All Politicians Lie. Some lie more than others.

[twotrue]

I really like reading the day after fact checking of statements made during the debates so I found this article pretty interesting. 

Click through to the article to see a great visual that I can't figure out how to post.

www.nytimes.com/2015/12/13/opinion/campaign-stops/all-politicians-lie-some-lie-more-than-others.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=pay&smvar=mapage&ad-keywords=SocialRem&_r=0

ll Politicians Lie. Some Lie More Than Others.

By ANGIE DROBNIC HOLANDEC. 11, 2015



Washington — I’m a political fact-checker, which is usually an automatic conversation starter at parties. These days, I get two questions repeatedly: “Is it worse than it’s ever been?” and “What’s up with Donald Trump?”
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I’ve been fact-checking since 2007, when The Tampa Bay Times founded PolitiFact as a new way to cover elections. We don’t check absolutely everything a candidate says, but focus on what catches our eye as significant, newsworthy or potentially influential. Our ratings are also not intended to be statistically representative but to show trends over time.

Donald J. Trump’s record on truth and accuracy is astonishingly poor. So far, we’ve fact-checked more than 70 Trump statements and rated fully three-quarters of them as Mostly False, False or “Pants on Fire” (we reserve this last designation for a claim that is not only inaccurate but also ridiculous). We haven’t checked the former neurosurgeon Ben Carson as often as Mr. Trump, but by the percentages Mr. Carson actually fares worse.

Carly Fiorina, another candidate in the Republican race who’s never held elective office, does slightly better on the Truth-O-Meter (which I sometimes feel the need to remind people is not an actual scientific instrument): Half of the statements we’ve checked have proved Mostly False or worse.

Most of the professional politicians we fact-check don’t reach these depths of inaccuracy. They tend to choose their words more carefully.

Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, for example, has ratings of Mostly False, False and Pants on Fire at the 40 percent mark (out of a sizable 117 statements checked). The former Florida governor Jeb Bush’s negative ratings are at 32 percent out of 71 statements checked, a percentage matched by two other Republican contenders, Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey and Senator Rand Paul.

In the Democratic race, Senator Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton are evenly matched at 28 percent (based on 43 checks of Mr. Sanders and 140 checks of Mrs. Clinton). Outside of the primary campaign, we’ve continued checking the public statements of Bill Clinton since 2007; he comes out slightly ahead of President Obama in his truth-telling track record.
Continue reading the main story
Falsehood Face-Off

Statements since 2007 by presidential candidates (and some current and former officeholders) ranked from most dishonest over all to least dishonest, as fact-checked by PolitiFact. “Pants on Fire” refers to the most egregious falsehoods.


The president has the distinction of being the most fact-checked person by PolitiFact — by a wide margin, with a whopping 569 statements checked. We’ve rated nine of those Pants on Fire.

Even though we’re in the midst of a presidential campaign full of falsehoods and misstatements, I see cause for optimism. Some politicians have responded to fact-checking journalism by vetting their prepared comments more carefully and giving their campaign ads extra scrutiny.

More important, I see accurate information becoming more available and easier for voters to find. By that measure, things are pretty good.

Mr. Trump’s inaccurate statements, for example, have garnered masses of coverage. His claim that he saw “thousands of people” in New Jersey cheering the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, grabbed headlines but the stories were about the rebuttals.

When Ms. Fiorina mischaracterized a video about Planned Parenthood during an early debate, it was a significant part of the post-debate coverage, while Mrs. Clinton’s sometimes misleading statements about her email accounts have been generating close, in-depth scrutiny for most of 2015.

Today’s TV journalists — anchors like Chuck Todd, Jake Tapper and George Stephanopoulos — have picked up the torch of fact-checking and now grill candidates on issues of accuracy during live interviews. Most voters don’t think it’s biased to question people about whether their seemingly fact-based statements are accurate. Research published earlier this year by the American Press Institute showed that more than eight in 10 Americans have a positive view of political fact-checking.

In fact, journalists regularly tell me their media organizations have started highlighting fact-checking in their reporting because so many people click on fact-checking stories after a debate or high-profile news event. Many readers now want fact-checking as part of traditional news stories as well; they will vocally complain to ombudsmen and readers’ representatives when they see news stories repeating discredited factual claims.

That’s not to say that fact-checking is a cure-all. Partisan audiences will savage fact-checks that contradict their views, and that’s true of both the right and the left. But “truthiness” can’t survive indefinitely in a fact-free vacuum.

If Mr. Trump and his fans saw video of thousands of people cheering in New Jersey, why has no one brought it forward yet? Because it doesn’t exist.

Fact-checking’s methodology emphasizes the issue at hand and facts on the ground. Politicians can either make their case or they can’t. Candidates’ fans may complain about press bias, but my impression is that less partisan voters pay a lot of attention to these media moments, especially when elections are close and decided by a few percentage points. Trust and integrity are still crucial assets for a politician.

Contrary to the prophecies that truth in politics is doomed, I’m encouraged by the effect that fact-checking is having. When friends conclude despondently that the truth doesn’t matter, I remind them that people haven’t started voting yet. I don’t take current polls too seriously because data suggests that most people don’t settle on a candidate until much closer to casting their vote.

In the end, it’s the voters who will punish or reward candidates for what they’ve said on the campaign trail. I’m confident that Americans have the information they need to help them choose wisely.

[downtoearth]

This chart in the linked article was interesting:

Yeah, we expect politicians to bend the truth toward their side and interpret as they need, but Trump is a whole new level. Even Fox News called him out and he wouldn't admit to even one "stretching of the truth."

[pixy0stix]

The Clinton's are about even on the truth level. huh.

[jojoandleo]

Man, Martin O'Malley tells a LOT of half truths...

[downtoearth]

Dec 22, 2015 12:44:49 GMT -5 jojoandleo said:

Man, Martin O'Malley tells a LOT of half truths...

Yeah, but no pants-on-fire lies or definite truth bombs.

[Velar Fricative]

So is the only truthful thing Ben Carson says that he's a neurosurgeon?

[marriedfilingjoint]

Well hey Jeb Bush, look at you up there.

Every year during the State of the Union, I listen to the tax proposals and yell at the TV like a normal person would yell at a football game "you can't do that! You can't even promise that!" so in deciding if I could trust Politifact, I checked what they had to say about Obama's tax policy. I think some of their economic statements are a bit opiniony but I give them 2 thumbs up in assessment of tax policy truths.

I'm grossed out that our most truthful politicians still lie more than a quarter of the time.

[tacosforlife]

Dec 22, 2015 13:12:41 GMT -5 marriedfilingjoint said:

Well hey Jeb Bush, look at you up there.

Every year during the State of the Union, I listen to the tax proposals and yell at the TV like a normal person would yell at a football game "you can't do that! You can't even promise that!" so in deciding if I could trust Politifact, I checked what they had to say about Obama's tax policy. I think some of their economic statements are a bit opiniony but I give them 2 thumbs up in assessment of tax policy truths.

I'm grossed out that our most truthful politicians still lie more than a quarter of the time.

(heart)

[ESF]

It's interesting to see how similar Bernie and HRC are.