PolitiFact demonstrated its usual imbalance of aggression in its State of the Union speech coverage. President Trump’s speech drew twelve different articles with factual evaluations (seven of them False or Mostly False), while the Democratic response by Rep. Joe Kennedy III drew one evaluation – “Mostly True.”
The PolitiFact “thumbs up” came when Congressman Kennedy asserted "top CEOs making 300 times their average worker is not right." A similar fact check of the Kennedy speech by NPR had a different take:
In a 2015 fact check of Hillary Clinton, who also used this figure on the campaign trail, the Washington Post traced this figure to the left-leaning [union-funded] Economic Policy Institute. That Post fact check pointed out that calculations by the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg found ratios closer to 200 to 1.
PolitiFact understood this exaggerated math, but still granted it a “Mostly True”:
The first measure assumed stock options were cashed in, and therefore were added to CEOs salary, bonuses and other payouts. Under that measure, CEO compensation was found to 271 times the average worker’s pay. Under the second measure, in which stock options were granted but not cashed in, the ratio was 224-to-1.
We snicker at their summary: "His numbers describing today’s ratio, while credible, are on the high side of research."
We could have picked on other nuggets in the Kennedy address, even though there really weren't many facts in it.
Take, for example, Kennedy attack on Republicans favoring one category of Americans over another: “Where we can guarantee America's safety, if we slash our safety net.” PolitiFact won’t evaluate if the metaphorical “safety net” is presently being “slashed” in anyone’s budget plan. That is False.
Or take this preposterous (but lovely) rhetorical flourish aimed at Trump:
“Bullies may land a punch, they may leave a mark, but they have never, not once, in the history of our United States, managed to match the strength and spirit of a people united in defense of their future.”
One could argue this isn’t a factual statement, but more of a poetic eruption. But would the Left really agree if a conservative said bullies (like slave masters) never – “not once in our history” – matched the strength of the people they held in bondage? Wouldn’t they typically argue that America’s history is filled with ignorant bullies winning?
Just before the State of the Union, Trump also drew a mysterious "Half True" for tweeting at the rapper Jay-Z that because of his policies, black unemployment is "at the lowest rate ever recorded."
PolitiFact says the fact is factual: "As we’ve noted, the unemployment rate for African-Americans is currently the lowest since the statistic was first calculated in 1972."
But what makes it half-true is that it was already coming down under Obama: "More to the point, as we’ve noted in regard to presidents of both parties, presidents don’t deserve either full credit or full blame for the unemployment rate on their watch. The president is not all-powerful on economic matters. Broader factors, from the business cycle to changes in technology to demographic shifts, play major roles."
Does anyone think that if Obama said black unemployment went down due to his policies, he'd get a Half True? Try this "Mostly True" article. Or see PolitiFact stretching beyond the facts to give Obama a "Mostly True" when he boasted America is seen as stronger and more respected since he took office. Somehow, they didn't say "Obama doesn't deserve full credit or blame for international public opinion...."
