Many politicians stretch the truth or obfuscate to some degree or another — but does one party do it more than the other? According to a new study from the Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Mason University the answer is an unequivocal yes. Parsing 100 statements evaluated by the fact-checking website PolitiFact between Obama’s second inauguration and this month, the researchers found that claims from Republican officials were labeled as “false” or “pants on fire” by a 3-to-1 margin, compared to claims from Democratic officials. Conversely, half as many Republican claims were labeled “entirely true.”
“While Republicans see a credibility gap in the Obama administration, PolitiFact rates Republicans as the less credible party,” said CMPA president Robert Lichter in a press release. An earlier study from the CMPA found the website rated the Romney campaign worse than the Obama campaign during the 2012 election. Not surprisingly, Michele Bachmann is one of the most poorly rated politicians on PolitiFact.
So now that it is official, how about the media stops with the both sides do it false equivalency bullshit?
shortstop
PolitiFact is a well-known librul organization so of course it’s going to say that. Also, all the polls saying Mitt Romney is going to lose are biased, as are the ones saying that a majority of Americans support marriage equality and background checks for guns. Plus, everyone hates Hillary so no one will vote for her.
dan
PolitiFact has a liberal bias. Don’t ask me. Ask my wingnut cousin who gives me that reply every time I use PolitiFact as a source.
dan
PolitiFact has a liberal bias. Don’t ask me. Ask my wingnut cousin who gives me that reply every time I use PolitiFact as a source.
Yatsuno
Oh please. One scream of “LIBRUL MEDIA!!!” and they just right back on false equivalence like a barn cat on a mouse.
Also too: where’s your sense of balance libtard?
YellowJournalism
I’d like to apply for a grant to study how water is wet.
Mark S.
LIBERAL BIAS DUH
nitpicker
I hate this “study.” Sure, it supports my belief and is true in on the merits, but by leaving out the truth that Politifact picks and chooses what it reviews, it pretends to be scientific when it’s anything but.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I just watched Andrew Ross Sorkin (who gives Luke Russert a run for his money in the unjustified-self-regard marathon) one even-the-liberal-MSNBC say that it was unfair to blame Republicans for congressional constipation because Obama hasn’t signaled a willingness to get serious about entitlements. The lad thought he was “playing the devil’s advocate”. Richard Wolfe pushed back a teeny tiny little bit.
On topic: GMU used Politifact as a primary source? the sight of adults un-ironically throwing around terms like “pants on fire” and “three Pinnochios” is as depressing as just about anything else in our poltical-media culture.
NonyNony
Aha! Clear evidence that Politifact is biased against conservatives!
They will now need to make up for this bias by making sure that their ratio of lying Democrats to lying Republicans is a balanced 50/50! They must eliminate that bias!
That’s why Politifact will be rolling out two new categories of rating: the “true because Republican” rating and the “false because Democrat” rating. Things uttered by Republicans that were previously rated as “false” will now be rated as “true because Republican” while “pants on fire” utterances from Republicans will now be rated as simply “false”.
Utterances made by Democrats that were previously rated as “mostly true” or “true” will now be rated as “false because Democrat”. Things uttered by Democrats that were previously rated as “false” will now be rated as “pants on fire”.
We hope that this new rating system will eliminate all of the liberal bias that remains at Politifact.
kindness
I won’t gloat about any argument that requires Politifact to help my side.
marduk
What’s funny about this is that politifact bends over backward to read democratic statements in the most tendentious way possible and republican statements in the most charitable way possible so he can find some measure of false equivalence between the two parties.
And the only result of this study will be that Kessler will find some way to call a recent high-profile Obama statement Pants-On-Fire false, thus maintaining his Serious Non-Partisan Credibility.
Villago Delenda Est
John, isn’t it a bit early in the day to be huffing, or sniffing glue, or snorting coke, or whatever it is that got you high?
NickT
@YellowJournalism:
Isn’t that included in fluid dynamics already?
? Martin
Lincoln Chafee just switched to the Democratic Party. Didn’t see that coming. RI Republicans have been pretty reasonable from what I’ve seen.
Just Some Fuckhead
Am I the only one sitting here naked?
