Politifact is a project run by the Tampa Bay Times. Its motto or slogan is, "Sorting out the truth in politics." It claims to help you find the truth in Washington and the Obama presidency. Politifact is often cited by BlogCritics (BC) commenters in an effort to bolster their opinions and/or claims. They say that Politifact is objective and always correct. Politifact even publishes its "Lie of the Year." The 2012 "winner" was Governor Mitt Romney's campaign ad about Jeep (now owned by the Italian auto maker, Fiat) producing Jeeps in China.
The entire episode began with a misquoted and interpreted statement, then grew from there. Romney never said that Jeep production was being moved to China. He said, in Toledo, OH, in October 2012, "I saw a story today that one of the great manufacturers in this state, Jeep, now owned by the Italians, is thinking of moving all production to China." [emphasis mine] Thinking and doing are two entirely different actions. But did Politifact let that little FACT stand in its way? To quote John Belushi on SNL, "Nooooooooooooooooo." Nor would (could?) the MSM make the distinction, as well. Politifact even made the Romney campaign ad its "Lie of the Year." Politifact said, "It was a lie told in the critical state of Ohio in the final days of a close campaign." Just in case y'all have forgotten, here is what Romney's ad said: " Obama took GM and Chrysler into bankruptcy and sold Chrysler to Italians who are going to build Jeeps in China." Did Politifact fail, on purpose, to say anything about Romney's statement? No. Instead it chose to focus on the ad alone.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Doug Hunter
Nothing has changed to spark your article, it was a well established fact at the time regarding the Chinese plant. I also wondered why a technical truth was considered a big lie and warranted the lie of the year as well but it was done into a perfect storm. The ad ran in Ohio, people in Ohio love the auto bailout and hence Obama.
In general, people love it when you take someone else's money and give it to them. Newsflash: auto workers love auto bailouts, financial workers love financial bailouts, old people love social security and medicare, poor people love food stamps and medicaid, rich people just like to keep their own money (not really someone else's money, but it's the same principle as other people feel they are owed that money hence the push for expropriation in the form of higher taxes).
The Romney camp knew this, but they were desperate. Another case of Obama's political genius sending billions in bailout money to a critical swing state (he's always been a step ahead). Secondly, the ad was placed right before the election into the media frenzy that exists in what was in many ways a pretty boring election cycle. Of course they were going to run with it ad nauseum.
In context, although it was certainly not the most egregious lie (the ad was actually technically correct), it was the most influential, most discussed, and most important "lie" of the year... perhaps they could change the award to 'most lisleading truth of the year' to make you happy.
2 - Doug Hunter
should read 'misleading' above.
Politifact never had any credibility from the beginning in my mind, not because they bias to one side or the other (although they likely do), but for the fact that there were too many ratings not unlike this one. Too many technical truths were counted as big lies while complete fabrications were brushed off as 'he meant well' and given lower ratings. Interesting reads but never much credibility as there seemed to be little rhyme or reason to the actual ratings.
3 - Doug Hunter
Since I'm bored I'll provide an example, here's one I came across after two minutes of searching.
Alan Grayson - Walmart the largest group of Medicaid and Foodstamp recipients.
Now, on it's face this statement is false, single mothers are a larger group that accepts these services. There is no indication of which groups Grayson is speaking a simple reader could be misled into believing Walmart workers were the majority, but of course politifact comes to the rescue conveniently ignoring this little catch, makes an assumption, and immediately compares Walmart only to other employers. Of course, Walmart being by far the largest employer overall in addition to paying low wages is the largest group among employers.
Politifact rating: Mostly True
Mitt Romney - Women in Obama white house earn less than men.
Now, on it's face this is verifiably true with simple analysis. Unlike the case above politifact set out to prove it untrue by adjusting the data to account for job title. Again after looking at 36 categories of job titles men still held a tiny lead over women. Seems by our previous standard this would be at least mostly true as the statement itself was true and politifact tried to make it not true by adding qualifications that weren't even there and that was unsuccessful as it was still true... nope it gets a lower rating.
Politifact rating: Half true.
*There is almost a perfect reversal of the above Mitt Romney quote where democrats claim that women in general earn 77 cents for every dollar men earn, of course that's rated 'mostly true'. How Romney's statement was any different or would earn a lower rating is hard to identify.
