Politifact mentions the Democratic Underground

[Marzupialis]

Politifact just debunked a lie that was so effective that even DU believed it, in addition to right-wing blogs. It is about a claim that 85% of graduates have returned to live with their parents. American Crossroads is now blaming Obama for this BS stat.

From the article:

The statistic has been repeated many times on websites and blogs -- twice in the Huffington Post, for instance, and once in the personal finance blog PT Money. It even was picked up by bloggers both liberal (Democratic Underground) and conservative (Free Republic), each with their own political spin. We did not hear back from the author of the Time magazine article.

I googled the lie and found it in two posts here, with nobody bothering to find out the source, in the old DU.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1123239

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9369745

Nobody seemed to be curious back then about the source and methodology. Huffington Post, Time, etc. also swallowed the BS.

Let's be more skeptical, because this crap sometimes used against our side.

[Spazito]

1. Rachel Maddow showed how little credibility Politifact has....

"MADDOW: PolitiFact, you are fired! You are a mess. You are fired. You are undermining the definition of the word fact in the English language by pretending to it in your name. The English language wants its word back. You are an embarrassment. You sully the reputation of anyone who cites you as the authority on "factishness" let alone facts. You are fired!"

http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/rachel-maddow-politifact-you-are-fired

Ms. Maddow not only knows the definition of the word "fact", she provides them along with impeccable research to back them up, imo.

[Marzupialis]

4. I thank Politifact for debunking this anti-Obama smear

I wish Maddow had debunked it first.

[ProSense]

7. Are you

"I thank Politifact for debunking this anti-Obama smear"

...on a mission to revive Politifact's credibility?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002618706

[Spazito]

10. LOL

No doubt they would appreciate your appreciation. They need all the help they can get to try and regain even a modicum of credibility back.

[jp11]

6. Agreed, she showed their bias and failure to do their job which warranted their 'firing'.

[Odin2005]

2. There seems to be a deliberate effort to portray my generation as lazy moochers.

Probably as a way to justify crap wages, outsourcing, and more HB1 permits.

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. DU described the source twice - "consultant firm Twentysomething Inc."

We don't get paid for this. Do you really expect us to phone up a consultant marketing firm before we take CNN's word that the firm really claimed it, and post a CNN article here? Of course, the firm did claim it - they just refuse to say exactly when they did the 'research', or what the details were.

If you want some fact-checking, PolitiFact has got one thing wrong:

"It appears the site hasn't been updated since 2009."

No - they have a reproduction of a quote of them from the Philadelphia Inquirer from May 2010: http://www.twentysomething.com/phillyinq_fame.htm
Hell, it has a story (without the statistic) from 2010 on this subject: http://www.twentysomething.com/chicagotribune_1_10.htm

And notice that the first use on DU, in October 2010, was specific about the time it was claimed - quoting from CNN:

So hard that a whopping 85% of college seniors planned to move back home with their parents after graduation last May, according to a poll by Twentysomething Inc., a marketing and research firm based in Philadelphia. That rate has steadily risen from 67% in 2006.

The second thread on DU is from May 2011, when it takes a claim of "this year ... 85 percent of them will initially move back home" from, ultimately, the New York Post. Now that looks like a misuse, unless the research was redone and happened to give exactly the same number as 2010.

Thank you for your concern about 'this crap' being used against our side. DU was specific about what news organisation was being quoted, and what the originating research firm was. It's obvious to anyone reading the threads that the DUers who started them did as much as could be expected for non-professionals in sourcing the statistic.

[ProSense]

8. Make you wonder

Thank you for your concern about 'this crap' being used against our side. DU was specific about what news organisation was being quoted, and what the originating research firm was. It's obvious to anyone reading the threads that the DUers who started them did as much as could be expected for non-professionals in sourcing the statistic.

...what an alleged professional fact-checking organization is doing checking random Internet posts.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/10/26/1030324/-Watch-out-Occupy-Wall-Street-PolitiFact-is-fact-checking-your-homemade-signs

[Zalatix]

5. The real number is 42%, which is still catastrophic.

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. That's not the same thing being measured

Politifact says, quoting the Pew poll, "Among adults ages 18 to 29, 42 percent of those who have graduated college live with their parents". The number of people in an age group currently living with their parents is quite different from "85% of college seniors planned to move back home with their parents after graduation last May". It's entirely possible both figures were true when they were first quoted.

[Arkana]

11. Yeah, but how many have jobs?

I still live at home, but I have a full-time job with benefits and I contribute to the household.