NickT
@? Martin:
Linc Chafee, now three times more truthful than he used to be! Now, let’s see how long it takes Chris Christie to come to a similar decision.
shortstop
@? Martin: @NickT: I’m celebrating doubly because two out of two commenters didn’t put that extraneous F in.
Ted & Hellen
While we are waiting for this NOT to happen, how about the national Dems, led by Obama, make the case very directly and publicly for how much their rivals lie and obfuscate, rather than occasionally referencing the elephant in the room with winks and nods and referring to the wingers as their “good friends?”
Oh wait: That will never happen either.
The Democrats willfully suck at giving the media a sustained message attack on which to hang their stories. So the get what they deserve.
NickT
@Just Some Fuckhead:
Yes, but that’s true of everything from Newtonian physics to the fact that Newt Gingrich will never be president.
shortstop
@NickT: Christie is banking on being the go-to guy when enough of the GOP finally notices that being batshit crazy is turning people off. Sadly for him, that day isn’t coming nearly as soon as he thinks it is.
NCSteve
And of course, let us not even factor in the extent “fact checkers” will go to to characterize something as a “lie” told by a liberal. Just for example:
Conservative lies: “Death panels!” “Kenyan!” “Michelle took vacation in Spain that cost taxpayers ten bazillion dollars!”
Liberal “lie:” Ryan plan would end Medicare.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@? Martin: Hard out there for an indy, I’m guessing.
@NickT: I’ll bet the mortgage against it, Christie’s a hard core anti-New Dealer from what I’ve seen. though shit like this NewsMax headline suggests it may be tougher for him than I had thought.
I can’t believe those nitwits think this is something they want to amplify.
NickT
@shortstop:
I have real doubts about that, when you consider how he’s been palling around with the Kenyan Muslim Socialist Usurper recently. I think Obama’s courting him to switch parties – and Christie sure isn’t doing anything to shake off the appearance of RINOtude.
NickT
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Some of that is Limbaugh flailing away and trying to look relevant. That said, watch this er.. drive:
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/video-obama-christie-toss-footballs-high-five-on?ref=fpblg
Villago Delenda Est
@NickT:
That little joint appearance the other day has the neo-Confederates in a tizzy.
jl
Anyone getting crisis response teams and counselors out to the Politifact office yet? They must be having severe full spectrum panic attacks over there today.
I will enjoy the coming pretzel logic as they try to get out of this jam.
pamelabrown53
Hah! John Cole. If Politifact was really doing it’s job instead of fostering false equivalency then the ratio would have been more like 10:1 instead of 3:1. Which as other commenters have said: things will only get worse for Democrats.
How many Pinocchios did President Obama get because “act of terror” is insufficient to “terrorist attack? 3 or 4?
NickT
@Villago Delenda Est:
I often suspect Obama gets a great deal of quiet pleasure out of these little moments of bipartisan right-wing tail-yanking. I do believe that he’s going back to his old strategy of picking off the more ‘moderate’ Republicans in the northeast and that Christie is another trophy for the big game cabinet.
shortstop
@NickT: Isn’t the explanation I suggested — positioning himself as a Republican who’s actually capable of finding consensus with Dems in limited areas, ready for the day when the party is looking for just that guy — more plausible than a wholesale party switch, especially when Christie hasn’t moved an iota on fiscal, safety net or social issues?
jl
@shortstop: There will be plenty of crazy (and nasty and vile) left in the GOP for awhile. Inhofe being as nasty as he can about federal aid for OK tornadoes. Says he won’t get ‘Obama’d’ like Christie was. That is very nice of him, isn’t it?
NickT
@shortstop:
It’s possible, but I doubt that day’s going to come in the next decade, after which Chris Christie’s time in the spotlight will have expired quietly and without mourners. I think Christie is shrewd enough to see that coming, which is why I could see him switching parties and fitting in as a Blue Dog. The media would love that storyline and it might get Christie higher on the greasy pole than he’s currently likely to manage.
