PolitiFact turns 1
PolitiFact is celebrating two milestones this weekend — our first birthday and the publication of our 600th Truth-O-Meter/Flip-O-Meter item.
It’s hard to believe it’s been a year since we published our first ruling (a Half True for a Mitt Romney claim that President Clinton “reduced the scale of our military dramatically”). But 600 items later, we’ve covered everything from Iraq to the federal regulation of ham and cheese sandwiches and helped you cut through the fog of campaign rhetoric. As our slogan says, we sort out the truth in politics.
We’re happy with the awards we’ve won (Best Overall News Site from the Newspaper Association of American and Best Political Site in the Green Eyeshade awards), and we like the praise we’ve gotten from fellow journalists (A
Guardian
columnist said PolitiFact “does not shy away from calling a liar a liar, thus thumbing its nose at the outmoded conventions of objectivity.”) But we’re most proud of the feedback we’ve gotten from readers who’ve told us they’re grateful to have someone checking the facts and making sense of a sometimes-chaotic campaign. We believe we’ve created something special; we’re glad that you agree.
To mark our first birthday, here’s a look at some statistics that tell our story:
Number of statements checked from Barack Obama: 105
From John McCain: 98
From chain e-mails: 35
From Spike the Romney Attack Dog: 1
Percentage of facts from chain e-mails rated False or Pants on Fire: 76
Percentage of facts from chain e-mails rated True: 6
Number of facts checked about Iraq: 56
About energy: 43
About autographing dollar bills: 1
Number of rock songs about PolitiFact: 1