There you have it, strictly true statements get lower ratings than false statements on a regular basis... indeed they never had any credibility to start.
4 - Glenn Contrarian
Why was my comment (that destroyed the main point of Warren's article) deleted?
5 - Jet Gardner
I LIVE in Ohio and for 2 two months we couldn't escape this lie of an ad by romney-in fact there was so much outrage about it, it's one of the reasons he lost Ohio.
6 - Jet Gardner
So Romney's own campaign ad QUOTES him as saying Hussein sold Chrysler to Italians and Will be buying jeeps in China-no as you falsly claim thae he was only thinking about it.
Stop twisting facts and maybe someone will take you seriously.
I missed your point
I didn't read the article
this comment has nothing to do with your article
7 - Jet Gardner
So as Romney's own ad in the link in comment 5 points out -Romney says Hussein sold Chrysler to the Italians and will now make jeeps in china-not thinking about it-he claimed they will, like it was Obama's idea.
I have nerve dammage in my fingers-sorry for the tyyyyppppos.
8 - Jet Gardner
Exactly what part of this article did you write???? It appears to be almost entirely made up of quotes that you freely admit came from other sources that agree with you, along with a minimal smidgen of your usual slanted and expected commentary thrown in at the end?
Yawn
I missed your point...
I didn't read the article...
this comment has nothing to do with your article...
...or did I?
9 - Jet Gardner
Lee Roger’s column
"A blatantly biased operation called PolitiFact accused Mitt Romney of telling the biggest lie of the campaign when he said Chrysler Corporation, owned by Fiat of Italy, was going to move expanded production of Jeeps to China.
The PolitiFact charge that there was no such plan helped Obama enormously in the swing-state of Ohio, where Jeeps are currently manufactured.
Notice this item in the news this week? Chrysler announced that it IS moving expanded Jeep production to … China. Those jobs will not be in Ohio or anywhere else in the U.S. "
Are you sure Clavos knows how to Google???
"not" should sue!
I missed your point...
I didn't read the article...
this comment has nothing to do with your article...
...or did I?
10 - Jet Gardner
Notice it says E-X-P-A-N-D-E-D production... nothing about jobs moving, just production.
Just like Americans don't want to buy chinese cars-Chrysler is building Chinese Jeeps in China because the steering wheel is on the right side of the dashboard-unlike ours.
"Not" is against a Major corp making a profit???? or is he just pissed about Chrysler paying it's loan back to the treasury sooner?
Before you start denying see the link above... you copied the word "the" again-shame on you!
I missed your point...
This comment has nothing to do with your article...
I didn't read the article...
...or did I?
11 - Christopher Rose
To #4, As far as I can see in the comments tool no comment of yours has been deleted, Glenn.
12 - clav
Are you sure Clavos knows how to Google???
Irrelevant. Until this comment, just now, I hadn't commented on this article.
Some of my stocks are named Google. Does that count?
13 - Glenn Contrarian
Chris -
Then I'm going crazy, because I posted a comment and saw it posted after opening up the browser a second time.
14 - Glenn Contrarian
Warren -
If you'd do some actual RESEARCH - like going back to look at the actual Politifact pants-on-fire article - you might see where Romney stated:
"I saw a story today, that one of the great manufacturers in this state, Jeep, now owned by the Italians, is thinking of moving all production to China. I will fight for every good job in America. I’m going to fight to make sure trade is fair, and if it’s fair, America will win." (boldface mine)
You might not know this, but there's a REALLY BIG DIFFERENCE between "building" Jeeps in China, and "moving production" of Jeeps TO China. He DID say it, and YOU - as I've pointed out before - did not do due diligence. You trusted your sources but did not verify your sources...and you once again fell afoul of the Russian maxim that Reagan popularized: "Trust, but verify".
THAT, sir, was why it was the Lie of the Year.
15 - Doug Hunter
#14
That's true Glenn, but right at the top of the page, the headline in fact, is "Lie of the Year: the Romney campaign's ad on Jeeps made in China"
Here is the money line from the ad "Obama took GM and Chrysler into bankruptcy and sold Chrysler to Italians who are going to build Jeeps in China."
Was Chrysler not sold to Italians?
Are Jeeps not going to be built in China?
Were not GM and Chrysler taken into bankrupty by the administration?
Like I said, most misleading truth of the year perhaps, but the ad is accurate.
