Tuesday, September 6, 2011

PolitiFact Acknowledges Walker Has Most "False" Ratings

I was pleased to see that the Journal Sentinel's truthiness rating service PolitiFact finds that Scott Walker has the most negative ratings among Wisconsin officials, leaving Democrats like Tom Barrett in the dust.

I'd done the tally myself more than once - - a recent example is here - - and am glad to see Walker with the first-year PolitiFact First-place Falsehoods' Finish.

Turns out our Governor is more transparent than he intended.

Both PolitiFact and this blog show Walker with the most false ratings, though my total is larger (I credit Walker with 31, opposed to PolitiFact's 13) because I fully credit Walker with "false" if the rating begins with the category "mostly false" all the way through "false" and "pants on fire."

PolitiFact balances its findings by also saying Walker has the most "true" ratings - - four - - and explains that as a lightning rod, he has had the most statements rated.

Faint praise: Walker's habitual unfamiliarity with facts has helped vault him into first place, and a 3:1+ ratio of false to true using PolitiFact's strict false-to-true measurement (leaving out the "mostly" or "half" ratings) isn't much to write home about.




Take this example from just a few days ago that I posted, using PolitiFact:
Look at the evidence Walker's spokesman Cullen Werwie offers for his boss's money-saving claim, when simple math shows that the new arrangement adds significant costs to the Wisconsin students' bills:
Werwie didn’t have any. 
That's not about Walker being a lightning rod. It's more about being a dim bulb.

As Governor, a national figure with access to media any time he chooses, and staffers with data and the Google, Walker could easily have produced as many true statements as false.

His words, his agendas and motives, his choice.

Below are his 15 fully false and pants on fire-rated statements:

A new college tuition reciprocity agreement with Minnesota "makes college education more affordable for Wisconsin residents."

Says under his budget-repair bill, "collective bargaining is fully intact."

"Under our (2011-’13) budget, the average (Wisconsin) property taxpayer will save $700."

Says many public-employee unions falsely told their Wisconsin members his budget-repair bill sought 12 percent to 13 percent of their incomes for health insurance premiums.

Two years ago we had "the largest structural deficit ever in Wisconsin."

"The things I said (during the prank call by a blogger posing as GOP contributor David Koch) are the things I’ve said publicly all along" about the Wisconsin budget debate.

When it comes to protesters in Madison, "almost all" are now from outside of Wisconsin.

"I campaigned on (the proposals in the budget repair bill for Wisconsin) all throughout the election. Anybody who says they are shocked on this has been asleep for the past two years."

"The alternative" to higher state worker pension and health care payments "is to look at 1,500 layoffs of state employees or close to 200,000 children who would be bumped off Medicaid-related programs."

Wisconsin employers have repeatedly said in surveys that our anti-business litigation climate is one of the most important factors affecting their expansion decisions.

In Wisconsin, 98 percent of all small businesses will qualify for income-tax relief under my plan, freeing them to expand and create jobs.

"Scientists have shown us (that) the greater possibilities, the real science movement, has been with adult stem cell research. It has not been with embryonic."

Says Mark Neumann = Nancy Pelosi




5 comments:

WLRW said...

Politifact is pure left wing journalism. Poor choice to try and prove your case. If you're going to rip Walker, try to find a credible source. WLRW

Random Passerby said...

WLRW: If by "left wing journalism" you mean, "carefully documented by facts", then you are absolutely right.
Walker is a lying sack of crap, who lies so poorly that even a hapless bunch of hacks like the Journal-Sentinel can sniff it out.

Sue said...

WLRW, you forgot to mention: pure left wing journalism by the paper that endorsed Walker.

Jake formerly of the LP said...

Pure LEFT-WING? HAHAHAHA!!! Is that why the Wisconsin Dems refuse to talk to them because of their constant parsing and double-standards of going after Dems much harder than GOPs?

The fact that Walker has such a bad rating from a pro-corporate setup like Republi-fact shows how dishonest he and his lackeys are, and for a loser like WLRW to call it LEFT-wing shows just how soft you folks are.

Anonymous said...

Our deciever-in-chief and this is they guy milwaukee journal sentinel endorses (twice).

That despite the fact they know him better than anyone.

The entire journal communication propaganda machine is in his corner. wtmj-am is in-your face race baiting 24/7 squawk. milwaukee journal sentinel is more of the same disinformation, but they allow themselves to take the rap for being "left".

This makes their propaganda more subtle while enhansing the hateful talk and divisive dialog on wtmj-am.

wtmj-tv is a cross between the too, not willing to falsely take the "left" label, but sneaking its lies between the lie of objective journalism.

walker a habitual liar? GREAT! he's milwaukee journal sentinel's man!