As some of you might know, I have issues with the state of modern fact-checking. I think the people who’ve taken up the mantle have dived face first into the empty pool of punditry, with predictable results.
The all time champion is still Politifact looking into Martina Navratilova’s claim that you can be fired for being gay in a majority of states, finding that the number is 29, and ruling it only half true. That’s the champ because of high scores in the categories of “why are you running a fact check on this person?”, “the relevant number is bigger than the other in the way claimed but you got it wrong”, “using a terrible source to rebut a claim”, and “inserting random factors to get an outcome”. Others, like Kessler claiming that 8 million is not in fact “millions”, have put in strong showings this year but can’t quite get there.
But today I have a new type of winner: the huffy “well it’s true but I don’t like it anyway”.
The Claim:
When Fidel Castro came into office, you know what he did? He had a massive literacy program.
-Bernie Sanders
The Reality:
They identified nearly 1 million illiterate people, and by the end of the year over 700,000 passed a basic literacy test.
A 1984 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) report found that in 1959, 23.6% of the population above the age of 10 were illiterate. By 1961, the number had fallen to 3.9%.
The Verdict:
We rate the claim Mostly True.
https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/feb/24/bernie-sanders/sanders-correct-cuba-literacy-campaign-skimps-prop/
So how did X happened fall to only “Mostly True” despite X happening?
Castro did not simply take office. He won a drawn-out military campaign and toppled the government in power. As for the literacy effort, in Castro’s own words, the goal wasn’t simply to teach, but to instill political beliefs. That’s important context to capture the nature of the literacy campaign.
https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/feb/24/bernie-sanders/sanders-correct-cuba-literacy-campaign-skimps-prop/
So there you have it. Statement is X. Truth is X. But fact-checker doesn’t approve of the goal of X so it loses points. Another great day for journalism.
I think the best part about this is that Politifact actually got their own fact check wrong by putting words into Sanders’ mouth. Sanders referred to Castro coming “into office.” That is true. Castro came into office after the revolution. Sanders didn’t say he was elected or appointed or anything else like that. He came into office. However, Politifact actually quotes Sanders incorrectly by using the words “simply took office.”
Whatever. I’m voting for Warren next week and let the chips fall where they may.
It just annoys me that as fake news is taking over the public fact checking institutions are so bad at their jobs.
I actually skipped over a worse one where Bernie said “Bloomberg said in 2015 he was against raising the minimum wage”, the found that he did in fact say that, but it’s only half true because that’s not his position now. Come the fuck on.
Yeah, that’s the kind of thing where I’d have to come back at them with, “Did he, or did he not, say in 2015 that he was against raising the minimum wage? No, I don’t give a shit what he’s saying now–what did he say in 2015? He said he was against it right? Then STFU.”
This one about Warren is good too: https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/feb/20/elizabeth-warren/mike-bloombergs-redlining-remarks-distorted-elizab/
Apparently its mostly false that Bloomberg blamed minorities for the housing crash because he said “redlining” instead, even though redlining was about minorities.
We live in a post fact country, where even the fact-checkers have to bend over backwards to not upset the small but vocal minority of assclowns who view actual, literal reality as liberally biased instead of just being…you know, sensible and rational.
Back in 2011 Politifact said Obama committed the “lie of the year” when he said Paul Ryan’s plan to end Medicare and replace it with vouchers was a plan to end Medicare. Ryan was still going to call his garbage plan Medicare, so Politifact decided it was completely wrong to say it was ending Medicare.
If they had been around during the Vietnam War, I’m sure they would have signed off on the idea that burning a village to the ground was saving it.
I wonder why republicans are so horny for vouchers
Also, how and why did Castro take over Cuba huh? What were the conditions that, ya know, caused that ‘revolution’ thing?
Before you determine the truth of a comment you must first determine the truth of the world.