Does calling a reporter a \”fact checker\” make him or her more even-handed? Hardly.

PolitiFact is a case in point. It is a website of the Tampa Bay Times, manned by journalists and editors. It purports to rule from on high on the veracity of political statements, assigning \”Truth-O-Meter\” ratings that range from True to \”Pants on Fire.\” It is all very droll, or painfully sophomoric, depending on where you stand politically. Studies by George Mason University and the University of Minnesota have concluded that PolitiFact is a biased outfit that is much harsher on conservatives than on liberals.

Last week, PolitiFact decided to rate statements on defunding Obamacare made by Heritage Foundation President Jim DeMint at town hall meetings across the country. Well, these are not ratings made last week—PolitiFact just wrote on how it had rated these statements in the past. A bit of a summer rerun.

I checked with one of our top health care experts, Chris Jacobs, and this is what he told me on PolitiFact’s \”ratings\”: \”The claims about ‘debunked’ statements being made on the Defund Obamacare Town Hall tour ignore the actual facts behind those statements.\” Chris makes the following points:

CONTINUE TO READ via blog.heritage.org

Volume XVIII No. 35: August 29, 2013

As kids head back to school, teachers are crossing their fingers hoping they won’t have to spend hours re-teaching factoids forgotten over summer break. When Congress returns from their six week hiatus on Sept 9, we too are praying they haven’t forgotten an important lesson from the past year—a crisis for farm bill lobbyists isn’t a crisis for farm country.
 
Going on three years now, apologists for massive federal spending on agriculture have been trying to pass a trillion dollar farm bill. From trying to stuff a backroom brokered bill through the Super Committee, to spinning tales of $8 milk, to underhanded bait and switch tactics (like jamming a subsidy-laden farm bill through the House of Representatives in under 24 hours), they’ve tried every trick in the book to pass a farm bill that squanders savings and creates new income entitlement programs.