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

[tongodeon]

I agree that there's the potential for bias, but are you saying that there is actual bias? Do you have any examples? I.E. "they ignored or diminished the severity of X while exaggerating or misrepresenting Y".

[pnh]

Actually, if you actually read what I wrote, I didn't say anything about "bias" at all. I said I don't trust them. They could behave as virtuously as the sky above and I still wouldn't trust an operation that purports to objectively judge who in politics is and isn't lying, while getting the bulk of its funding from a politically-active right-wing zillionaire heiress.

The Annenberg Foundation does quite a few good things--things whose good is unvitiated by the politics of the Annenberg family. It is the specific nature of Fackcheck.org's claims, combined with the source of its funding, that makes me particularly disinclined to rely on them as a source. This is not the same as accusing them of "bias". "Bias" is an entirely different discussion.

[bruceb]

Thanks, Patrick. I'd noticed Factcheck as a linchpin in the "fairness means finding something to criticize on both sides as if they were equal" strategy. But fairness in that sense is often the enemy of the truth, and at this point definitely plays into Republicans' hands.