going to be fact checked were far less likely to receive poor ratings,” said Jane Elizabeth, senior research project manager at API, citing research from after the 2012 elections.
“It shows promise,” she said.
Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich even held a press conference during the 2012 elections specifically to tell one of his super PACs to recall an ad that had received the worst possible rating of “four Pinocchios” from The Washington Post’s Glenn Kessler.
Not everyone who receives bad ratings makes these kinds of changes, however. The silent treatment is also a common response towards fact checkers in the media.
“A super PAC associated with Harry Reid called Senate Majority PAC ran some of the worst campaign ads of the last cycle. I reviewed three or four of their ads in a row, and each time gave them four Pinocchios,” said Kessler.
“There just got to a point where the person who dealt with the press simply said, ‘I’m just not answering your questions anymore.'”
He said individuals in both political parties stretch the truth in order to advance their particular interests, regardless of what fact checkers say.
If a factual error doesn’t make that much of a difference to the narrative, some will adjust their statements or assertions on the margins, Kessler said, “but if a party has something they feel will move voters, it’s just not going to matter.”
Holan agreed, and pointed out that a lot of campaigns “are really more emotions based than anyone would like to admit,” and politicians are reluctant to back off certain claims they really like.
Another API researcher, Mark Stencel, recalled an infamous statement from individual working for one of Barack Obama’s campaigns:
“You just decide the fact checker is wrong.”
The speakers made it clear that you cannot always expect to change the behavior of politicians, and that is why their efforts are directed at the people.
The goal is “not to stop them from lying, but to let voters know who was lying,” Kessler said.
“It’s a public service I’m happy to spend time on no matter how few hits it gets.”
Has this story been fact checked?
Cruz: "This guy is insane."
Media: "Mr. Cruz, we fact-checked your outrageous statement and we find no evidence that president Obama has ever been certified insane by a competent physician. When will you stop lying to the American people?"
The biggest problem with fact checkers is that they are self appointed. Their idea of a fact may well be slanted by their political views. Snopes is an example of this.
“This is a very skeptical age,”
I wonder why.
After decades of being lied to, Dan Rather case in point, it is good that we can fact check the msm and politicians. They are surprised when they at being held accountable to their lies.
Romans 1:.. 28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; 29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, 30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31 Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: 32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
Proverbs 6:16-19 haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.
The effect it has on politicians isn’t that they lie less. It is that they say less and less of substance. They hide and evade more. Double talk bullshit 24/7.
A face made for radio and a voice made for silent movies....
They are surprised when they at being held accountable to their lies.
Even with the increase in fact-checking, it seems we have more overtly lying media and politicians.
The liars don’t even seem to be upset when they are caught in lies. They just shrug it off and continue on their way.
“If you like your healthcare plan, you can keep your plan ... if you like you doctor, you can keep your doctor ... “
Then, there is the media who claim ‘fake but accurate’ is acceptible, even it if it based on lies and manufactured documents.
The ends seem to justify the means. Lies are just part of doing business, it seems.
Perhaps they are actually changing their politics.
I bet their heads would explode if they knew they were getting daily prayers to open their eyes.
/johnny
Politifact VA is a leftist propaganda organ that always tilts to Democrats and always slams Republicans.
They are not objective in the least.
Fact Checking sites soon to be banned per Net Neutrality violations?
Politifact, Factcheck and Snopes work harder at leftist spin that factual accuracy.
Snopes: Democrats, good! Conservatives, Satan’s imps.
There was a made for TV movie from 1971 titled ‘Earth II’. It was a passable sci-fi offering but what stood out for me was an interactive computer analysis which generated a crawl at the bottom of the screen in real time as the speaker made his points. For instance, the speaker would say, “thousands have died needlessly in this conflict”, and the crawl would read, “467 fatalities and 823 casualties have been reported since the beginning of the operation. Needlessly is a subjective term intended to persuade and can be disregarded”. I’ve been intrigued by the idea of a real time fact checker and rhetoric analyzer ever since.
Who fact checks the fact checkers?
While touting itself as a ‘nonpartisan’ source for information verification, Factcheck.org is actually anything but factual. The organization is a front-group for Leftwing causes and has ties to domestic terrorist Bill Ayers and his political protege Barack Obama.
In 2008 prior to the Presidential election, writer Stanley Kurtz uncovered troubling information concerning Factcheck, Bill Ayers, and Barack Obama:
“When Obama made his first run for political office, articles in both the Chicago DefenderHyde Park Heraldfeatured among his qualifications his position as chairman of the board of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, a foundation where Ayers was a founder and guiding force. and the Obama assumed the Annenberg board chairmanship only months before his first run for office, and almost certainly received the job at the behest of Bill Ayers.
http://www.examiner.com/article/factcheck-org-anything-but-factual
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