Thursday, November 12, 2009

It's official: I am a "fan" of PolitiFact

The only way I could log comments on PolitiFact's FaceBook site was to register myself as a "fan."

Though I suppose there is some etymological support for the designation, it still didn't feel right.

I waded right in and briefly shared my critique of one of their latest entries:


clipped from www.facebook.com
Bryan White
Bryan White
Rep. Young offered a fair paraphrase of Obama. The PolitiFact writer seems to be the one who provided the quotation marks. The writer also mischaracterized the topic of Obama's comments. It wasn't the economy. It was the deficit, and Obama as much as admitted responsibility for almost a third of it. And one last (minor) thing: a $787 stimulus package? This was a poor excuse for journalism.
10 hours ago · ·
 blog it


I have had one reply as of now:
No he didn't. He implied that Obama was telling anyone who critisized him to shut up and get out of the way. But Obama never made such a statment or even implied that all his critics should shut up. The Congressman made this inflametory statment to fule misperseption and to rile up his crowed. It was a false statment period.
People just don't seem to understand the principle of charitable interpretation. Or if they do, it's just plain difficult to do.

This guy flatly says that Rep. Young's statement was not a fair paraphrase. But his reasoning makes no sense at all unless we interpret "anyone" as used above as removed from the context in which Young and Obama spoke. That is, with respect to political opposition based on the budget issue. And once we fit it to the context, it is a fair paraphrase.

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