From presidential politics to the pandemic, 2020 was unquestionably a year for misinformation. And too many times, we saw politicians, partisan television hosts and social media users go a step further than false and make absurd claims that strayed from reality. That, of course, would be our Pants on Fire rating, which we reserve for […]
It’s hard to believe, but most of us hadn’t even heard the term “COVID-19” at this time last year. We didn’t have a collection of cloth masks, and we didn’t shudder at the thought of getting together with large groups of people for a sporting event or concert. PolitiFact Wisconsin has rated dozens of coronavirus-related […]
Another year, another slate of politicians changing their tune on policy issues. PolitiFact Wisconsin broke out its Flip-O-Meter a few times in 2020 to determine if officials had wavered on previously established positions. Spoiler alert: They did. The Flip-O-Meter gauges whether a politician has been consistent on an issue. It doesn’t measure whether any change […]
The debate over police use of force and social justice became a deeply local issue in August when a pair of shootings made Kenosha the epicenter of this national discussion. It began Aug. 23, 2020, when a Kenosha police officer fired seven shots at 29-year-old Jacob Blake from behind at close range. Blake, who was […]
The 2020 election cycle has finally come to an end after what felt like a century — especially for fact checkers. Wisconsin found itself at the center of the presidential race after President Donald Trump narrowly won the state in 2016. That meant a flurry of campaign events, both virtual and in-person, increased scrutiny of […]
For all that 2020 was, there is one thing it clearly wasn’t: The Year of the Agreed-Upon Fact. Perhaps never in modern history has the notion of objective truth come under such relentless assault, particularly online. It was a year where the reach of social media far exceeded its grasp on reality. In short, it […]
After weeks of sharing baseless allegations that the voting system firms Smartmatic and Dominion Systems had manipulated the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, Fox News and Newsmax ran segments that debunked their own coverage. Media legal scholars say that move highlights the promise and the limits of the current guardrails against spreading false information. […]
Like much of the year before it, the 2020 holiday season will be like none other in living memory, thanks to the coronavirus pandemic. “We saw a pretty sharp increase in cases nationally after Thanksgiving, and I have no reason to suspect that we will avoid that through Christmas and New Year’s,” said Brooke Nichols, […]
Federal health officials say clinical trials show that both coronavirus vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are safe and more than 90% effective at preventing coronavirus infections. That hasn’t stopped groups from portraying the vaccines as dangerous, the product of corruption, or part of a government plot to track citizens. We have fact-checked unproven or innaccurate claims […]
A 6-vote difference in the race for Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives has taken a sharp turn for Washington — a move Republicans claim has bypassed Iowa law. Democrat Rita Hart is asking the U.S. House to determine who won the race between her and the Republican candidate Iowa certified as […]
In 2021, the U.S. will undertake the largest mass vaccination effort in its history. PolitiFact readers have questions about what that effort will look like, including how, when and where the general public will get the vaccine. When we asked readers to send us their questions on the rollout of the vaccine, Kelli Burns, a […]
Newsmax TV host Grant Stinchfield suggested that Vice President-elect Sen. Kamala Harris is holding onto her Senate seat because of the inaccurate claim that President Donald Trump can still win reelection. “Harris is a woman who has yet to resign from the United States Senate in preparation of becoming the next vice president and ultimately […]