Welcome to PunditFact: A new home for fact-checking

Welcome to PunditFact. As you browse the website and read some of our work, there are some things you need to know about us.

Starting today, we will fact-check statements made by pundits on TV, in print, on radio and on the Internet.

We define a pundit as someone who offers analysis or opinions on the news, particularly politics and public policy. One can engage in punditry by writing, blogging or appearing on radio or TV. A pundit is not an elected official, not a declared candidate nor anyone in an official capacity with a political party, campaign or government.

We are not affiliated with a political party or a particular political persuasion. We were created by the Tampa Bay Times and the Poynter Institute, a nonprofit journalism school.

We conduct our own research and reach out to independent experts.

We always give our subjects an opportunity to be a part of our analysis.

Every new story is analyzed by a group of three editors. Those editors ultimately decide the rating of the claim based on what we call the Truth-O-Meter.

Sometimes you will disagree. That’s okay.

There are plenty of ways to see and sort the work we do — something unique about our website. If you want to see fact-checks of statements made on NBC or FOX, you can use the red bar at the top of the website to sort our analyses that way. You can also click on the “The PunditFact Truth-O-Meter” link on the red bar and sort all our fact-checks by their specific rating. If you click on the picture of a person we’ve fact-checked, you’ll see all the claims involving them.

To back up our reporting, we list our sources. They’re always in the same place, to the right of the article. We’ll also group our work by subject, which means you’ll be able to read all our fact-checks about health care, or taxes, just by clicking on the subject field.

Sometimes pundits will make mistakes. So will we. We’ll correct our mistakes when we do. If the mistake affects the Truth-O-Meter rating, we’ll change that, too.

If a pundit fesses up to an error, we’ll publish that information as well.

The premise of PunditFact is this: Even in the entertaining and boisterous world of punditry, words matter and people should be held accountable for what they assert.

We also want to hear from you, and strike up a conversation. For starters, you can email us your ideas, suggestions and criticisms to feedback@punditfact.com. Or you can follow us on Twitter @PunditFact or like us on Facebook.