PolitiFact.comPosted 9 years ago under Uncategorized
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PolitiFact.com is an online critical newspaper begun in August of 2007 and is a project operated by the Tampa Bay Times, where editors and reporters “fact-check” statements made by top politicians, whether in Congress or the White House, and these statements are published on their website with special ratings that the Politifact editors invented in order to try to be creative with their critique. PolitiFact assigns their “Truth-O-Meter” rating, ranging from “Completely Accurate” to “Pants on Fire” – – the latter meaning, of course, blatant lies and false claims. The site also tracks and attack words from the mouth of the President, Barack Obama, calling that lie “restructure” the “Obameter” – – and this would be regarding his campaign promises, but upon deeper research, hardly a claim made by Politifact holds water, either. The counter “facts” proposed by Politifact are lies themselves or statistics that also cannot be proven, so it might take an intelligent reader to make true sense of it all, especially the PolitiFact fan club. PolitiFact has made up other “meter” knick names based on politician’s last names, including using the names of the Governors of Tennessee and Wisconsin. The silly approach to their spins on speeches and one-liners is an attempt to be cute and catchy, but the depth of research Politifact has done leaves much to be desired, regarding their claims about statistics, economic trends or public panic about pandemics, like Ebola. Their efforts and retorts are more like dogmatic propaganda than anyone “calling out” lies. (1)
Many heated debates exist online and are posted at social media, or published on alternative media (truth media) and readily reviewed and shared (if important – usually in a “viral” way) by the actual fact-checkers who publish the truth. Politifact has been ripped apart online by all genres of politicians and citizens, including independents, conservatives and liberals. Bias in all realms, they say, exists – – and many say Politifact could not even fact-check certain types of statements if they wanted, yet pretend to anyway.
By 2010, Politifact.com expanded to cover Texas news via the editors of Austin American-Statesman. PolitiFact “Texas” covers issues relevant to Texas and the Austin area in general. Also in 2010, Politifact’s partner newspaper, The Miami Herald, launched Politifact Florida. Pay it forward to 2015 and the list of affiliate news outlets or “partner” newspapers include the likes of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinal, to name a few.
For the past six years, PolitiFact.com declares one seemingly prolific political statement to be their “Lie of the Year.” Sarah Palin was the target in 2009 for her claim that the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) would lead to government death panels, excluding certain people from treatments. But that IS what Obamacare does, so we’ve come to find out, as well as the Department of Veteran’s Affairs – – they exclude deserving people from coverage. People are being dropped from health care corporations and doctors right and left, can’t afford the coverage or the ultra-high deductibles, can’t keep their doctor (like Obama said you could), (2) and aren’t even getting quality care when they can afford it, because chemical-based symptom control doesn’t cure a single thing and never will. None of this is based on science, fact, research or regulations. The “Lie of the Year” is often two-fold: that of the first liar (the politician or lobbyist) and then the propaganda twist that comes from Politifact.com. (3) (4)
The 2010 “Lie of the Year” was an interesting one where PolitiFact.com took the criticisms of Obamacare that said it was a government takeover of healthcare, which it was, and tried to debunk that public-known truth by saying healthcare would remain in the hands of private companies. This sounds more like something the Obama Administration would come up with, like making fun of themselves on the hit comedy sketch Saturday Night Live. In 2011, Politifact went after Congressman Paul Ryan’s “Path to Prosperity” budget proposal, saying his plan would only make significant changes to Medicare and not END IT, like the critics were all saying. Again, the editors at Politifact are spinning criticisms that don’t fit their agenda into propaganda to protect political lies, instead of actually debunking them. These “lie of the year” revelations are in no way, shape or form fact-checking. (5)
PolitiFact chose Obama’s biggest campaign promise for the 2013 “Lie of the Year” – “If you like your health care plan, you can keep it,” which actually was a huge lie. Politifact cited nearly 4 million cancellation letters Americans received as proof. This was an easy straw man to knock down. Obama set everyone up with a lie while he made healthcare a law with a high premium collectible by his IRS, the same IRS that leans on his political opponents unjustly and makes their (non-profit) businesses suffer. This “lie of the year” comes too late, and all Americans can do is complain. Is this a distorted debate that Politifact runs? The question begs an answer. Politifact doesn’t seem to be objective at all, even though they claim to try to “balance” the criticisms between the two political parties and their lobbyists.
Distorted Debate or Truth Media? Playing DOWN Ebola is scary business
The year was 2014, and the “Lie of the Year” was “Exaggerations about Ebola.” It’s very likely the CDC (6) wrote the PolitiFact script on these allegation-destructuring tidbits of information. There were more than a dozen major concerns about Ebola and importing it to the United States via doctors and nurses who were treating infected patients in African nations. Many suspicions people had about Ebola’s contagious factors were true, but Politifact had a mission to quell all of them, and it looked like a script right from the CDC’s main office. Once a human has Ebola, it can be spread via saliva or mucus, ie: from a sneeze, cough, vomit, urine or feces, and this makes it very easy to spread and catch through public transportation or hospitals. The worst thing someone with Ebola can do is ride a taxi, bus, train or plane. Ebola can be spread through immigration and international travel, and can also be spread by medical staff mishandling contaminated clothing, equipment, dead bodies that still spread the deadly disease, or via vaccine “protection” that could contain live ebola virus strains for which there is NO cure. Ebola can also be spread by spreading the WRONG information about its spreadability. (7)
Politifact instead chose the path of debunking “conspiracy theory” and quelling or dismissing the much warranted fears the American public has about Ebola reaching the homeland, which it did, thanks to the careless handling of infected nurses and doctors in Atlanta and New York. Self-quarantine’s did NOT work, despite CDC reassurances. The CDC was playing with fire by bringing infected people back to US soil, especially with the way they handle other highly toxic materials and substances, like Anthrax. Ebola could have easily become a pandemic in the US thanks to mishandling of patients and letting them mix with the public and transportation while infected. The bottom line is that Politifact is stirring distorted debates with their website, and this alone is propaganda with the White House script written all over it. (8) PolitiFact is apologizing for the vaccine industry while wearing a “truth” mask called fact-checking. This is similar to the forced-vaccination law going into effect in California in 2016 for all school kids – the facts about mercury, MSG, aluminum and formaldehyde in vaccines will HAVE to come out. The statistics will be there in California for infectious disease breakouts among the vaccinated, because according to the State and the CDC, that’s all there will be left from which to count. (9) (10)
After helping Obama win office in 2008, PolitiFact.com was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for its “fact-checking initiative” that examined hundreds of political claims by opponents and helped “enlighten voters.” Critics say Politifact has problems “evening the load” – – as they claim they do so well.
