Factcheck.org this

[pnh]

People on my friends list keep linking to Factcheck.org as if they were some kind of reliable guide to what is and isn't true in political arguments.

What is Factcheck.org? The following answer is reprinted, slightly revised, from comments I recently posted in gregvaneekhout's LJ.

Factcheck.org is a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the

Comments

[sdn]

the unopened milk carton in my refrigerator actually contains pirate doubloons made of 24-carat gold

::goes to open milk carton in fridge::

[litch]

I find factcheck.org useless. They are too mealy mouthed and overly willing to mitigate. Nor do they give the larger context the issues reside in.

What do you find is a good source?

mediamatters.org is good about calling out right wing canards

[dhole]

If memory serves, doubloons are 22-carat gold.

[agrumer]

So a milk carton full of 24-carat doubloons is therefore even more unlikely, thus strengthening Patrick's point.

Though a one-quart carton full of gold would weigh about 40 pounds, which I think he would have noticed.

[bigscary]

Doubloons don't pack quite that efficiently.

[stevendj]

Patrick didn't say "full" of doubloons. It could be a mix of gold doubloons and cavorite, which would weigh the same as milk (although he'd probably notice the greater inertia).

[agrumer]

FactCheck's recent piece on "The Whoppers of 2008" provides a great example of faux-balance. The main body of the piece is structured in alternating sections, demonstrating alleged "whoppers" on a given topic from McCain, then from Obama. In order to support his parallelism, they have to compare McCain's statements on energy (full of lies and nonsense) with Obama's (which the writer admits are true, but then bends over backwards to portray as nonetheless flawed).

This may be the first time I've looked at FactCheck.org in a while. I just noticed that the current home page is a lot less sober-looking than its 2004 ancestor.

[kalimac]

Clive James wrote of the book "Hitler's Willing Executioners" that it adds to knowledge while subtracting from wisdom. Perhaps that's about what's going on with these faux-balanced fact-check sources.