Republicans LIE MORE (GMU, based on politifacts)

[jimmy the one]

May 28, 2013 Study: Media Fact-Checker Says Republicans Lie More

A leading media fact-checking organization rates Republicans as less trustworthy than Democrats, accd'g to a new study by Center for Media and Public Affairs (CMPA) at George Mason University. The study finds that PolitiFact.com has rated Republican claims as false three times as often as Democratic claims during President Obama’s second term. Republicans continue to get worse marks in recent weeks, despite controversies over Obama administration statements on Benghazi, the IRS and the AP.
.. CMPA President Dr Robert Lichter, “While Republicans see a credibility gap in the Obama administration, PolitiFact rates Republicans as the less credible party.”
.. The study examined 100 statements involving factual claims by Democrats (46 claims) and Republicans (54 claims), which were fact-checked by PolitiFact.com during the 4 month period from start of Obama’s second term on Jan 20 - May 22, 2013.

Major findings: PolitiFact rated 32% of Republican claims as “false” or “pants on fire,” compared to 11% of Democratic claims – a 3 to 1 margin. Conversely, Politifact rated 22% of Democratic claims as “entirely true” compared to 11% of Republican claims – a 2 to 1 margin.
2.. majority of Democratic statements (54%) were rated as mostly or entirely true, compared to only 18% of Republican statements.
3..Conversely, a majority of Republican statements (52%) were rated as mostly or entirely false, compared to only 24% of Democratic statements.
4.. Despite controversies over Obama admin statements regarding Benghazi, the IRS and AP, Republicans have continued to fare worse than Democrats, with 60% of their claims rated as false so far this month (May1 –May22), compared to 29% of Democratic statements –2 to 1 margin.
5..This study's findings are similar to a previous CMPA study, which found PolitiFact gave more negative ratings to the Romney campaign than the Obama campaign during the 2012 presidential campaign.

Examples of ratings: Pants on Fire {LIE}: Michele Bachmann de..(May 2013) (need say more?)
True: Obama says bipartisan background check plan “outlawed any (gun) registry.” (April 17, 2013) http://www.cmpa.com/media_room_press_05_28_13.html

Politifact response: We’ve gotten questions this week from media reporters about a study from George Mason University on our work. Their press release claims that PolitiFact found that Republicans "lie more" than Democrats. Actually, PolitiFact rates the factual accuracy of specific claims; we do not seek to measure which party tells more falsehoods.

[SunSeeker]

1. Politifact gives Republicans WAY too much credit.

They completely lost credibility with me when they declared Dems' thoroughly correct statement during the 2012 campaign that Republicans want to "end Medicare as we know it" the biggest lie of 2012. Did Politifact not read the Republican budget? How is turning Medicare into a voucher system instead of a guaranteed benefit system not ending Medicare as we know it? It's like Politifact felt they had to swat the Dems after previously declaring Republican's' Obamacare death panel" lie as the lie of the year.

As far as I can tell, almost everything that comes out of a Republicans' mouth is a lie...way more than just 32% as Politifact claims.

[jimmy the one]

3. nothing but the truth

sunseeker: {Politifact} completely lost credibility with me when they declared Dems' thoroughly correct statement during the 2012 campaign that Republicans want to "end Medicare as we know it" the biggest lie of 2012.

I think politifact took issue with some dems incorrectly saying 'republicans want to end medicare', without the qualifier 'as we know it'. I agree tho, Politifact does screw up sometimes, or gives credit for some basic truism as if the person saying it was einstein & then becomes more truthful - example: if nra's wayno lapierre said 'there are near 300 million guns in the USA', & politifact gave him a 'true'. Duh, same as if he were to say 'Abraham Lincoln was 16th president'; simply citing a truism doesn't warrant a checkplus when he's not going out on any limb whatsoever just hugging the tree trunk.

examples:1 TRUE: Nothing in the Constitution explicitly guarantees our right to vote." mark pocan This one's valid imo since it's not common knowledge & there are implicit references to a right to vote, & amendments.
2 TRUE: alberta darling: "18% of our land in our state right now is either federally, state or county owned for conservation purposes." Pffft, citing a govt manual gets a True?

Anyway, the GMU study lumped it all together & the results are pretty accurate in the comparative sense, disregarding the individual judgements. I think PF gets it right most the time, with a few glaring errors. Rachel Maddow got peeved over something PF wrote & trashed PF on her show, I thought she shouldn't have, since she gave repubs a way to tapdance around any 'false' or 'pants on fire' judgements against them.
.. Another note, a 'Half True' rating is really not that bad, & shouldn't be (necessarily) considered a 'half truth' intended to mislead. Half True just means that about half what the person said is true the other not true, & it's better than 'Mostly False' but worse than 'Mostly True'.

Obama has a pretty good true/false ratio, while boehner doesn't, & harry reid the worst, tho he has far fewer decisions or judgements (my figures to left include 'mostly' categories):
1 Boehner: 35%True/56%False: True17 (30%)(17) Mostly True3 (5%)(3) Half True5 (9%)(5) Mostly False11 (20%)(11) False18 (32%)(18) Pants on Fire2 4%)
2 McConnell:45/36 (few): True2 (18%)(2) Mostly True3 (27%)(3) Half True2 (18%)(2) Mostly False1 (9%)(1) False3 (27%)
3 Biden: 41/34 True12 (19%)(12) Mostly True14 (22%)(14) Half True17 (27%)(17) Mostly False10 (16%)(10) False8 (13%)(8) Pants on Fire3 (5%)(3)
4 Obama: 45/27: True104 (22%)(104) Mostly True112 (23%)(112) Half True130 (27%)(130) Mostly False58 (12%)(58) False66 (14%)(66) Pants on Fire7 (1%)(7) Democrat from Illinois
5 Reid: 26/57, few decisions: True2 (13%)(2) Mostly True2 (13%)(2) Half True3 (19%)(3) Mostly False3 (19%)(3) False4 (25%)(4) Pants on Fire2 (13%)http://www.politifact.com/personalities/harry-reid/

[sakabatou]

2. Well, duh!

On the other hand, Politifact is full of shit.