During the State of the Union address on Tuesday night, Obama stated: “In the last 22 months, businesses have created more than 3 million jobs. Last year, they created the most jobs since 2005.”
PolitiFact confirmed that both statistics were correct, only to rate Obama’s statement as “half true” on their Truth-O-Meter. The site said the statement was only half true because “he implicitly credited his administration.”
“PoiltiFact, what is wrong with you?” Maddow said. “You think the president calls himself ‘businesses?’ Like it is a nickname for himself?”
PolitiFact later revised its Truth-O-Meter rating to “Mostly True.”
“Mostly true? PolitiFact, you are fired,” Maddow said. “You are a mess. You are fired. You are undermining the definition of the word ‘fact’ in the English language by pretending to it in your name.”
Ouch. But she's right. It took a completely awful spin in order to make a TV news host cast them out of the temple, but it's done. I hope that others follow suit pretty quickly. PolitiFact trades solely on its credibility and reputation in keeping that credibility, and they failed that smell test months ago.
They're done, hopefully. Maybe they'll be replaced by an actual fact checking outfit, other than the Washington Post's even worse Glenn Kessler.
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