The Most Popular Fact-Checks of 2012
Readers voted with their eyeballs for our most popular fact-checks of the year.
Readers voted with their eyeballs for our most popular fact-checks of the year.
From campaign-related claims to statements about tax cuts and job growth, PolitiFact New Jersey put the Truth-O-Meter to work
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.
Readers voted with their eyeballs for our most popular fact-checks of the year.
On the hustings, Republican U.S. Senate hopeful Craig James drew a standing ovation with a speech witnessed by a reporter for the Austin American-Statesman.
James included a fiery claim about Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and banning U.S. firearms, ultimately touching off the No. 1 PolitiFact Texas fact check of 2012.
We do mean fiery.
Over the last 12 months, PolitiFact Rhode Island issued 117 Truth-O-Meter rulings, on claims ranging from Obamacare to school prayer to foreign aid.
All had some Rhode Island connection, but many of the most-read items -- based on traffic on our PolitiFact Rhode Island website -- focused on issues far beyond the state’s borders.
Thanks to the reach of the Internet, many have remained popular long after publication, in part because PolitiFact, with affiliates in 11 states, has become a go-to reference for people seeking to separate fact from fiction.
So as a farewell to the year, we thought we’d share with you the PolitiFact Rhode Island Top Ten Most Widely Read rulings for 2012:
We've spent four years reporting on President Obama's 2008 campaign promises. As his first term nears its end, we reflect on his vision of government and the journalistic challenge of tracking 508 campaign promises.
We select the fact-checks of 2012 from the ones you viewed the most.
When a Texan gave the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention, the Texas Truth-O-Meter kicked into gear. The resulting check of a claim about Mitt Romney proved to be our readers No. 2 favorite of the year.
A promotional spot for Lawrence O'Donnell's MSNBC program stirred our interest after O'Donnell said critics likened the original GI Bill to welfare. Our plunge into post-war history led to a fact check that ranked high among the year's reader favorites.
The Truth-O-Meter has a sense of humor (we swear) so we occasionally do light-hearted or downright odd fact-checks. Here are some of the more unusual fact-checks we did in 2012.