Free Beacon Study: Politifact’s ‘PANTS ON FIRE’ Claim They ‘Hold Politicians Accountable’

Andrew Stiles, Washington Free Beacon declared PolitiFact “Pants on Fire” in an email to their audience director Josie Hollingsworth. She begged, “Help us hold politicians responsible.”

Stiles evaluated the contents of the site for a month in fact-check fashion. Because they only evaluate a small number of politicians, “Mostly False”, is likely a higher rating.

PolitiFact claims that it is committed to holding our leaders accountable. According to a, the claim is lacking crucial context and grossly misrepresents what the priorities of the organization are. Washington Free Beacon analysis of nearly 300 PolitiFact posts dating back to March 10, 2022.

Stiles and Free Beacon discovered that over half of PolitiFact’s fact checks in the past two months were based on random social media content. One-third (112%) of all the website’s 290 fact check over this period were based on content published via Facebook. PolitiFact has been enlisted by Facebook and other nonpartisans “to identify and review false information.” It is their bread-and- butter. These are simple lay-ups.

PolitiFact has been “holding our leaders accountable” by devoting it resources to fact-checking the asinine claims of random Facebook users: that John F. Kennedy Jr. is still alive and leading QAnon, that “paying taxes is optional,” and that Hillary Clinton is imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay. They were all given “pants on fire!” rating, in case you were wondering.

Another 59 fact check in the two-month period involved content from “bloggers”, or Instagram users, Twitter, TikTok and YouTube users, along with “viral pictures” uploaded on many social media platforms. PolitiFact has been holding the powerful to account by debunking claims that actors Bob Saget and Gilbert Gottfried died from the COVID-19 vaccine, that Russian president Vladimir Putin was assassinated, that Disney CEO Bob Chapek was arrested for human trafficking, that the state of Tennessee was operating COVID-19 internment camps, and that Christine Blasey Ford and Brett Kavanaugh were portrayed by actors wearings masks during the latter’s Supreme Court confirmation hearing.

Stiles also used the same method to compare politicians with parties. PolitiFact produced just three fact-checks of Biden over the same period, which is less than one percent of their overall output. 

The most recent Biden fact check, published on April 22, involved the president’s claim that “for four years, I was a full professor at the University of Pennsylvania.” PolitiFact conceded that the claim was technically false—Biden was not a full professor and only held the position for two years—but nevertheless assigned it a rating of “Half True.”

PolitiFact involved less than one third (86) of the 229 posts during the time frame in which claims were made by politicians and party committees. Fact checks revealed that the majority (62%) of politicians who were subjected were Republicans. The majority of claims made (41 of 62) were either “mostly false” and/or worse.. Only eight claims by GOP legislators or party members were given a “mostly truthful” rating or higher. The shocking thing is that Democrats are far more truthful. On 24 facts checks that included Democrats, 11 of them were considered “mostly falsified” or worse. Ten were considered “mostly true” and better.

It is more than one bad month. This is the trend. Back in 2013, the Center for Media and Public Affairs reviewed four months of PolitiFact and found…the website reviewed Republicans three times as often as Democrats.

You would be surprised at how liberals believe in PolitiFact. This is why they are easy to identify as the liberal media.