Conservative stakeholders slammed fact-checking website PolitiFact for its series of fact-checking articles in favor of Democrats.
Since the start of October, PolitiFact has published four controversial fact-checks, which raised the eyebrows of conservative political insiders.
Fact-Checking Giant Has Become a Partisan Actor
Recently, Virginia’s Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin asserted Democrats decried voter fraud in the 2016 presidential election after Trump’s victory.
However, Warren Fiske of PolitiFact labeled Youngkin’s claims as “half true.” Fiske asserted Democrats did not raise any question on the “actual counting” of ballots during the 2016 elections.
Although Fiske acknowledged many Democrats, including Hillary Clinton, questioned the legitimacy of the presidential election, he asserted Hillary did not mean the election was stolen from her.
Previously, PolitiFact even claimed all the election fraud claims of Democrats in the past were only symbolic in nature.
While slamming PolitiFact, conservative radio host Jason Rantz stated the website should not even be considered a fact-checking organization, as it is a tool of the Democrat Party to propagate false analysis.
Rantz further added PolitiFact only picks their desired claims to fact-check. While they go hard against Republicans, they mostly fact-check comments from Democrats which have no significance.
You cannot trust any fact-checking website unless they proclaim their own bias. Commentary is fine but don't try and disguise it as something it's not, PolticFact claims their findings are "100% factual" if you want a "Big Lie", there it is.https://t.co/2BVQPSDXUC #FoxNews
— blusterbus (@blusterbus) October 9, 2022
As per the reports of media watchdog NewsBusters, PolitiFact only fact-checked Biden 58 times in his first 20 months in the White House. On the other hand, the outlet posted 338 fact-checking articles to fact-check Biden’s critics during the same time.
Likewise, PolitiFact published two fact-check articles on October 5 that drew criticism from Republicans. One of those articles labeled the campaign ad of a Republican Senate candidate in Ohio as “half true.”
The ad mentioned the Democratic Senate candidate in Ohio, Tim Ryan, is a supporter of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
In his interview with MSNBC, Ryan stated that he “love(s)” Pelosi and voted with her all the time. PolitiFact rated Vance’s ad claim as “half true” only, claiming Ryan opposed Pelosi in 2016 when she wanted to become House Minority Leader.
What would we possibly do without PolitiFact, debunking a single random Facebook post sarcastically declaring someone won a race a month before an election took place.
Clearly democracy itself would be in peril without this level of brave fact-checking. https://t.co/hueBzkxlEi
— Dan K. Eberhart (@DanKEberhart) October 5, 2022
PolitiFact Defended Its Fact-Checking Team
PolitiFact also tried to prove Vice President Kamala Harris’ innocence when she claimed communities of color would be preferred in federal assistance programs for Hurricane Ian recovery in Florida.
The fact-checking giant stated the vice president did not make any such claim, adding she was taken “out of context” by Republicans.
Mollie Hemingway, a Fox News contributor, established PolitiFact is acting like a super PAC of the Democrat Party, as it always dismisses those claims that are damaging to the reputation of Democrats.
Hemingway further added PolitiFact had done many disastrous fact-checks, so no one takes them seriously anymore. Meanwhile, the managing editor of PolitiFact, Katie Sanders, noted they are standing behind their fact-checking team.
Speaking to Fox News, Sanders stated PolitiFact always relies on credible resources, third-party experts, publicly available information, and other important resources before reaching any conclusion.
This article appeared in The State Today and has been published here with permission.
