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[dpibel]

72. You're quite mistaken--and misled

Last edited Wed Jul 9, 2014, 07:33 PM - Edit history (1)

The poll to which you link is not the source of the "statement tracking" numbers.

It is the much discussed 2011 poll which says, "The conclusion: Sunday morning news shows do the most to help people learn about current events, while some outlets, especially
Fox News, lead people to be even less informed than those who say they don’t watch any news at all."

The true/false stuff is, in fact, generated by PunditFact. It says so right at the top of the page announcing this wonderful service. "We’re making it easier to see how a particular cable channel or network is performing on PunditFact’s Truth-O-Meter."

So, unless you believe that Fairleigh Dickinson's polling runs PunditFact's Truth-O-Meter, your link to the Fairleigh Dickinson poll is an error.

As for the conclusion, both here and in the companion FOX thread, that some percentage of everything that's said on a given network is false, well, that's partly a problem with PunditFact's own writing. Because they say, "For instance, 46 percent of the claims made by NBC and MSNBC pundits and on-air personalities have been rated Mostly False, False or Pants on Fire." This is where you are being misled.

Because they later say, "We use our news judgment to pick the facts we’re going to check, so we certainly don’t fact-check everything."

So what their little charts show is nothing like a fact check of everything on any network. In reality, what they are saying is, "Of the facts that we decide we're going to check, we have made the following determinations as to truthfulness."

Think about it: Their chart shows their analysis of 92 statements of fact on NBC/MSNBC. Do you really think that, over any meaningful period of time, a 24/7 cable channel airs only 92 facts?

Finally, as others have pointed out, PolitiFact is notorious for bizarre rulings on truth/falsity.

In other news: I've been a member of DU since 2002. Obviously I don't post much. I have no idea, really, why I decide to use my 1,000th post for this.