18 fact-checks of things that were wrong on the Internet
From wild claims about the Obamas to Fox News to Ferguson, we found lots to fact-check from the Internet in 2014. Here are 18 doozies.
From wild claims about the Obamas to Fox News to Ferguson, we found lots to fact-check from the Internet in 2014. Here are 18 doozies.
The focal point of Wisconsin politics in 2014 was the race for governor.
But ...
From beach fees to marijuana, from pensions to slavery, PolitiFact Rhode Island covered a lot of ground in 2014, a year that was also marked by hard-fought political campaigns that generated many dubious claims.
Overall, we issued 90 rulings that hit every stop on our Truth-O-Meter, from True to Pants on Fire.
As the year ends, we thought we’d take a moment to review our most widely-read PolitiFact items of 2014. Here they are, in descending order, as determined by page views on our PolitiFact Rhode Island website:
In recent weeks, PolitiFact readers wrote us to take issue with our coverage of the Senate torture report and the intersection of race and crime. Here's a selection of their emails.
We tuned in to the morning show hosted by KOKE FM's Bob Cole and, waddya know, heard a grumble touching off our most-viewed fact check of 2014.
Ted Cruz, critical of ISIS, said the group had gone so far as to nail Christians to trees.
Our check of Cruz on this front was our No. 2-most-viewed story of 2014. (The No. 1 story, coming soon, arose from Bob Cole's mail.)
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).
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Abbreviated versions of our fact checks are below. Full versions can be found at www.politifact.com/georgia/.
We published lots of Falses and Pants on Fires this year, but here's a hat-tip to a sampling of claims that earned a full True rating.
Ridiculously, a website got traction with stories suggesting a Texas inmate had requested a child for his last meal.
Our recap of this "order" getting debunked (by Snopes.com) was our third-most-viewed story of 2014. Our countdown to No. 1 continues.
A U.S. Senate aspirant charged President Obama will killing four Americans with drone strikes.
We concluded three were not intended targets. And this fact check proved our fifth-most viewed story of 2014.
Our countdown to No. 1 continues.
There are times when a little additional context or clarification can add to the accuracy of a statement.
PolitiFact calls those claims Mostly True. Below is a sampling of some of 2014's top Mostly True statements from Georgia politicians.
St. Petersburg's new mayor delivered on curbside recycling and codes inspectors, but success with the Rays and plans for the pier eluded him in 2014.
Immigration fact-checking in 2014
Rick Scott touts reaching 700,000 jobs, but that's not what he promised