The PCTC Blog

Anybody Wanna Buy Our "Mansion"? Politifact Surrenders Its Credibility

As those who have been following this blog for a while know, it’s about uncovering lies and encouraging the use of facts to move the progressive movement forward. The problem with saying things that are provably false is, eventually someone will discover the falsehood, and will tend to not believe anything you say afterward. We need a majority on our side, which means we must invest ourselves in truth. 

I’ve always had a problem with “fact checking” web sites run my major news or propaganda organizations. Media Matters, I love, because they don't actually interpret. They simply say whatever was said, then show whatever caused a contradiction, and let the readers decide what they should believe. They do lean left when it comes to choosing which lies they discuss, but their discussion of falsehoods is rarely, if ever, actually biased. Too many "fact checking" organizations, however, have a tendency to assert their own biases in their analyses. 

Some will recall that I had a major row with Factcheck a couple of years ago, when they tried to claim the Affordable Care Act would allow for government funding of abortions. It was bad enough that they made a mistake, but after I uncovered the mistake and corrected them using language in both the ACA and the Hyde Amendment, the director of Factcheck, Brooks Jackson, insisted he was right because, well, he was, that’s all. They lost a lot of credibility with me, and many of my readers, and I still fact check Factcheck as a result. 

The TRUTH Will Set Progressives Free!

I know some of you think I have something personal against people like Greenwald, Hamsher, Moore and the rest of the professional left. I assure you, I do not. I'm sure if I met them and had a conversation with them, I'd find them delightful. In fact, I can honestly say, I admire them all for the things they do right. I still point to Bowling for Columbine as one of the best examinations of our gun culture ever, and Roger & Me changed the definition of documentary forever. (Well, until Ken Burns came along and added another definition, anyway.) I happen to like a lot of what Glenn Greenwald and Jane hamsher write; I only have a problem with their increasing tendency to exaggerate, and even outright lie, in an attempt to "sensationalize" their views on issues. They think they're helping the cause by providing extreme lefties with "red meat," in the same way the right wing does. They would be wrong.When the professional left simply makes things up, it actually undermines the movement. Our media can’t be like Fox News and expect to win elections.

For the last 40 years, the progressive side of the debate has been largely dormant. We have been extremely ineffective, politically speaking, to the point that a small minority of right wing cretins has been able to dominate electoral politics for the last 32 years. The reason we have been dormant is because a large portion of our most vocal “advocates” apparently believe that the sorts of things Limbaugh and the douchebags at Fox News do and say actually work, and make the right more popular. They do work, but not because the right wing becomes more popular. The right wing doesn't win elections, we LOSE THEM. That's a VERY important distinction.