Another tidbit from Politifact reiterating which statement they're judging: PolitiFact has selected Romney's claim that Barack Obama "sold Chrysler to Italians who are going to build Jeeps in China" at the cost of American jobs
16 - Doug Hunter
One thing that has occured to me, does anyone know for a fact where the Jeeps sold in China are currently being made? From this article Jeeps are 'nearly all' built in factories in the US (but doesn't specifically mention where Chinese models are made) and currently they are in third place among Jeep buyers, buying a handful less than Canadians at 33,400 units sold last year. The Chinese factory will at a minimum supplant that number reducing the workload at US factories by 33,000+ units. There's a fair chance they will likely supply nearby countries as well.... Australia, Japan, etc. Next time the budget gets tight we'll see who gets the axe first: high priced American workers or low wage Chinese. Romney may indeed be vindicated down the line, I don't think they'll ever move 'all production' to China but in the long run it's likely to have a negative effect on US jobs. (but then again that's the overriding trend with most company in most industry, nothing special about Chrysler)
17 - Jet Gardner
Is #9 in invisible ink? This isn't "not"'s article-you should argue with Lee Rodgers...
...not this hack...
I missed your point...
This comment has nothing to do with your article...
I didn't read the article...
...or did I?
18 - Jet Gardner
#12 - Sorry Clav, you absolutely right-the quote from # has nothing to do with this article.
You being a part-pwner of Google is very telling...
...my bad
19 - Glenn Contrarian
Doug -
Nice try, but your defense of Romney doesn't work. Why? Because of this little thing called "context". From the ad:
"Who will do more for the auto industry? Not Barack Obama. Obama took GM and Chrysler into bankruptcy and sold Chrysler to Italians who are going to build Jeeps in China. Mitt Romney will fight for every American job."
This was an attack ad, remember, in which one politician is telling all the world just how terrible the other politician is. If the ad weren't deliberately meant to imply that the jobs were going away from Ohio to China, then there would have been no need whatsoever for that last sentence. What was implied was quite clear, particularly to those who were cognizant of the media's reports of Romney's earlier statement that Chrysler was MOVING production to China...which statement he never disavowed.
What you did, Doug, was to play the part of what we senior sailors called a "sea lawyer", wherein a junior sailor would do his damnedest to hem and haw his way out of a jam, using the small print to try to excuse his actions. It didn't work for them (or for me when I was young and stupid and tried it), and it won't work for you.
Context, sir, context.
20 - El Bicho
I don't see how Politifact has been disputed.
Are they thinking of moving all production to China? "Some" and "all" aren't the same thing.
Also, if credibility is a concern, consider expanding your culture references beyond SNL
21 - Doug Hunter
#19
I still make a distinction between a lie and misleading. If that is your standard virtually every attack ad falls foul of it, I don't see this one being particularly egregious it just erupted into a media firestorm.
Smart politicians have their PAC's release the attack ads anyway (like the Romney killed my wife with cancer ad, talk about misleading), must have been a logistical issue or desperation..
22 - Doug Hunter
#20
Because that's not the statement politifact mentions in their article, that was an off the cuff remark at an event. If that was the lie then I would agree wholeheartedly (although who really knows what all they considered) That was definitely a false statement, and one that Romney never repeated.
The ad, which is the subject of the politifact article, just says Jeep will build vehicles in China which is undoubtedly the plan. There are no plans to cut the US workforce and as long as there is good economic growth that will be the case. As I pointed out earlier, China buys 33,000 Jeeps a year now and I believe those are currently manufactured in the US so that does mean that US production should take a hit (and the Chinese factory may produce for other regional countries as well... it's yet to be seen).
Romney's ad was misleading but true and his one statement was either a lie or a serious misspeak, but if I was a plant worker I wouldn't be that excited about my company opening a low cost facility to make the same thing in China. When those rosy growth projections don't pan out it's pretty easy to see whose neck will be on the chopping block.
23 - Jet Gardner
Who the hell cares months after the election except sore losers and people obsessed with the middle name Hussein???
As #9 clearly shows this article was cribbed from a Rush Limp-baugh wannabe by a Limp-baugh wannabe
24 - Doug Hunter
#23
Well, you're commenting for one. So are you a sore loser or obsessed with Hussein?
25 - El Bicho
thanks for clarification.