Petorado
Part of the “both sides do it” phenomenon that works against Dems is the innate understanding people have about both parties. Republicans are the party of selfishness, irresponsibility, dishonesty, and chicanery, so anything they do along those lines is understood as being within its character and in the normal course of business. If a Republican rises above their low expectations, it’s cause for canonization. Dems are understood to be conscientious, honest, and looking out for the interests of others, so anything a Dem does that falls outside those bounds is scandalous and hypocritical. Dems are just held to higher standards and therefore criticized more harshly when they don’t meet those expectations.
shortstop
@jl: Yep, Christie, like Huntsman and others, bet on the wrong timeframe. Really, really the wrong timeframe.
NonyNony
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
From what I’ve seen Christie has very few actual hard and fast ideological beliefs and is willing to say and do whatever it takes to keep his job. If it means pandering to the Tea Party by refusing Federal funds to improve transportation between Jersey and NYC, then he’ll loudly proclaim his intent to refuse those funds. If being a Republican has become a detriment to his political future, he will suddenly be out loudly proclaiming his centrism and his intent to become a Democrat – especially if the New Jersey Democratic machine is willing to adopt him as one of their own.
He’s always struck me as a rank opportunist. Which is actually fine – our government is actually built to withstand the damage that can be done by rank opportunists.
Mike E
@marduk: Stephen Jay Gould wrote a book about this phenomenon called The Mismeasure of Man, where white supremacists of the day used varying means to record the volumes of skulls to prove that non-whites were inferior. Since lead shot pellets registered inconclusive date, the more malleable pumpkin seed method was employed and resulted in predictably hilarious (and notoriously unscientific) conclusions. Nothing new under the sun.
NickT
@NonyNony:
Now that sounds like the Chris Christie that I’ve observed over the last few years. I think Christie has one guiding ideology, namely, the rise of Chris Christie – and that’s all.
EthylEster
Politifact may be biased toward the left but George Mason is definitely biased toward the right. For a state university it leans very conservative.
NickT
@NonyNony:
They’ll do it faster than a grift of teenage Palins at a meth-orgy.
Tonal (visible) Crow
has fallen off the reservation. I expect a Koch-whipping imminently.
ranchandsyrup
Excerpt from the book by the librul mole at Faux News. http://www.salon.com/2013/05/29/i_was_a_liberal_mole_at_fox_news_from_bill_oreilly_to_roger_ailes_heres_all_the_inside_dope/
jl
@Tonal (visible) Crow: Has Koch captured the whole university, or just the econ department and the Mercatus thinktank they have there?
The econ department is way strange. I heard an interview with a George Mason economist who had done some kind of freedom index for U.S. states. California did not do well. The economist said that was why California had lost population over the last ten years. the interviewer was a state political reporter in California, who said “What!?” The Mason economist did not back down on this odd claim. Oddness ensued.
Zapruder F. Mashtots, D.D.S. (Mumphrey, et al.)
It’ll take more than some pointy-headed liberal egghead study to bring that about. Now, if David Brooks or Tom Friedman or Noonan or Will or some other Serious Person is willing to climb on board with this, then that might help bring about a shift. Short of that, I don’t see how it could happen. It would be unlikely even with somebody like David Brooks, but without that, well, it won’t happen at all.
Tonal (visible) Crow
Well, this suggests a broader infection. Of course, global warming denialism is exactly what you’d expect from anyone taking Koch money. Still, Republicans are so [ETA:
anti-scientificanti-truth that I can’t imagine that the infection is limited to economics and climate.Republicans feel perfectly fine about making up shit when the facts refute their ideology.
TriassicSands
@marduk:
I agree that PolitiFact ties itself in knots trying to appear fair and balanced, but the difference in the two parties has grown so great that even with PolitiFact’s Herculean efforts the Party of Lunacy comes out looking like a bunch of liars.
I don’t see the Democrats as being especially truthful — compared with the past, they seem to stretch, spin, exaggerate, and occasionally flat out lie about like they always have. But the Party of Lunacy has simply cut all ties with the truth.
I think PolitiFact and other fact checkers should use a new measure of veracity — something along the lines of “Just Making Shit Up.”
