50 Claims of Grey: Why Fact-Checking Gives No Easy Answers

Fact-checking is rarely as black and white as 'true' and 'false'

With tonight's second presidential debate mere hours away, Reuters gives us the "hard truth" about fact-checking, an activity that will no doubt be a huge part of the post-debate discussion.

The truth apparently hard to swallow is the fact that, well, most fact-checking renders a verdict of kinda true, kinda false when all is said and research done. Relatively unusual are the cases where a politician's claim is clearly truthful beyond a shadow of a doubt or as fictional as America's #1 film on any given summer weekend.

Reuters offers the federal budget deficit debate as a case in point: "The increase in the federal budget deficit cited by the campaigns depends entirely on the starting point for the calculation....It's bad for the President if the starting point for the calculation is fiscal 2008, but not as bad if the starting point is January 2009, when he actually assumed office."

Most such claims that partisans latch on to "prove" the other side is full of hot air are equally prone to ambiguity, Reuters writes, observing that popular fact-check sites like PolitiFact.com and FactCheck.org conclude that this or that statement on policy X is typically "partly true or partly false."

Via Reuters.

Do Americans get too few genuine facts from political debates?

[ctc]

Tune back in after the debate........I won't be so wishy-washy!!

[TeamAmerica]

Facts are in the eyes of the beholder.

[AceLuby]

No, those are called opinions. Facts are facts regardless of who is looking at them.

[TeamAmerica]

@AceLuby Not in politics. Facts can be twisted any way we want them.

[LGRepublican]

@AceLuby "Facts" are like "polls", depending on how one looks at the data and how that data is interpreted can mean the difference between black and white. Remember when Pelosi claimed welfare creates jobs? Perfect example....

[AceLuby]

@LGRepublican Facts are facts, what you're talking about is truth. Also, welfare creates demand for goods and services which actually does create jobs.

[LGRepublican]

@AceLuby People having jobs and working creates jobs as well. Allowing those of us who are working the right to keep our own money and spend it on goods and services creates jobs as well.

[Kajai]

I think if everyone checked sites like that before they opened their opinionated mouths there would b a lot less ignorant statements on sites like this.

[DerivePI]

Quid est veritas?

[DARSB]

In vino veritas.

[DerivePI]

@DARSB - I'll drink to that!

[Decent-Dissent]

Quit ita serio

[DARSB]

A debate is about the worst place to get facts about anything.

[ir0nw0lfe]

Duh!

[Wilberhum]

There is no 'Easy Answers' because most attacks contain some truth.

[Thunderchicken]

I'd settle for straight facts from the mainstream media.

[DocPolitics]

You will never have that. The media is always biased to one side or the other. I get all my facts from The View!

[Thunderchicken]

@DocPolitics

When I was off work with my back, made about fifteen minutes of The View before I switched to Sponge Bob. The Insipid View would be a better name for the program.

[DrMoonshine]

You killed a man to protect your family. Someone accuse you of being a killer. Technically fact checking, you are a killer because you killed someone but you are not a conventional killer because you did it to protect your family. Therefor the accuser would be mostly false. Mostly, because you killed someone. False, because your killing doesn't fit into the context of what would normally be perceived as a killer or murderer.

[tomincali]

they need shock collars on during the debates,third mis truth turns them into a crispy critter. a nice shock like that of a tazer for the first 2.

[Faceman]

it just as i said in other post bush was in the hot seat on the deficit not barrack. if the starting point from the beginning of 09 when he took office shows obama wasnt so bad on the deficit it proves my point and it is wrote in clear and easy to read english

[Wilberhum]

Did you want to go over each and every statement by both parties? Or don't you know which thread you are on?

[Wisdom73]

Watch, I can be a fact checker....

Debate Facts:
1. Both will avoid directly answering questions
2. Both will interrupt each other and the moderator
3. Both will try to tell BS stories to try and humanize themselves
4. Both will accuse the other of lying

[Lpguy]

they all speak in half truths. like Obama saying he cut spending when all he has really done is put in place a the theoretical plan that just doesn't increase government spending as much as they wanted ( instead of deficit spending 1.4 trillion, he would spend 1.3 and call that 100 billion in savings = 1 trillion over 10 years). and Romney is very dodgy about his plans, making countless statements but offering no details. romney may be the better debater, but it's all just the same old promises that are never kept. I do not understand how any Republicans really believe all the sweet talk. they are the same type of hopeless followers that believed obamas false hopes in 2008

[DARSB]

I try to give the President, no matter the party, a little benefit of the doubt on their campaign promises. The day after inauguration the President has to begin wrangling with Congress, and I don't believe even an unobtainium-clad promise could survive that process without some warpage. (that's also why I take so long to make up my mind about voting. My favored candidate may be everything I could ask for but an oppositional Congress can ruin anybody's day. So when I'm picking who to vote for I also ask myself how well that candidate will get along with Congress.)

[Lpguy]

@DARSB Well how they get along with congress is a tough thing no matter who you are. these days there is not much of bipartisanship, i think mostly because its unfashionable this day and age. Even if all the left or all the right filled all elected positions they would divide again and stagnate. I am baffled that they (both sides) always promise a balanced budget and deficit reduction - which they can do, but never deliver.

[dmoney64]

@DARSB : The House is Republican and the Senate is Democrat, so what do you do now?

[DocPolitics]

Am I the only one who wonders, who do these ''fact check organizations'' answer to?

[FollowTheMoney]

Nope, and you make a good point. Same with polls.

[Denizen_Kate]

Politix, are you kidding with this question? Lies and half-truths and self-serving spin are, sadly, what the American people have come to expect from politicians.

[FollowTheMoney]

Well said, strait forward and to the point. Thanks

[Kptpredsfan]

Like these sites said, we get partial truths and partial lies. Even facts can be spun to say something for one side or the other.

[FollowTheMoney]

Smoke and mirrors, spin, smoke and mirrors, spin....