2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumPolitifact deserves a 'PANTS ON FIRE!' rating for their assessment of Clinton's oil donations.
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/4/2/1509695/-Politifact-deserves-a-PANTS-ON-FIRE-rating-for-their-assessment-of-Clinton-s-oil-donations?_=2016-04-02T21:30:55.627-07:00So when accusations of lying get thrown about the political battlefield, as they often do, I can usually head on over to the Tampa Bay Times fact-checking website Politifact to help clear things up. The Snopes for politics operation has usually done a decent job in covering elections and candidate statements. As expected, they had a commentary on the recent back and forth over Hillary Clintons ties to fossil fuel industry lobbyists (Warning: autoplaying video):
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2016/apr/01/sorting-out-clintons-fossil-fuel-contributions/
The author, C. Eugene Emery Jr., does a decent job in laying out the facts of the situation as far as I can tell, but where he goes wrong is this statement (emphasis mine):
But its a stretch to draw a direct line between those super PAC donations and Clintons campaign. Under federal law, the candidates have no control over super PAC spending.
Whoaaaaaaa there, I know that the journalists over at Politifact know better than to say that a candidate has no direct connection to their supporting Super PAC and cant be held accountable for those donations.
In fact, they just published a really nice summary of the influence on Super PACs in this years presidential race:
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/sep/30/bernie-s/bernie-sanders-only-presidential-candidates-withou/
In that article Linda Qiu lists Priorities Action USA as an affiliated Clinton Super PAC, and then goes on to elaborate what this means (emphasis again mine):
A few examples: Jeb Bushs longtime strategist and friend Mike Murphy heads his Right to Rise super PAC, which has advertised on his behalf. Hillary Clintons 2008 campaign manager Guy Cecil is at the helm of the pro-Clinton Priorities Action USA, while her current campaign manager has met with potential PAC donors.
Using their own words as evidence, I rate their assertion that its a stretch to draw a direct line between those super PAC donations and Clintons campaign, as PANTS ON FIRE!
revbones
(3,660 posts)dogman
(6,073 posts)I wonder how you know who has credibility and when?
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/watch/politifact-fails-again-destroy-277552195924
madamesilverspurs
(15,806 posts)Hie them to that special hell reserved for those who DARE to unfeel the Bern!!!1!
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)of the corporations you revere so dearly, will prevail. Maybe not today or tomorrow but we will throw off the yoke of oppression that you seem to adore.
zappaman
(20,606 posts)azmom
(5,208 posts)how it was all done.
Response to GeorgiaPeanuts (Original post)
snowy owl This message was self-deleted by its author.
jfern
(5,204 posts)Politifact needs a fact checker. It doesn't seem to do very well with the facts.
fun n serious
(4,451 posts)It is especially important that he not receive money from a super pac or even KOCH. He is the one smearing Hillary while claiming he is running a purity grass roots campaign. You can't go city to city smearing someone with innuendos you have in your own campaign. I don'y know why there isn't more of you calling him out.
Sancho
(9,070 posts)Is there a template or model? Just curious. Here's another example:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024374818
At any rate, most middle-of-the-road voters are tired of the "donations" meme at this point. Hillary is winning, and the debate over PACs is old news that everyone has heard about for years. Remember Colbert's explanation a couple years ago? At such, there is a consensus building that will someday attempt to change the system.
Meanwhile, we are living with something that needs transparency and repair, but that's the way it is for 2016. Whether you think that Hillary's donations come from corporations or that Bernie's donations are under-the-table donations from Koch operatives or whatever CT you can imagine, no one here is going to change their mind because of the "bash and trash" posts - but they continue to take up time and energy that otherwise would be used to GOTV with real voters.
So I'm not arguing that you stop posting these repeated ideas; I do wonder what the source and motivation are for such prolific OPs over and over. Even progressive pundits (like Thom Hartmann and Stephanie Miller and Ed Shultz) occasionally mention that it actually hurts Bernie's campaign when blogs, tweets, etc. are over zealous, or Bernie supporters act badly.
I guess it's better to post an OP here to deaf ears than to be waving a sign at a Clinton rally.
George II
(67,782 posts)JoePhilly
(27,787 posts)Its clearly a clever trick by the Hillary camp to make Bernie supporters look bad.
George II
(67,782 posts)GeorgiaPeanuts
(2,353 posts)I just formatted the article into DU, putting excerpt around the quotes in the DailyKos article. Is there anything about the article that is a lie?
Politifact has shown itself to be less than factual this cycle. I've seen other lies from it. They rated a claim false by Sanders that he outperforms Clinton in all general election matchup polling. I know everyone here knows Sanders or Clinton supporter alike that he has been doing so since the race has really gotten underway. I guess if you go back to when he had no name recognition you might find differently, but then that is just being disingenuous.