Paul Revere by Cyrus Dallin, North End, Boston

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Tuesday, December 10, 2013

File Under "Things We Already Knew..."




But thanks for confirming it:




Paper Tiger Politics: Conservative Pundit Admits Republicans Lie About Everything






Study: Media Fact-Checker Says Republicans Lie More


A leading media fact-checking organization rates Republicans as less trustworthy than Democrats, according to a new study by the 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. According to 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 four month period from the start of President Obama’s second term on January 20 through 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. 

A majority of Democratic statements (54%) were rated as mostly or entirely true, compared to only 18% of Republican statements. 

Conversely, a majority of Republican statements (52%) were rated as mostly or entirely false, compared to only 24% of Democratic statements. 

Despite controversies over Obama administration statements regarding Benghazi, the IRS and the Associated Press, Republicans have continued to fare worse than Democrats, with 60% of their claims rated as false so far this month (May 1 – May 22), compared to 29% of Democratic statements – a 2 to 1 margin."


Those studies and data were from seven months ago. 

Can you imagine the misrepresentations and lies they've spread since then? All one has to do is visit some of the rightwing blogs to see this in action. Most of the time the bloggers grab onto some piece of dubious information from a rightwing source and then, before checking to see if it's correct, they post it. 

A very recent example is the CBS 60 Minutes Benghazi scandal. The rightwing bloggers and media pundits tripped over themselves to tell the world about Lara Logan's story, which turned out to be false, and for which she has been suspended from CBS. 

 Lies? Misrepresentations? If you got'em; they'll report 'em! 

And when proved wrong, they don't retract them.



More about the studies HERE.  And HERE.


21 comments:

Infidel753 said...

A majority of Democratic statements (54%) were rated as mostly or entirely true, compared to only 18% of Republican statements.

I wonder what that 18% consisted of. Maybe the derogatory things the teabaggers and mainstream Republican say about each other?

Les Carpenter said...

The facts, just the facts please. Of course in the shadowy world of politics truth takes a beating and spin flourishes.

Some beat and spin more frequently.

okjimm said...

now now now, Shaw...let us not be mean to Republicans during the Holiday season... gosh, it's already the fifth day of Zappadan!

perhaps we should charitably say...."Republicans really don't lie...they just decline to speak the truth."

Anonymous said...

Right, and Democrats lie about nothing. Thanks for the laugh.
It seems your hero has been spewing many lies, as confirmed by good reporters.

Dave Miller said...

A larger question for me is why there are any untrue statements?

Seriously, is it too much to ask for our political leaders to just tell the truth, regardless of party?

Why are both sides so truth challenged.

Less bad is still not good...

Shaw Kenawe said...

Anonymous, this post does NOT say Democrats don't lie. They do.

This is to set the record straight on which group outdoes the other.

I agree with Dave in wishing lying wasn't a part of our political process. But it is.

As Les said, some are better at it than others. That's what this post is about.

Shaw Kenawe said...

Thersities,

What you write is smarm--the form of virtue without substance.

You and it are not welcome here.

Shaw Kenawe said...

This observation from Andrew Sullivan's blog on Mandela and the Right:

"The right tends to have one of two responses to figures like Mandela abroad or Martin Luther King, Jr. at home: suggest their radicalism is more important than the struggles of the people they championed or to try to claim them as conservatives. Neither approach will do.

The lack of empathy many white conservatives feel toward communities of color may not be the only barrier between the right and minorities. But it is an important barrier.

Many conservatives who have been supportive of civil-rights struggles overseas err in another direction: expressing their concern through bombing and sanctions, as if the people and their leaders live in separate hermetically sealed containers."



More from a Foreign Policy article published in July of this year:

"When Mandela was imprisoned and struggling to end apartheid, the Republican Party -- through the policies of the Reagan administration and the work of party activists -- opposed U.S. sanctions against the white supremacist regime. Though they didn't support apartheid by any means, they turned a blind eye towards the cruelty of the system and failed to support Mandela in his time of greatest need. Today, Republicans will cheer on Mandela, but the Republican Party's historical relationship with South Africa, and Mandela in particular, exposes a sad chapter in the history of the American right.

[snip]

Reagan himself never seemed to really understand the moral repugnance of apartheid. He described the system in a 1988 interview with ABC's Sam Donaldson as "a tribal policy more than ... a racial policy."
-

Shaw Kenawe said...

