The bias of PolitiFact

[Amelia]

Thanks to JimH for the initial material for this thread. Jim linked to this:

Julian Castro says seven presidents before Barack Obama sought universal health care | PolitiFact

President Barack Obama’s health care law has been one of the most polarizing aspects of his presidency, with Republicans criticizing it at every turn. But the keynote speaker at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, didn’t run from it. He applauded Obama for pursuing expanded health care -- and succeeding where his predecessors had failed.

"Seven presidents before him -- Republicans and Democrats -- tried to expand health care to all Americans," Castro said. "President Obama got it done."

We wondered whether Castro’s history was correct. So we checked with a variety of public policy and health care historians and found that Castro’s in the ballpark -- but that a lot of caveats are in order.

Let’s start with the presidents who almost certainly fit Castro’s definition of having "tried to expand health care to all Americans."

The inclusion of this whole statement makes it appear as if this is what PolitiFact intends to fact check:

"Seven presidents before him -- Republicans and Democrats -- tried to expand health care to all Americans," Castro said. "President Obama got it done."

They proceeded to count the number of presidents who tried to expand health care to various extents. They completely overlooked the fact that Obama did not expand health care to all Americans. It didn't matter how many presidents had tried and failed before Obama. If three tried before him, then four have now failed. If seven tried before him, then eight have now failed.


Then by the end of the article they seem to simply have forgotten half of the claim they started out to analyze.

Our ruling

Castro said that "seven presidents before (Obama) -- Republicans and Democrats -- tried to expand health care to all Americans." It’s a slam dunk getting to three or four presidents, and it’s possible to reach seven presidents, but to do that requires a looser interpretation of expanding coverage "to all Americans." On balance, we rate the statement Mostly True.

A masterpiece of sleight of hand and spin.


It appears as if PolitiFact has endorsed the false claim that "President Obama got it done." Technically they haven't; they quoted that claim but then ignored it. So that begs the question of why they quoted Castro's false statement and then did not grade it.

 

[buckeye45_73]

Details arent the lefts strongpoint, just what can be put in talking points

 

[healthmyths]

Thanks to JimH for the initial material for this thread. Jim linked to this:

Julian Castro says seven presidents before Barack Obama sought universal health care | PolitiFact

President Barack Obama’s health care law has been one of the most polarizing aspects of his presidency, with Republicans criticizing it at every turn. But the keynote speaker at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, didn’t run from it. He applauded Obama for pursuing expanded health care -- and succeeding where his predecessors had failed.

"Seven presidents before him -- Republicans and Democrats -- tried to expand health care to all Americans," Castro said. "President Obama got it done."

We wondered whether Castro’s history was correct. So we checked with a variety of public policy and health care historians and found that Castro’s in the ballpark -- but that a lot of caveats are in order.

Let’s start with the presidents who almost certainly fit Castro’s definition of having "tried to expand health care to all Americans."

The inclusion of this whole statement makes it appear as if this is what PolitiFact intends to fact check:

"Seven presidents before him -- Republicans and Democrats -- tried to expand health care to all Americans," Castro said. "President Obama got it done."

They proceeded to count the number of presidents who tried to expand health care to various extents. They completely overlooked the fact that Obama did not expand health care to all Americans. It didn't matter how many presidents had tried and failed before Obama. If three tried before him, then four have now failed. If seven tried before him, then eight have now failed.


Then by the end of the article they seem to simply have forgotten half of the claim they started out to analyze.

Our ruling

Castro said that "seven presidents before (Obama) -- Republicans and Democrats -- tried to expand health care to all Americans." It’s a slam dunk getting to three or four presidents, and it’s possible to reach seven presidents, but to do that requires a looser interpretation of expanding coverage "to all Americans." On balance, we rate the statement Mostly True.

A masterpiece of sleight of hand and spin.


It appears as if PolitiFact has endorsed the false claim that "President Obama got it done." Technically they haven't; they quoted that claim but then ignored it. So that begs the question of why they quoted Castro's false statement and then did not grade it.

PolitiFact is owned by Poynter Institute which owns what is now called The Tampa Bay Times, until Jan. 1, 2012, was known as The St. Petersburg Times (St. Pete Times or The Times for short). Known locally as the “Florida Pravda”, it has been an ultra-liberal anti-Republican paper for the past 65 years...
PolitiFact is definitely a very strong vocal supporter of all Democrats and Obama.

Through a variety of factors. Journalists tend to lean ideologically left.
The St. Petersburg Tampa Bay Times, which started PolitiFact in conjunction with the Congressional Quarterly, is a traditionally liberal paper.
We note that PolitiFact's stories appear to damage Republicans far more often than Democrats despite the fact that PF tends to choose about as many stories dealing with Republicans as for Democrats. If the selection process was blind then either proportions should be approximately even or else the party with worse ratings should receive more ratings overall according to what PolitiFact lists as its selection criteria. Plus our independent research helps confirm the hypothesis.
PolitiFact Bias: About PolitiFact Bias/FAQ

 

[Amelia]

That Julian Castro example helps shows how PolitiFact came to rate Republican statements as false three times as often as Democrat statements.

Julian Castro's statement was chosen because the historical part of the statement was interesting to the PolitiFact employee. It's likely that the second part of the statement didn't even register on their radar. A glaringly false statement sitting right in front of them and it didn't register as something which needed to be checked.

 

[OKTexas]

It's all about marketing, buyer beware. Simple as that.

 

[Plasmaball]

Details arent the lefts strongpoint, just what can be put in talking points

ooo a joke!