Tag Archives: PolitiFact

PolitiFact reports: Ukraine wasn’t being led by neo-Nazis and it wasn’t committing genocide. Putin employed those lies to co-opt Russian citizens whose family members would be sent to fight a war, kill others and possibly die themselves. The lies have permeated the assault. When hundreds of bodies were discovered lying in the streets and homes of Bucha after weeks of …

PolitiFact reports: In the days that followed, Trump, some of the loudest and most influential members of the Republican Party and vocal partisan media personalities offered a deluge of justifications, excuses and conspiracy theories to reframe the events of Jan. 6 as no big deal. They said Jan. 6 was instigated by undercover left-wing activists who were part of antifa. …

PolitiFact reports: President Donald J. Trump fueled confusion and conspiracies from the earliest days of the coronavirus pandemic. He embraced theories that COVID-19 accounted for only a small fraction of the thousands upon thousands of deaths. He undermined public health guidance for wearing masks and cast Dr. Anthony Fauci as an unreliable flip-flopper. Influential TV and radio opinion hosts told …

PolitiFact reports: President Donald Trump deflected blame for the slow start of testing for the new coronavirus in the United States. “We inherited a broken test,” he said on Fox News’ “Fox and Friends” March 30. Trump said much the same the day before during a Rose Garden press conference. “We took over a dead, barren system,” Trump said. “That …

PolitFact reports: In the days after 17 people were viciously gunned down at a high school in Florida, the state’s Republican governor called for tighter gun laws and President Donald Trump hosted victims’ families in the State Dining Room. The nation seemed steadfast in seeking answers and finding solutions. But in the shadows, the internet engine of hoaxes and smears …

Politifact reports: President Donald Trump is known for boasting about his achievements. But is he correct that he’s enacted more legislation than any other president? At a West Palm Beach fire station on Dec. 27, Trump said, “You know, one of the things that people don’t understand — we have signed more legislation than anybody. We broke the record of …

PolitiFact reports: A mountain of evidence points to a single fact: Russia meddled in the U.S. presidential election of 2016. In both classified and public reports, U.S. intelligence agencies have said Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered actions to interfere with the election. Those actions included the cyber-theft of private data, the placement of propaganda against particular candidates, and an overall …

Another whopper from Donald Trump. Via Politifact: On the opening night of the Republican convention, Donald Trump told Fox News host Bill O’Reilly he was grateful it was held in Cleveland. “I wanted it to be here, and we had lots of choices,” Trump said. “I wanted it to be in Ohio. I recommended Ohio. And people fought very hard …

Unable to single out one of his many, many lies, Politifact has named Donald Trump’s campaign itself as their Lie Of The Year. They write: PolitiFact has been documenting Trump’s statements on our Truth-O-Meter, where we’ve rated 76 percent of them Mostly False, False or Pants on Fire, out of 77 statements checked. No other politician has as many statements rated …

You’ll be shocked to learn that Politifact has given Donald Trump their Pants On Fire rating for his claims about celebrations in New Jersey after the 9/11 attacks. They write: Trump said he “watched in Jersey City, N.J., where thousands and thousands of people were cheering” as the World Trade Center collapsed. This defies basic logic. If thousands and thousands of …

During last night’s GOP debate, Ben Carson got very indignant when the moderator pointed out his long-running relationship with a nutritional supplements company which has paid out millions over deceptive marketing. Carson: “That is total propaganda. And this is what happens in our society — total propaganda. I did a couple speeches for them. I did speeches for other people. …

Politifact has published a “Pants On Fire” response to a story making the rounds in Teabagistan which claims that Obamacare death panels have “executed their first patient.” From the story: According to recent reports, a group of death panels organized under Obamacare ordered their first execution. “Following a hearing by the president’s Patient Resource Efficiency Board (PREB), 86-year-old Dorothy Zborknak …

After President Obama mentioned the loss of HIV/AIDS researchers on the downed Malaysian Airlines flight, hate group spokesman Bryan Fischer declared that Obama was “politicizing” their deaths in order to legitimize gay relationships. Fischer went on to claim, “We know how to stop AIDS: persuade men not to have sex with men.” PolitiFact looked into Fischer’s bullshit and gave him …

On Sunday, Ralph Reed appeared on ABC’s This Week to declare that social science has found “irrefutable” proof that children are better off being raised by a mom and a dad. PolitiFact has rated his claims as totally false. We did find one study funded by conservative organizations as showing gay parents are worse than straight ones, but it’s been …

Politifact has named its Lie Of The Year for 2013. It was a catchy political pitch and a chance to calm nerves about his dramatic and complicated plan to bring historic change to America’s health insurance system. “If you like your health care plan, you can keep it,” President Barack Obama said — many times — of his landmark new …

Politifact ripped to shreds Tony Perkins’ claim on Face The Nation that business are being forced to serve gay customers. We didn’t find cases where people were forced to participate against their will. However, if vendors refuse service, there are consequences. There are 21 states that forbid discrimination based on sexual orientation. Vendors who refuse service there could face legal …

Remember NOM’s typically lie-filled claims about marriage in their full-page Rhode Island newspaper ad? Politifact took a look at those claims and gave NOM their worst rating: Pants On Fire. That’s no surprise to most of us here, but enjoy: The National Organization for Marriage-Rhode Island said in a newspaper advertisement that “religious groups like Knights of Columbus have been …

In New York state NOM has begun re-airing the same lie-filled ad that it ran in 2009, when it was debunked by the fact-finding site Politifact. Via Holy Bullies, here’s Politifact’s assessment: The National Organization for Marriage mailing says that Massachusetts public schools teach kindergartners about gay marriage. The wording, including the present tense verb, gives the impression this is …

Fact-checking political site PolitiFact has chosen Sarah Palin’s “death panels” claim as its “Lie Of The Year.” Of all the falsehoods and distortions in the political discourse this year, one stood out from the rest. “Death panels.” The claim set political debate afire when it was made in August, raising issues from the role of government in health care to …