Latest Stories By Jim Tharpe

Trump's pick for health chief, Georgia Congressman Tom Price of metro Atlanta, has long record of critical statements about Obamacare and federal debt.

PolitiFact Georgia breaks down the week in fact-checks.

The fact-checking scribes at PolitiFact Georgia are often viewed as heartless Grinches, callously outing falsehoods by politicians and other powerbrokers.

Truth be told -- and that’s our mission -- the folks we fact-check often turn out to be correct.

So in the spirit of the season, as 2014 winds down, we look back at some of our favorite True ratings for the year.

Want to to comment on our rulings or suggest one of your own? Just go to our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/politifact.georgia).

You can also follow us on Twitter (http://twitter.com/politifactga).

Abbreviated versions of our fact checks are below. Full versions can be found at www.politifact.com/georgia/.

It's been a bruising battle between veteran Savannah Congressman Jack Kingston and millionaire businessman David Perdue. PolitiFact Georgia has been fact-checking the contest for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate. 

If you wanted to ignite an argument in Georgia, and the rest of the nation, in 2013, you just had to say one word: Obamacare.

The Affordable Care Act -- its official name -- became a lightning rod of controversy and a springboard for political pontificating.

President Barack Obama’s assurance that if you like your health care plan you can keep it was named PolitiFact’s "Lie of the Year" by PolitiFact editors.

PolitiFact readers also selected it as their "Lie of the Year" with 59 percent of the vote. It was a landslide. The next highest vote total went to Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas for his contention that Congress is exempt from the health care law. But that only got 8 percent of the vote.

Summaries of a few of our favorite Obamacare fact checks from 2013 can be found below.

To comment on our rulings or suggest one of your own, go to our Facebook page  (www.facebook.com/politifact.georgia). You can also follow us on Twitter through our Twitter handle @politifactga.

Full versions, including full coverage of the Lie of the Year, can be found at  www.politifact.com/georgia/.

PolitiFact attempts to parse political truth from political fiction.

We find plenty of fiction. But it’s important to remember that PolitiFact Georgia also discovers that politicians and power brokers sometimes hit the nail squarely on the head.

PolitiFact Georgia published more than 240 fact checks in 2013,and 37 of those rated True on the AJC Truth-O-Meter. That compared with 26 that were rated False and 17 that earned our lowest designation, Pants On Fire. The remainder fell in the Mostly True, Half True and Mostly False categories.

Today we look at our favorite fact checks of 2013 where the politicians got it right.

To comment on our rulings or suggest one of your own, go to our Facebook page  (www.facebook.com/politifact.georgia).

Full versions of the fact checks can be found at: www.politifact.com/georgia/.

You can also find us on Twitter (http://twitter.com/politifactga) or @politifactga.

There’s not much worse  for the political class than a trip to the fiery regions courtesy of PolitiFact Georgia and the AJC Truth-O-Meter.

This year PolitiFact Georgia published more than 240 fact checks. Of those, 17 had the distinction of being awarded a Pants On Fire rating. Not only were these statements judged to be untrue, but they were found to be ridiculously so.

Here are summaries of a few of our favorite incendiary ratings of the year.

Today’s roundup kicks off a weeklong review of some of the best of PolitiFact Georgia from 2013.

To comment on our rulings or suggest one of your own, go to our Facebook page  (www.facebook.com/politifact.georgia).

Full versions of the fact checks can be found at www.politifact.com/georgia/.

You can also find us on Twitter (http://twitter.com/politifactga).

The Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, has triggered an avalanche of political rhetoric over the past few years.

PolitiFact and PolitiFact Georgia have been keeping tabs on that complex debate, trying to parse truth from fiction.

The year 2012 is fading faster than a Mayan end-of-the world prediction.

So the scribes at the AJC Truth-O-Meter decided to take a look back at the year that was --- a year of more than 200 fact checks by your local team of truth-seekers, collectively known as PolitiFact Georgia.

By Jim Tharpe
PolitiFact Georgia  


The 2012 campaign between President Barack Obama and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has produced some memorable statements on how both men view U.S. relations with other nations.

Romney and Obama even had a debate devoted to international relations, even though they spent a good deal of that showdown talking about domestic issues.

Below are abbreviated versions of some of our rulings about international relations from the campaign. Look for the complete fact checks at the PolitiFact online sites.

Want to comment on our Truth-O-Meter rulings? It’s easy. Just go to our Facebook page:  www.facebook.com/politifact.georgia?fref=ts. Readers can follow us on Twitter at: PolitiFactGA.
 

By Jim Tharpe
PolitiFact Georgia  


In politics, there are truths. There are falsehoods. And there’s Pants on Fire.

PolitiFact and the AJC Truth-O-Meter complete hundreds of fact checks every year. And a few fall into that fiery netherworld of the ridiculously misleading. The 2012 campaign between President Barack Obama and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has produced some memorable misstatements.

Below are abbreviated versions of some of the top Pants on Fire rulings of the campaign. Look for the complete fact checks at the PolitiFact online sites.

Want to comment on our Truth-O-Meter rulings? It’s easy. Just go to our Facebook page:  www.facebook.com/politifact.georgia?fref=ts. Readers can follow us on Twitter at: PolitiFactGA.
 

Last week, the trusty Truth-O-Meter took on everyone from President Barack Obama to a metro Atlanta Republican flirting with a presidential run to a University of Georgia student activist.

And we threw in the governor for good measure.

You can find our fearless engine of truthiness Sunday through Friday in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and online.

Want to comment on our findings? Find our Facebook page and hit the "like" button to join the discussion. You can also follow us on Twitter.