More on Politi“Fact”

The folks over at PolitiFact apparently don’t like criticism. Interesting, since it is their business to criticize others.

But they were not happy about me outing their “process”. I’ve gotten the angry email from them. Words like “absurd”, “outrageous” and “outrageous” again. I think I hit a nerve.

Well, here’s more to make them unhappy….

I just went through a few recent posts (and one older – all the way back to the February blog I wrote) that I wanted to share just how off they are:

1) On February 25, PolitiFact states: If public employees don’t pay more for benefits starting April 1, 2011, “the equivalent” is 1,500 state employee layoffs by June 30, 2011 and 10,000 to 12,000 state and local government employee layoffs in the next two years. Politifact rating: Mostly True.

Well, it’s April 29th, no “repair” in place and, well, no layoffs. “Mostly true?” Ah, more like false. That is the same thing being said by most credible people about the Governor’s claim at the time. Walker acted as a bully, repeatedly promised layoffs if he didn’t get his way, and PolitiFact turned the other cheek and gave him a pass. Bad PolitiFact. (Can you really explain this one?)

2) On April 13, PolitFact rated “NO FLIP” on Scott Walker’s request for federal stimulus money for expanding rail. He refused it, now he asked for it. They originally rated it a “HALF FLIP” (a flop?), but now under pressure changed to say to “NO FLIP”.

C’mon PolitiFact, really? After Walker aides asked you to revisit…YOU flipped. I think you need to PolitiFact yourselves on this one. And I also suggest you flip your rating again.

3) On April 12, PolitiFact states about Congressman Sean Duffy (R-WI): "The benefits that were offered to me as a congressman don’t even compare to the benefits that you get as a state employee. I just experienced that myself. They’re not nearly as good." PolitFact gave him a “Half True”.

The increased pay as a DA to a member of Congress is from $93,662 to $174,000. In addition to his salary spike, that’s almost doubling his pension BENEFIT. Half true? How about BS. Yes, he pays more for health insurance but that’s MORE THAN offset by his additional salary and pension benefit. And they are guessing on which actual health care plan he has, but have no verification (I’ll bet they sent a nasty email to him, right PolitiFact?)

And Duffy is complaining about not living “high on the hog”. Tell that to your constituents, Sean. But don’t worry about PolitiFact; they’ve got your back.

That’s only a few. I’ve got more.

But again, my goal is to make PolitiFact, an idea with merit, work. Right now, it’s a bit too sloppy and loose with the facts to be called PolitiFact.