Someone should “fact check” the promotional language of PolitiFact. They claim: “We’re a nonpartisan, independent newsroom dedicated to fact-checking journalism….The reason we publish is to give citizens the information they need to govern themselves in a democracy.” They claim they improve the quality of the "information ecosystem."
But nearly every study of their “Truth-O-Meter” since PolitiFact was founded in 2007 has demonstrated a dramatic partisan tilt. From June to October, in the months before the Democrat Party sweep of off-year elections, how tilted was PolitiFact's "fact-checking newsroom"?
NewsBusters analysts reviewed PolitiFact articles from the last five months of 2025 that evaluated a named politician or public official with a “Truth-O-Meter” ruling, and their tilted version of the "truth" shows that PolitiFact should not be described by anyone as “nonpartisan.”
For President Trump and the Republicans, PolitiFact tagged them as “Mostly False,” “False,” or “Pants On Fire” on 52 of 62 occasions (84 percent).
It’s very different than the Democrats, who were rated “Mostly False” or worse in just four of 21 checks (19 percent).
It’s not just the percentage of falsehood warnings, but the sheer number. There were almost three times as many “fact checks” for Republicans, and Republicans drew 52 warnings to just four for the Democrats.
They clearly agree with their founder, Bill Adair, who argued on his latest book tour that “there's just a lot more stretching the truth and lying coming from Republicans.”
Here’s the full breakdown: from June through October, Republicans were rated “True” or “Mostly True” only four times, “Half True” on six occasions, and 52 on the False side, including 13 “Pants On Fire” ratings. Ten of those “liar” flags were hung on Trump.
In October, PolitiFact awarded a "Mostly True" to Republican Sen. Rand Paul...for opposing Trump: “About 25% of the time the Coast Guard boards a ship, there are no drugs.” Our number doesn't count the "False" rating for CNN analyst Scott Jennings, since he's not a Republican official.
By contrast, Democrat officials were rated as True” or “Mostly True” 12 times, “Half True” five times, and four times on the False side. There were no “Pants On Fire” flags for Democrats. In raw numbers, the Democrats had three times as many checks on the True side as on the False side, 12 to 4.
If you add in our study of the first five months of 2025, you’ll find 110 of 130 fact checks of Republican officials were on the False side (84.6 percent), compared to 13 of 45 checks of Democrats landing on the False side (28.8 percent). The Republicans were classified as “Pants On Fire” on 16 occasions, compared to zero for the Democrats.
So check it out: the Republicans were slammed as "Pants On Fire" more often (16) than the Democrats were classified as "Mostly False" or worse (13).
From January 1 through October 31, Trump landed on the False side of the "Truth-O-Meter" 50 out of 54 times, or 92.5 percent of the time. The other four were "Half True" ratings, meaning he was rated "True" or "Mostly True" on zero occasions. He's already been tagged as "Pants On Fire" twice in November, so he currently has 219 "Pants on Fire" ratings since 2007. Kamala Harris never drew a single one.
Trump is tagged as "False" when he calls New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani a "communist," and Mamdani has never been fact-checked on anything. Trump was "Pants On Fire" when he called Kamala Harris a "communist," but the Democrats can call him a "fascist" daily and there is no checking.
PolitiFact editor-in-chief Katie Sanders promised in an article in June that their aggression would continue: "With more than three years to go in his second term, the most fact-checked leader in the U.S. won’t be relinquishing the title anytime soon."