Adam Swerer has the best comment:

"The point of remembering all this is not mere point-scoring. It is to remember that sometimes the radicals are correct, that in the heat of the moment, movements for justice can be easily caricatured by those with authority as threats to public safety, and those seeking basic rights and dignity as monstrous villains. And then after the radicals win, we try to make them safe and useless to future radicals by pretending our beloved secular saints were never radical at all.

It’s tempting to pretend we’ve all always agreed about Mandela, or about racial equality, or about South African apartheid. It would avoid awkwardness or hostility to join together in mutual admiration and mourning for a figure who was indispensible in so many senses of the word, without recalling those who stood against him.

Mandela believed in forgiveness, but he also believed in truth and reconciliation. And the truth is that many self-proclaimed champions of individual freedom in the United States refused to champion the individual freedom of black people in South Africa and at home."

Shaw Kenawe said...

Serwer, NOT SWerer

Les Carpenter said...

Thersities, I'm late to this forum this evening so I missed your what I am sure was a rather pointless or off topic comment. I am however certain it would be most welcome over at FreeThinke. Eh?

Shaw Kenawe said...

Les, Thersities's comment was not published. I wrote this comment to him because he continues to come to this blog. He spammed my blog a year ago day after day after day with stupid comments about Harry Reid.

He's an example of the nut jobs on the right who cannot stand to let anyone with a differing opinion have a forum to express his or her ideas, so he made a pest of himself every day until I went to moderation.

None of the conservative blogs have had to go to comment moderation because, as far as I can determine, no liberal commenter has done to AOW, GEEEZ, Western Hero, and Free Thinke, what the creepy Thersities did to this blog.

They have no tolerance for anything that doesn't conform to their ideology, and they use the most cowardly ways to stop anyone from freely expressing their opinions.

Just read, Les, what they've written about you. These are not nice people and they are symptomatic of what infects the extreme rightwing of the GOP today.

Thersities knows he will never, never, never be published here, and yet he continues to harangue me and leave stupid comments here.

If that isn't a definition of a sick mind, I don't know what is.

And he's respected on all of those rightwing blogs.

I'll leave it at that.

Leo T. Lyon said...

And don't forget that they steal other people's names and avatars. Low-life morans! LOL!

Clearwater, Florida said...

You know what's hilarious? The rightwingers heads exploding over the entire world honoring Mandela. In their skewed world they're right and the entire moral world is wrong? No wonder the Goopers are a dying breed.

Les Carpenter said...

It is very unfortunate but what you say is true Shaw. I am, and have been for years a fiscal conservatve and social libertarian. Yes when I first entered the blogging world I strongly advocated Objectivism and limited federal government and individualism. Still stand by my views and principles. Over time I grew to realize the "crowd" I should fit in with in fact doesn't understand fiscal conservatism or Objectivism as I understand both. Perhaps it is me, but it sure seems they are as much collectivists and statists as they claim the left is. They just refuse to see it

I still like the blanket and mountain over ObamaCare. But I guess that's a different discussion.

Les Carpenter said...

I forgot to mention that I really do not concern myself anymore with what people with inactive programmed minds say about me whether from the right or the left.

As I say, I am who I am and it is what it is. I'm perfectly comfortable with that. As well as happy.

A. Reader said...

RIGHT KLIK = Just Joanna, Hildegard Hammershlemmer and Radical Redneck.

Just sayin'

Shaw Kenawe said...

Ducky, if you stop by, here's a photo of the sweet ladies of the North End. The second from the left is a friend of mine. A real sweetheart.

Shaw Kenawe said...

A. Reader,

Those blogs are full of fakers and people who steal commenters' I.D.s and avatars. They think they're getting a lot of different people commenting when it's more likely 2 or three using different identities--probably stolen at that.

okjimm said...

ok...just had to comment...followed the link you left for Ducky...

boy& Howdy...sure looks like a bunch of commie, socialist, progressive liberal terrorists to me...I betchas they clandestinely bake cookies and DISTRIBUTE THEM to innocent children! maybe even GRANDCHILDREN ! OH! the humanity!!!!!!

Shaw Kenawe said...

okjimm, not only do they bake-a the biscotti for their nipote, but every week-a they make-a the gravy!

Mangia! Mangia!