PolitiFact: More than Snopes for politicos

By Jennifer J. Foster

If you aren’t familiar with PolitiFact, the Pulitzer Prize-winning truth project of the St. Petersburg Times, you should be.

Yes, when it was originally founded, its purpose was to serve as a truth patrol of sorts for political charges, not unlike Snopes.com has become for e-mail rumors of all kinds.

The idea was to put journalists—trained professionals who know how to investigate, research and read between the lines—in charge of separating the fact from fiction during the 2008 presidential election, then use the platform of the Times, one of the country’s best newspapers, to set the record straight.

It was an idea that was as terrific as it was straightforward. It really shouldn’t have been a surprise when it took off ... and then, when it won journalism’s biggest and most prestigious prize.

But PolitiFact has become more. Building off of its success, it is now a clearinghouse for all sorts of useful information, including a running record of President Obama’s achievements as measured against his campaign promises, among other features.

The Truth-O-Meter is still there—with a nice trademark, of course—and readers can track flip-floppers and pundits alongside the performance of the president himself.

Speaking of pundits, PolitiFact investigators studied recent statements of three of America’s most prominent talkers.

Guess what? They all failed the Truth-O-Meter.

Check it out at PolitiFact.com.

Make your visit a habit. You’ll learn a lot—and that is the truth.