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How does PolitiFact Georgia’s Truth-O-Meter work?
Our goal is to help you find the truth in American politics. Reporters from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution fact-check statements by local, state and national political leaders, including lobbyists and interest groups. We then rate them on the AJC Truth-O-Meter.
To fact-check a claim, reporters first contact the speaker to verify the statement. Next, the research begins. Reporters consult a variety of sources, including industry and academic experts. This research can take hours or a few days or even longer, depending on the claim. Reporters then compile the research into story form and include a recommended Truth-O-Meter ruling.
The fact check then moves on to a panel of veteran editors who debate the statement and the reporter’s recommended Truth-O-Meter ruling. The panel votes on a final ruling; majority prevails.
Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump and the link between champagne consumption and demential all provided fodder for fact-checks last week.
PolitiFact Georgia also checked Facebook claims that the U.S. government was using distraction of the Paris tragedy to pass a law requiring vaccinations for public schoolchildren.
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Abbreviated versions of our fact-checks can be found below.
Full versions can be found at www.politifact.com/georgia/.
Viral media reports on Monday, November 9th, 2015
Drinking champagne could help prevent Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia.
A story making the rounds on social media raises hopes about raising glasses.
A new study, the headlines cheer, shows drinking champagne — three glasses every week or every day, depending who is posting the story — could prevent Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia.
But before deciding to make three-hour brunches the new healthy workday, PolitiFact Georgia did some checking.
We didn’t find the new breakthrough study that some might have been expecting.
Rather, we discovered social media abuzz about a study from May 2013 by scientists at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom.
Those researchers found that drinking champagne might counteract age-related memory loss and help delay the onset of degenerative brain disorders, such as dementia, according to a press release at the time.
It was based on testing in a small group of rats, which the National Health Service in Britain says would need to be repeated in a larger sample. And it still might not have any implications in humans.
To imply otherwise is very misleading.
We rated the statement False.
Donald Trump on Tuesday, November 10th, 2015 in the Fox Business Network debate
Says President Dwight Eisenhower “moved 1.5 million illegal immigrants out of this country.”
Real estate mogul Donald Trump recently reiterated his proposal to deport the country’s illegal immigrants.
History indicates his plan would work, Trump said at the Republican presidential debate in Wisconsin.
“Let me just tell you that Dwight Eisenhower, good president, great president, people liked him. ‘I like Ike, ’ right?” Trump said in the Nov. 10 debate hosted by Fox Business Network. “Moved 1.5 million illegal immigrants out of this country, moved them just beyond the border.”
Eisenhower did oversee a 1950s campaign that deported undocumented immigrants. But did he really move that many in one operation?
Trump is referring to a 1954 campaign to deport illegal immigrants. While the idea that the operation resulted in more than 1 million deportations is not pulled out of thin air, historians widely cite that number as far too high for a variety of reasons —- including the fact that hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants would have had to self-deport.
We rated Trump’s claim Half True.
Bernie Sanders on Saturday, November 14th, 2015 in comments at the Iowa Democratic debate
500,000 U.S. troops came home from Iraq and Afghanistan “with PTSD and traumatic brain injury.”
Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders turned the discussion to the care provided to American veterans with a startling statistic: 500,000 returned service members have experienced post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injuries.
“When you talk about the long-term consequences of war, let’s talk about the men and women who came home from war, ” Sanders said. “The 500,000 who came home with PTSD and traumatic brain injury.”
Sanders has been making this claim for more than a year, including on Twitter in 2014, in a 2014 CNN interview and at a Minnesota campaign event last summer.
Have 500,000 American veterans really returned home from recent conflicts with PTSD and brain injuries?
Sanders’ claim is at the higher end of the range of estimates available.
No firm numbers exist for the number of veterans who have returned from America’s most recent conflicts with post-traumatic stress disorder or traumatic brain injuries. But Sanders’ claim of 500,000 does fall within the range of estimates provided by the VA and other sources.
Sanders’ statement needs that caveat.
We rated it Mostly True.
Viral image, November 17th, 2015
While Americans pray for Paris, the government has acted on mandatory national vaccinations.
A meme that appeared on Facebook and other social media sites in the wake of the terrorist attack in Paris attempted to make a point about vaccines.
The wording, over the image of a syringe with a skull inside and the words National Mandatory Vaccinations stamped on top, was awkward clear:
“While Americans pray for Paris, France, their government sent HR (House Resolution) 2232 to Congress,” it read.
The implication, of course, is that politicians took advantage of an international tragedy to quickly enact controversial legislation.
To be clear, HR 2232 exists. U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Florida, introduced the Vaccinate All Children Act of 2015 on May 1.
Her proposal would restrict the federal government from awarding preventive health service grants to state-level entities unless that state required all public schoolchildren be vaccinated. Exemptions are in place, only for medical reasons.
But there has been no movement on the proposal since a week after it was introduced last spring.
That’s the last bit of truth to the meme. The rest of the message and implication border on the ludicrous.
We rated the claim Pants on Fire.
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