Tonal (visible) Crow
@TriassicSands:
Yes. They have gone completely over to bullshit: saying whatever they think helps their cause, whether it’s true, false, a combination of the two, unknown, or unknowable. Bullshit has become the alpha and the omega of Republican argument.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@NonyNony: an opportunist, sure but I think also as sincere in his resentment of the 47% as Willard Romney. Also, being a mavericky maverick Republican is part of his media image. My guess is Christie, surrounded by admirers from Wall St to Mark Zuckerberg to Tweety and David Gregory, is the latest non-Southern Republican who thinks he’s the one who can remake the party in his own image. That, he can’t, but given both a financial advantage and as weak a field as Romney had, he could be the nominee in 2016. But my money’s still on a gray flannel suit who can mumble the right words about Jeebus and immigants like Thune or Daniels.
NickT
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
If Santorum goes for the nomination in 2016, I think he’ll beat out Chris Christie with ease. Thune and Daniels aren’t going anywhere. I do look forward to more Rick Perry comedy stylings though.
NickT
Speaking of the races, apparently The Soulless Slimy One is beating The Outright Crazy Loathsome One:
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/poll-mcauliffe-leads-cuccinelli-by-5-in-va–1?ref=fpb
Trollhattan
This is kinda cute, in a naive way, but we all know it’s a clarion call to Teh Media to clap louder. They simply need to sniff out more demmycrats with pants aflame–they’re not doing so now because of…bias/liberal media/Obama threats/yadda.
shortstop
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Agree in all particulars. Whether it’s Christie or a Thune/Daniels type, though, he’ll have to struggle against Santorum (who is dumb enough not to be going away) before clinching the nom, and come out of the primary bruised — not as badly as Mitt, but still looking rode hard and put away wet, as me granny used to say (she really did).
muddy
My son did a study back in the early 90’s. He was annoyed with how much conservatives interrupted liberals on PBS Newshour. Worst of all were the ones who interrupted and then pitched a fit that they not be interrupted themselves in their interruption. He got a stopwatch and timed them for a week. It was about 65-35. He was about 12 at the time, not so hard a thing to document I guess.
I said now how about adding up lies, non-answers and non sequiturs for a week? He kind of boggled, and we decided we had suffered enough in the name of science.
Trollhattan
@muddy:
Learned a helpful technical term–the Gish Gallop–for this phenomenon. Low-information yakkers and viewers rely on it.
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Gish_Gallop
Most Repblicans that Maher has on do it incessantly. I makes me wish he’d have the Fonzie of Freedom on sometime with Mike Tyson.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@NickT: @shortstop: Agreed, Santorum’s as big a problem for the GOP as Rand Paul, who they don’t seem to know is as big a problem as Santorum. If Li’l Rickey had kept his yap shut about Kennedy, Willard would’ve been a lot more beat up last time.
JoyfulA
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Husband said Christie seems to care about New Jersey people; pretty good guy for a Republican.
I reminded him of where Christie put NJ economic development money: turned down federal and New York money for a second tunnel that would employ thousands in construction for a couple of years and make commuting to NYC tolerable; instead, used state money for propping up a failing casino that then went bankrupt and trying to restart a white elephant of an entertainment-shopping-sports center. That doesn’t even touch what he’s done to schools and the poor.
Roger Moore
Yes, we did. It’s all well and good to know anecdotally that one side is lying through their teeth and the other is usually truthful, but having numbers from a notionally independent source is helpful in proving the point. It’s something you can point to as proof, which is always better than claiming that everyone knows it. This should be especially helpful for convincing squishy centrists who accept the “both sides do it” story.
liberal
@EthylEster:
I know that’s true of the econ department, but what about the rest of the place?
shortstop
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Right you are about Paul. It will be fun to watch the mudfight redux.
IowaOldLady
@NCSteve:
Conservative lies: “Death panels!” “Kenyan!” “Michelle took vacation in Spain that cost taxpayers ten bazillion dollars!”
Liberal “lie:” Ryan plan would end Medicare.
That is so true. Even today, Chuck Grassley, one of my senators, accused Obama of trying to “pack” the DC court by filling vacancies. Seriously?
Tonal (visible) Crow
@IowaOldLady:
It sounds convincing to the harried, the inattentive, the tuned-out, and the terminally dumb — which is the entire point of bullshit.