Watch out, Occupy Wall Street: PolitiFact is 'fact checking' your homemade signs

[ProSense]

Watch out, Occupy Wall Street: PolitiFact is 'fact checking' your homemade signs

by Barbara Morrill

In the annals of Politifact, never* has the publication sunk this low:

In downtown Providence, as in other cities around the globe, protesters inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement are trying to raise awareness about economic inequalities.

On a recent visit to Occupy Providence’s encampment at Burnside Park, a Providence Journal reporter spotted a hand-written sign that compared the earnings of a minimum wage worker with those of Goldman Sach’s CEO, Lloyd C. Blankfein.

The sign read: "Minimum wage = $16,000/year CEO-Goldman Sachs (Lloyd Blankfein) $16,000/Hour."

... we decided to check it out.

Yes, that's right. The organization dedicated to "help(ing) you find the truth in politics" harnessed the troops to uncover the truth behind what an anonymous person wrote on a piece of cardboard.

For the record, yes, a minimum wage earner in Rhode Island does in fact make about $16,000 a year, but the CEO of Goldman-Sachs doesn't make anywhere near $16,000 an hour. It's more like $9,165 an hour. Liar! (Or the use of political rhetoric to make a point.)

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[Scuba]

1. It's good to know one's audience. I lost credibility for using...

...hyperbole ("Jan Brewer is a paid employee of the Corrections Corporation of America") when it turned out that was not a fact.

Engineers (among others) can be very literal.

[HughBeaumont]

2. Scratch an "apolitical non-partisan", find a Republican . . .

Funny how they didn't do this to the TeaHadist's signs. Or not.

[ProSense]

5. Here's Politifact's

determination

<...>

But once again, simple math shows that the estimated cash value of his compensation that year is $9,165 an hour -- not $16,000 an hour as the protest sign declared.

<...>

Yeah, the sign person was wrong, it's only $9,165 an hour!!!

[HughBeaumont]

7. Like that somehow sullies it because it was over half the original amount.

All you have to do is go to a shitbag that DOES make that a year. I'm pretty sure one of the 1% pulls in that kind of green. Maybe a Steve Wynn or Larry Ellison?

[occupyeverywhere]

6. Yeah, seems like Politifact is a supporter of the status quo.

Sure looks that way and that's a fact.

[truedelphi]

3. Well, if you add in the bonuses, I bet it is more like 16k an hour

Have you ever worked around or for or near one of the Top Executives?

They get things like free hockey tickets, box seats. Ditto basketball games, baseball and football. They get to be on the Board of various companies, and they get a heck of a lot of insider stock information.

People give them gifts. They are able to do things like run for office, and then during their time on City Council, manage to handle only one action item in their four year term. That action item successfully melds their R.E. holdings into one undivided piece of property, and does away with some of the restrictions that normal property owners have to abide by.

[mmonk]

4. Does that include stock options?

[ProSense]

8. Don't know, but

doesn't anyone find it strange that Politifact is fact checking a sign written in magic marker by some unknown person?

[loyalsister]

12. More people know what the sign says because of it

If the goal is to raise awareness, then Politico helped

[lifesbeautifulmagic]

9. so in two hour, this particular CEO makes a little over

18,000 as opposed to a minimum wage worker that makes 16,000 working a 40 hour week.

This is why we march. Occupy the world.

[Zorra]

10. Off the top of my head that's like $73,000 a day per 8 hr day.

They make over 4 1/2 times as much in a single day as a minimum wage earner does in a year.

I wouldn't be digging into those type of facts if they are trying to make a point in favor of CEO's.

[Dawson Leery]

11. Where was Politifact when the Teaklan was spewing lies about

Obama's place of birth?

[AntiFascist]

13. "Shit is fucked up and bullshit"

...not only factual, but concise.

[Fire Walk With Me]

14. If I knew they were coming to a protest I planned to attend, I'd make a sign

showing Pi out to 100 digits. Maybe one of the digits is wrong, maybe one isn't.

[Arkana]

15. I don't recall them "fact-checking"

the "WHAR'S DA BIRF CERCTRIFICRIT OBONGO" signs those goddamn gun-toting mental midget teabaggers waved around.

[FarLeftFist]

16. Of course they forgot to mention all the perks. Like free private jet trips, 5 star hotels, health

Health benefits, unlimited usage of the company card which is money not coming out of his paycheck. etc etc. One free jet ride on those planes cross country is $100k. Again, money he's not spending.