Politifact’s “fact checking” is really about keeping inconvenient truths out of future conversations
Mark Hemingway of The Weekly Standard criticizes all of these “fact-checking” projects hosted and created by news organizations themselves, including PolitiFact, the AP (Associated Press) and the Washington Post, saying they “aren’t about checking facts so much as they are about a rearguard action to keep inconvenient truths out of the conversation.” (11)
Most of the statements PolitiFact chooses to deconstruct are statements made by politicians and government officials about their own policies. This means PolitiFact is running fact-checking exercises on rhetoric, which is like a cat chasing its own tail. These half-truths aren’t even half true. Their main goal seems to be eliminating certain conversations from public discussion and angling other subjects to keep political myths alive and fueling the debate. This is a strategy and platform that’s quickly losing its cover.
When the truth hurts politicians pockets and is exposed, that’s when PolitiFact comes in and quells the discussion, or turns it, angles it back in their favor, or distinguishes the thought – – for example – – with their “Lie of the Year” false-labeling trick. It’s all in their explanation. They find a straw man, post him up, then post up their own “half” of the story as the truth, when their HALF isn’t even a half-truth itself. PolitiFact simply corrects something said that was wrong with another wrong, big lie that’s based off what they label as “Lie of the Year.” Though Politifact claims to evenly balance the load – that of reporting the good and bad for both sides of the two-party political US system, quelling public panic about Big Government long-arm policies is PolitiFact’s forte, as proven with Ebola, where the CDC was completely careless with safety. (12)
Is Politifact.com really just a blog?
Many critics say that PolitiFact is just a blog written by editors to boost certain political platforms using reverse psychology. By having the word “fact” as part of their name they really set themselves up for investigation – and the results are not in their favor. Combining politics and facts into one word is more of an oxymoron than a objective ridicule in any way. In fact, citing Politifact in Journalism is a big No-No. The branding gimmicks, corporate-funded ratings of PolitiFact and the sickening awards become hard to digest for any truth seeker engaging the news, economics, health, the sustainable environment or health safety.
The latest Trump “Report Card” by PolitiFact is the epitome of the website’s deception, claiming zero percent of what Donald Trump says is true, when he is in fact calling out many of the lies perpetrated in Washington DC. Critics say this is just part of PolitiFact’s fanning of the fire to further inflame their own base. They are essentially breeding more confusion, as visible on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.
Publishing lies is in no way “independent fact-checking.” In fact, this year, 2015, PolitiFact went so far as to say that NO vaccines recommended for children have contained mercury since 1999, though the flu shots still contain mercury in the form of thimerosal, as proven by the list of ingredients available on the flu shot inserts and on the CDC’s own website. This is a blatant LIE published by PolitiFact that completely ruins any credibility they may have had left. In fact, the flu shot contains 25,000 times the maximum level of mercury that the EPA allows in drinking water. Politifact also lied and published that they tried to reach Mike Adams, the Health Ranger and Editor-in-Chief of NaturalNews.com for his review of mercury in vaccines, but that he chose not to do an interview, which is a complete lie. The Health Ranger has tested the flu shots for dangerous heavy metal toxins and revealed the facts for concerned consumers. He discovered alarmingly high amounts of mercury in an influenza vaccine made by GlaxoSmithKline (lot #9H2GX), with levels reaching a shocking 51 parts per million – that’s 25,000 times higher than the maximum containment level of inorganic mercury in drinking water set by the EPA. The Health Ranger is asking for PolitiFact to retract their lies, but they may never do so, since the White House backs their propaganda and baseline motives in communication.
Very similar to Wikipedia (13) and WebMD (14), PolitiFact doesn’t just state “facts” and dispel myths or misconceptions, but rather protects Big Government and the agendas they want to keep OUT of the American public’s discussion. This keeps legislation in their favor while seemingly reporting “facts” and “fact-finding” based on what politicians say to or about each other during campaigns. Fact-checking SuperPac ads, for instance, would be an exercise in futility and the ultimate boondoggle. (15) (16)
Sources:
http://www.politifactbias.com/
http://www.naturalnews.com/049964_Obamacare_health_insurance_premiums.html
http://gawker.com/5869817/politifact-is-bad-for-you
http://www.truthwiki.org/washington-post/
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http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2011_12/politifact_ought_to_be_ashamed034211.php
http://www.naturalnews.com/050705_Politifact_journalistic_fraud_mercury_in_vaccines.html
http://www.naturalnews.com/045418_flu_shots_influenza_vaccines_mercury.html
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