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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.
PolitiFact Georgia fact-checked a claim last week about pastor Creflo Dollar's now abandoned plans to raise $65 million to buy the world's fastest and most luxurious business jet.
At the other end of the spectrum, we looked at a claim by state Rep. Tyrone Brooks that some state employees are earning so little they can qualify for food stamps.
Also taking a spin on the AJC Truth-O-Meter were claims that whales live as long at SeaWorld s they do in the wild, that announced Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush has his own email issues and that interest payments on the national debt will be larger than the projected defense spending by 2023.
Full versions of our fact checks can be found at www.politifact.com/georgia/
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Abbreviated versions of our fact checks are below.
Juda Engelmayer
A public backlash prompted Creflo Dollar, televangelist and pastor of World Changers Church International in College Park, to drop plans to raise money so he could travel the world in the fastest and most luxurious jet ever-built.
The Gulfstream G650 costs at least $65 million, and Dollar and other church leaders had made a pitch to have 200,000 of the faithful donate $300-plus each that would go toward its purchase.
Juda Engelmayer, a New York public relations specialist representing Creflo Dollar Ministries, said the G650 had the fuel efficiency, speed, cargo space and seating the ministry requires. The ministry's mission involved not only spreading the Word of God, but also taking thousands, sometimes 100,000 pounds of food and supplies, to those in need, he said.
Dollar preaches what is known as the prosperity gospel, a religious doctrine that financial blessing is the will of God for Christians.
The G650 would replace a jet the church has owned since 1999 that was permanently taken out of service after being damaged late last year in a runway accident in London, Long said in a fund-raising video.
An aviation expert and the G650's manufacturers confirmed that the jet is not a cargo airplane and not capable of carrying hundreds of thousands of pounds of food and supplies. it's a luxury airplane with seating for 18 that billionaires have lined up to buy.
We found the claim that the airplane was needed to carry massive amounts of food and supplies inaccurate and bordering on ridiculous.
We rated it Pants on Fire
Tyrone Brooks on Tuesday, January 20th 2015 in a statement
State lawmakers are spending taxpayer money for parking that billionaire Arthur Blank could build while paying some state employees so little they are on food stamps.
Veteran state Rep. Tyrone Brooks, D-Atlanta, recently questioned the state's spending priorities.
After saying no state money was going to be spent on a new stadium for the Atlanta Falcons, lawmakers put $17 million last year and $23 million this year into parking for the team's fans. But meanwhile, some state employees are earning so little that they qualify for food stamps, Brooks said.
"Our priorities are so mixed up," Brooks said.
He said his claim was backed up by a report, which he could not produce.
We could not find any official state data backing up his claims but found several examples of state jobs with potentially qualifying salaries. Food stamps are available to people in Georgia with a gross household
income that does not exceed 130 percent of the federal poverty level, $1,265 a month ($15,180 a year) for one person and $2,584 a month ($31,008 a year) for a family of four.
Given those thresholds, PolitiFact Georgia found it was highly plausible that there are state workers who are eligible for food stamps. At the state Division of Family and Children Services, which administers the food stamp program, "there's no question we have a percentage of staff who turn to [food stamps] to support their family" said Susan Boatwright, spokeswoman for the state Division of Family and Children Services.
The agency has many single parents in entry-level caseworker jobs earning $24,322, Boatwright said.
We concluded there was anecdotal evidence to back up Brooks' claim.
But since he did not produce the evidence he said existed to back up the claim, we rated his statement Half True.
Fiscal Year 2016 Budget Resolution from House Budget Chair Tom price, R-Roswell
"Under current conditions, by 2023, the interest payments on the national debt will be $722 billion, larger than the projected defense spending of $696 billion."
Republicans have full control of Congress for the first time since President Obama has been in office, and an Atlantan has a key role in formulating the national budget.
"Under current conditions, by 2023, interest payments on the nation's debt alone will be $722 billion," House Budget Chair Tom Price R-Roswell wrote in the budget blueprint. "That will be larger than (Congressional Budget Office's) projected defense spending budget of $696 billion."
Most budget watchers have played down those claims, since fiscal conservatives and defense hawks have just worked to pass a budget that opens up Senate negotiations over a so-called reconciliation package that can go after Obamacare.
But is the Price blueprint right?
Prices' figures are based on the best-available data, which tries to project a decade out. Those projections can and will change, though how is impossible to know.
The decision to compare military spending with debt is not a common way to benchmark projections. But even the broader comparisons Price could have made – about the share of the nation's economic output being spent on interest payments – support that broader argument.
We rate his claim True.
SeaWorld on Tuesday, March 24th, 2015 in an ad
"Whales live as long at SeaWorld" as they do in the Wild
More and more, critics are making the case that keeping killer whales in captivity is harmful to the animals and dangerous for the people who train them. SeaWorld, the theme park that showcases the trained whales, is now fighting back.
A new ad, part of a multimedia blitz for the company, is headlined, "Fact: Whales live as long at SeaWorld," and it is written in the voice of Chris Dold, a SeaWorld veterinarian. The ad, which has appeared in the Tampa Bay Times, takes specific aim at criticism leveled by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, an animal-rights group that has been among the theme park company's biggest critics.
At its core, this claim is an oversimplification of a much more complex issue.
Recent independent data suggests that survival rates for captive and wild orcas are about equal, but that by itself isn't all that significant, experts told us. The data is limited and comparisons between orcas in captivity and in the wild are tenuous.
Experts also noted that logic suggests captive whales should live longer because they don't face predators and receive medical care, which makes SeaWorld's claim further misleading.
Lastly, experts said that a simple measurement of survival rates (or lifespan) serves as a smokescreen from the more fundamental question of the conditions for whales in captivity.
The statement is partially accurate but leaves out important details, so we rate it Half True.
James Carville on Sunday, March 15th, 2015 in a broadcast of 'This Week with George Stephanopoulous'
"Jeb Bush has released 10 percent of his emails."
As governor of Florida, Jeb Bush burnished his tech and public access credentials by using a personal email account to supplement the one the state provided.
Prior to Hillary Clinton's troubles, Bush set up a special website for the public to browse any of those emails that dealt with official business. Like Clinton, Bush himself determined which ones were private and which would be made public, but the move was largely seen as a way to mark Bush as a candidate who walks the walk when it comes to transparency.
This led Democratic activist James Carville to challenge how transparent Bush really is.
"Jeb Bush has released 10 percent of his emails," Carville said on ABC's This Week, March 15, 2015. "He had a private email server. He destroyed his emails."
We found that the numbers don't add up. The numbers used by Carville himself include 2.5 million emails sent to state run accounts. Those emails are subject to a public records request.
It is completely inaccurate to say that Bush only revealed 275,000 or 280,000 emails out of a total of 3 million. A more accurate reading would be that he revealed about half of the emails sent to his private account, and the rest were already available to the press, although some might be held back if they were strictly personal in nature.
We rate the claim False.
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