Document Type
Article
Journal Title
Virginia Social Science Journal
Publication Date
2019
Abstract
An analysis of statements by President Obama and by Democratic and Republican members of Congress selected for analysis by PolitiFact.com and Washington Post Fact Checker reveals that PolitiFact was more likely to find greater deceit in Republican rhetoric and that the Fact Checker was more negative overall in its assessments. Legislators who had more than one statement analyzed during the study period were disproportionally likely to be influential members of the House or Senate leadership or likely 2016 presidential candidates. The lawmakers selected for greater scrutiny were also more likely to be more ideologically extreme than the median members of their party caucuses.
Publisher Statement
Access to the Virginia Social Science Journal is granted under creative commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. You may share this non-modified material for non-commer-cial purposes, but you must give appropriate attribution. Contact the author of this work for other uses.
Recommended Citation
Farnsworth, S. & Lichter, S. (2019). Partisan Targets of Media Fact-checking: Examining President Obama and the 113th Congress. Virginia Social Science Journal, Vol. 53, pp. 51-62.
Comments
Original article is available in the Virginia Social Science Journal at: https://virginiasocialscience.org/virginia-social-science-journal/.