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defrogI’m on Facebook. So I see a lot of political posts, usually via web sites that specialize in hyperpartisan blather that everyone in their respective echo chamber mistakes for fair and balanced journalism.
Usually I ignore them. But this one has a nice dollop of irony with it:
The source for this factoid is PolitiFact, which has started doing PunditFact scorecards for all the cable TV news channels, as well as the main network news programs, to see how often a pundit or on-air talent makes a statement that’s rated mostly/completely false by the PolitiFact fact-checkers.
What Addicting Info leaves out of the headline/lede – which is all that many people on FB who see this will probably read – is that MSNBC, the home of Rachel Maddow, Ed Schultz and other heroes of the left, has a score of 46% mostly/completely false.
Addicting Info does mention this further on down in the post, but says “they also tell the truth more than they lie, and their “Pants on Fire” percentage is half of what Fox has”.
In other words, yes, MSNBC pundits technically lie a lot, but hey, at least they don't lie as often or as blatantly as Fox News. So ha ha fuck Fox News they suck. Etc etc.
For the record, CNN’s score is 18%. Which isn't that surprising to those of us who know that CNN isn’t biased in favor of anything except grandstanding sensationalism. They may overblow things, but they do get their basic facts straight more often than not.
What does this mean? Not a lot, admittedly. PolitiFact points out the limitations of its own scorecard:
Even if it were more comprehensive, I don't think it would matter – people from both extremes tend to dismiss independent fact-checking sites like PolitiFact and Factcheck.org as biased in favor of the opposition when they don’t like the results of their so-called fact checking.
So this post is pointless, really. But hey, what else is new?
Not intended as a factual statement,
This is dF
Usually I ignore them. But this one has a nice dollop of irony with it:
The source for this factoid is PolitiFact, which has started doing PunditFact scorecards for all the cable TV news channels, as well as the main network news programs, to see how often a pundit or on-air talent makes a statement that’s rated mostly/completely false by the PolitiFact fact-checkers.
What Addicting Info leaves out of the headline/lede – which is all that many people on FB who see this will probably read – is that MSNBC, the home of Rachel Maddow, Ed Schultz and other heroes of the left, has a score of 46% mostly/completely false.
Addicting Info does mention this further on down in the post, but says “they also tell the truth more than they lie, and their “Pants on Fire” percentage is half of what Fox has”.
In other words, yes, MSNBC pundits technically lie a lot, but hey, at least they don't lie as often or as blatantly as Fox News. So ha ha fuck Fox News they suck. Etc etc.
For the record, CNN’s score is 18%. Which isn't that surprising to those of us who know that CNN isn’t biased in favor of anything except grandstanding sensationalism. They may overblow things, but they do get their basic facts straight more often than not.
What does this mean? Not a lot, admittedly. PolitiFact points out the limitations of its own scorecard:
The comparisons are interesting, but be cautious about using them to draw broad conclusions. We use our news judgment to pick the facts we’re going to check, so we certainly don’t fact-check everything. And we don’t fact-check the five network groups evenly. CBS, for instance, doesn’t have a cable network equivalent, so we haven’t fact-checked pundits and CBS personalities as much.
Even if it were more comprehensive, I don't think it would matter – people from both extremes tend to dismiss independent fact-checking sites like PolitiFact and Factcheck.org as biased in favor of the opposition when they don’t like the results of their so-called fact checking.
So this post is pointless, really. But hey, what else is new?
Not intended as a factual statement,
This is dF
