PunditFact checks in on the cable news channels

MSNBC and CNN have improved ever so slightly on PunditFact’s TV network scorecards, while Fox News has moved a touch in the opposite direction. 

PunditFact, a sister site of PolitiFact dedicated to fact-checking pundits and talking heads, last looked at its network scorecards in September. The scorecards measure statements made by a pundit or a host or paid contributor on a particular network. They do not include statements made by elected leaders, declared candidates or party officials.

So what’s the latest tally?

At Fox and Fox News, 10 percent of the claims PunditFact has rated have been True, 11 percent Mostly True, 18 percent Half True, 21 percent Mostly False, 31 percent False and nine percent Pants on Fire.

That means about 60 percent of the claims  checked have been rated Mostly False or worse. Here’s how it breaks down (as of Jan. 27, 2015):

At MSNBC and NBC, 44 percent of claims have received a rating of Mostly False or worse. The full breakdown:

And as for CNN? It has the best record among the cable networks, as 80 percent of of the claims rated are Half True or better.

As we have said in the past, be cautious about using the scorecards 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.

You can read more about our network scorecards in PunditFact’s Q&A.