Please join me in getting Politifact.com to be more fair & balanced

[Tx4obama]

First off I must say that Politifact.com normally does a great job.
They have the Obameter that has been keeping track of 500+ Obama campaign promises
http://politifact.com/truth-o-meter/
when they rate the campaign promises most of the time they normally hit the nail on the head!

Politifact.com also does The-Truth-O-Meter articles and every now and again an article shows up that is somewhat true but does not 'tell the whole truth'.

Two examples below.

First example...

In this article:
http://politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2010/jan/18/president-obama-vs-truth-o-meter/
they rated President Obama with a 'Pants on Fire'.

Quote from the Politifact.com website:
"For the record, Obama earned his first Pants on Fire! as president when he claimed in an interview that the United States has so many Muslim residents that it would qualify as one of the largest populations in the world. The comment, made in the days leading up to a speech in Cairo, was meant to emphasize the religious diversity of the United States and the importance of understanding between the Western world and followers of Islam, but we found that of the 60 most-populous Muslim states, the United States ranks 58th."

In the above text it sounds as if the USA is at the bottom of the list but the fact is that there are 195 countries in the world. So, if they had said the United States ranks 58th of 195 countries instead of ranks 58th of 60 countries it would have painted a different picture.

Second example...

Their newest article/ruling: "PWNED: House GOP Dominates Twitter, YouTube, Social Media in Congress."

They do a fairly good job at making their point, BUT
the article is supposed to be about CONGRESS (the House) but in the article then they toss SARAH PALIN in there)who is NOT a member of Congress) and they mention that Palin's Face Book page has 1.2 Million fans but they NEGLECT to mention that The Barack Obama FB page has OVER SEVEN MILLION fans (earlier this evening the Obama page had 7,246,260 fans).


So what I would like to see is more folks, DEMOCRATS, help me keep Politifact.com telling the whole story and not just part of it.

If you see something there that is not totally the whole story then please send them an email at: [e-mail] and tell them about it! Thanks ;)

[LeftyMom]

1. Oh for fuck's sake.

1. The 58th largest Muslim population of 195 countries isn't "one of the largest" Muslim populations. And nobody who isn't a complete moron thinks there are only 60 countries, so Politifact isn't pulling a fast one. I assume the 60 are the 60 with big enough Muslim populations to bother counting.

2. Barack Obama isn't a member of the House either. ;) Talking about the GOP web presence without mentioning Palin would be, well, incomplete.

You must be very bored or very sensitive to criticism of Obama to go looking for hairsplitting nonsense like that to get all offended about.

[Tx4obama]

2. Sorry, I totatlly disagree with you on this one

Palin is not a member of Congress and her FB page number of fans was mentioned.
Barack Obama's number of fans was not mentioned and he has seven times more fans then she does.
Comparing the GOP to the Dems is INCOMPLETE without mentioning Obama if they are including Palin who is not even an office holder any longer.

Also, in their evaluation of YouTube...
Democratic Congressman Alan Grayson is the NUMBER ONE most watched congress member and two of the top four are democrats, Pelosi is number three, but they give YouTube to the republicans due to the fact that the republicans have the majority of the top 'ten'.

My point was and still is that 'spinning' something can result in a 'half-true' story.

[jgraz]

3. In general, politi"fact" is far too easy on Obama.

They classified his outright falsehood about not campaigning on the Public Option as "barely true", when most honest brokers considered that a "pants on fire" moment.

They also classify many of his promises as "compromises" or "stalled" when, in fact, they're simply broken. One is his promise on drug re-importation. Obama cut a deal with Big Pharma and organized a filibuster of Dorgan's drug re-importation amendment. Yet that promise is still classified as "stalled".

[Tx4obama]

4. Stalled by not over yet...

The amendments were voted on in the middle of December 2009

Both amendments failed to get 60 yea votes ;(

- Dorgan amendment #2793: (Prescription Drug Reimportation)
UPDATE:
51-48 (final vote)

- Lautenberg amendment #3156: (Prescription Drug Reimportation)
UPDATE:
56/43 (final vote)

But Congress has said that they have not given up yet.
So, in fact this is stalled, not a promise broken as of yet.
President Obama was not the one that filibustered against the amendment.

[jgraz]

5. Except Rahm was the one whipping the filibuster

And Obama explicitly cut a deal with Billy Tauzin (the head of the Pharma Lobby who Obama attacked during his campaign) to prevent drug re-importation.

How that is not a broken promise is beyond me.