The Republican Party’s crusade to enforce allegiance to former President Donald Trump claimed its most high-profile victim this week when Rep. Liz Cheney, Wyoming’s reliably conservative congresswoman and its sole representative in the House, was stripped of her leadership position in a swift voice vote. Her ouster provides a fresh answer to the question: Just […]
There’s a real problem facing journalism today: the unprecedented assault in our democracies on the truth, CNN’s Christiane Amanpour shared on Thursday during the last day of the United Facts of America: A Festival of Fact-Checking. Social media has only made it worse in what she described as a massively polarized world. “Actual elected democracies […]
Inflation — a phenomenon that most Americans haven’t had to think about much for a decade or two — has reemerged as a concern as the economy recovers from the coronavirus pandemic. On May 12, the government announced that the consumer price index was 4.2% higher in April 2021 than a year earlier, the fastest […]
Day three of the United Facts of America festival started off with some lighthearted banter as PolitiFact executive director Aaron Sharockman informed Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., he was one of the more accurate members of Congress. Sharockman complimented Warner for having zero “Pants on Fire” rated claims. “That feels like it should be a low […]
What is SmartNews? News that makes you smarter? Perhaps. It’s also an app on your phone with section tabs such as Politics, Business and Tech and has 20+ million active global users per month. You can now add the PolitiFact channel to your SmartNews app on your phone or tablet, and see all of our […]
Michigan’s Senate Elections Committee has held three hearings so far on GOP-backed election bills that would place new requirements on voters. Republicans have sold their 39-bill legislative push as an effort to beef up election security and restore faith in the election process. Voting rights advocates and election officials say some of the proposals would […]
Even after working as the director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for 37 years under seven presidents, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Tuesday he never could have anticipated the level of misinformation that has arisen from the pandemic. “I’ve never seen anything begin to approach … the divisiveness that we’re seeing, […]
Hours after clashing with Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., at a Senate hearing Tuesday, Dr. Anthony Fauci called Paul’s claim that the National Institutes of Health had funded “gain-of-function research” in Wuhan “preposterous” in an interview with PolitiFact. The dispute arose after Paul asked Fauci during a Senate health committee hearing whether he supports funding the Wuhan Institute of Virology, […]
In the wake of Donald Trump’s presidency, disinformation continues to deceive some Americans and threaten democracy, but most citizens still seek the truth and fact-checkers are offering a crucial public service, two experts said Monday at United Facts of America: A Festival of Fact-Checking. “I think the vast majority of Americans saw through Trump’s lies, […]
Facts took a bit of a beating in 2020. Let’s turn the page and celebrate the truth! United Facts of America, brought to you by PolitiFact and the Poynter Institute, is a celebration of fact-checking featuring some of the most important voices in media, health care, politics and technology. Over 10 hours of virtual programming, […]
A political spat emerged this Iowa legislative session when Democrats in the House objected to a Republican bill aimed at presidential executive orders. The dispute has things you’d expect in politics: policy disagreements, making points about a bigger picture and verbal jabs against the other side. There’s a lot to unpack. The bill started as HF […]
Michigan House Republicans, discussing a bill to ban “vaccine passports,” gave a legislative platform to Naomi Wolf, an avowed conspiracy theorist who has shared wildly false claims, ranging from Bill Gates modifying mosquitos so they can inject people with vaccines to vaccinations causing irregular menstruation. Wolf came to the House Oversight Committee May 6 to voice support for the […]