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Now that 2015 is in the rear view mirror, the scribes at PolitiFact Georgia want to take a moment and reflect on our fifth full year of digging through the claims and statements by and about our Peach State leaders.
PolitiFact Georgia published 257 fact checks in the past year. And about 24 percent were ruled True.
Believe it or not, that was the largest category, by percentage. And it’s an improvement from 2013, when just 15 percent of claims were ruled True, and from 2014, with a slightly better 17 percent.
Another sign that our newsmakers might have been a little more accurate last year: The Pants on Fire ruling that signifies a statement so inaccurate it’s ridiculous scorched just 5 percent of the claims.
Adding in the False rulings brings the number of claims that were flat wrong to 13 percent last year. That’s the lowest annual percentage since we started, and a massive drop from the 31 percent of fact checks that earned the lowest rulings in 2011.
For those doing the math, that means the bulk of the checks – written either by our PolitiFact team here, our colleagues in Washington or by PolitiFact partners in other states – had some truth in them but were missing context or the nuance to make them fully accurate.
The Mostly True claims accounted for about 19 percent of the total, a dip from last year’s 23 percent. Still, it again edged out Half True rulings, which came in at 17 percent.
Both rulings apply for claims that need more information, or clarification, to be on target.
At the lower end of the Truth-O-Meter, the Mostly False claims that contain just a nugget of truth accounted for just about 8 percent.
It should be no surprise that most of our checks were on claims from Republicans, who dominate statewide office and our Congressional delegation.
About 28 percent of the 88 fact-checks on Republicans and conservatives were ruled True. About 15 percent were found to be False or Pants on Fire.
Democrats accounted for just 57 checks but had similar outcomes. About 23 percent of Dems’ claims were ruled True, while about 16 percent earned a False or Pants on Fire ruling.
We’ll see how they fare in 2016, with what promises to be an intriguing campaign for president.
The front runners of each party have kept us on our fact-checking toes.
There is no telling what’s next. But PolitiFact Georgia will be watching, and checking the facts.
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