Romeo and Juliet. Scarlett and Rhett. Ben and Jennifer. Those two people in The Titanic. (I can’t watch the movie. I just can’t).The list of star-crossed lovers is long, but it’s time to add the Republican Party and Truth to the list. We read it in the tea leaves a long time ago, but other folks are starting to notice. And I’m not just talking about those gossip columnists Mann and Ornstein talking about the GOP carrying the Far Right’s love child. Or Media Matters, the Democratic scandal sheet, documenting Rush Limbaugh’s inability to rise to the occasion of fact. It’s Uncle Bob Dole telling Fox News that the GOP should be “Close for Repairs.” It’s time for everyone to just admit it: the GOP has called it quits with the Truth.
George Mason University’s Center for Media and Public Affairs reports that Republicans lie more. Taking a sample of 100 statements checked by PolitiFact between Jjanuary 20 through May 22, 2013, the CMPA found:
PolitiFact rated 32% of Republican claims as “false” or “pants on fire,” compared to 11% of Democratic claims – a 3 to 1 margin. Conversely, Politifact rated 22% of Democratic claims as “entirely true” compared to 11% of Republican claims – a 2 to 1 margin.
A majority of Democratic statements (54%) were rated as mostly or entirely true, compared to only 18% of Republican statements. Conversely, a majority of Republican statements (52%) were rated as mostly or entirely false, compared to only 24% of Democratic statements.
Despite controversies over Obama administration statements regarding Benghazi, the IRS and the Associated Press, Republicans have continued to fare worse than Democrats, with 60% of their claims rated as false so far this month (May 1 – May 22), compared to 29% of Democratic statements – a 2 to 1 margin.
This study’s findings are similar to those of a previous CMPA study, which found that PolitiFact gave more negative ratings to the Romney campaign than the Obama campaign during the 2012 presidential election campaign.
PolitiFact has its problems–particularly with false equivalence and 2-dimensionality–but the counts don’t lie. The tally is in. It’s splitsville for the truth and the GOP.
“Upon learning of Mr. Gomez’s claim, Politifact obtained a sample of genetic material from a coffee cup used by Congressman Markey. We contracted with a sequencing firm to compare the makeup of the Congressman’s DNA to that of a species of green algae, specifically acetabularia calyculus. While strictly speaking, sufficient genetic divergence between the samples conclusively demonstrated that Ed Markey is not pond scum, both the Congressman and the algae shared markers along significant portions of their respective DNA. There is thus some truth in the spirit of Mr. Gomez’s remarks, and the Congressman and the pond scum have significant similarities in their identifiable material.
Thus Politifact rates Gabriel Gomez’s statement that “Ed Markey is pond scum” as mostly false.
The “break up” is ancient history.