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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 statements last week about the racial and ethnic diversity of the sheriff’s office in Gwinnett and whether an openly gay man has ever won election to the Georgia General Assembly.
On the national front, PolitiFact looked at a claim by Stephen Colbert, in his new role as Dave Letterman replacement on The Late Show about the record of Republican icon Ronald Reagan. Donald Trump hit the Truth-O-Meter again, this time with a tweet that said: “The birther movement was started by Hillary Clinton in 2008. She was all in!”
Abbreviated versions of our fact checks are below.
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Full versions can be found at www.politifact.com/georgia/.
The racial and ethnic makeup of the Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Office mirrors the community it serves.
Butch Conway in a press conference on September 16th, 2015
Gwinnett County Sheriff Butch Conway recently said publicly that the racial and ethnic makeup of his department mirrors the large and diverse north metro county it serves.
PolitiFact Georgia decided to take a look.
All major ethnic and racial groups in the county are represented in the department, according to data we reviewed.
Currently, the Sheriff’s Department has a staff of 706, of which is 55.81
percent is white, 35.55 percent is African-American, 5.95 percent is Hispanic, 2.27
percent is Asian/Pacific Islander and 0.42 percent is Native American/Alaskan.
Some minority and ethnic groups are more proportionally represented in the
department than others. But Conway’s overarching point stands up.
We rated his statement as True.
Georgia Voice on Thursday, September 17th, 2015 in a news story
No openly gay man has ever been elected to the Georgia Legislature.
Just months after a historic U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex marriage, an Atlanta newspaper that focuses on LGBT news said Georgia may be poised to make history of its own.
If elected, two announced candidates for seats in the Georgia House of
Representatives would become the first gay men elected to the state Legislature,
according to the Georgia Voice.
“Roughly a dozen have tried and failed in the last decade, ” Patrick Saunders
wrote in the piece examining the campaigns of Rafer Johnson and Josh Noblitt.
But gay lawmakers, and allies, led the unsuccessful fight against Georgia’s
2004 ban on same-sex marriage and were part of the effort to kill state
religious freedom bills for the past two years.
So with lawmakers pledging to bring back, for the third, time, the religious
freedom bill, PolitiFact Georgia wondered: Have voters never send an openly gay
man to the 236-member General Assembly?
Newspaper archives and a statewide advocacy group that follows the issue back
up the claim.
Voters have sent three lesbians to serve under the Gold Dome. And one man
came out during his stint in office but lost when he ran for re-election.
We rated the claim True.
Donald Trump on Tuesday, October 22nd, 2015 in a tweet
“The birther movement was started by Hillary Clinton in 2008. She was all in!”
In some back-and-forth between the presidential candidates, Donald Trump put out a tweet on Oct. 22, saying “the birther movement was started by Hillary Clinton in 2008. She was all in!”
The birther movement refers to the long-running myth that Barack Obama was not born in the United States and thus, under the Constitution, could not be president. Trump promoted this belief avidly for several years with anyone who would listen.
The allegation about Obama’s birthplace tracks back to the bruising 2008 Democratic primary between Obama and Clinton. According to a newspaper account, as early as April 2008, a Clinton supporter passed around an email that questioned where Obama was born.
But most of the talk started after Clinton suspended her 2008 presidential campaign. And the only thing she officially has ever done is deny any accusation of starting a whisper campaign.
We rated this claim False.
Stephen Colbert on Monday, September 21st, 2015
Says Ronald Reagan “reversed his world’s ‘largest tax cut’ and raised taxes when revenues did not match the expectations.”
Stephen Colbert has interviewed a slew of presidential candidates in the first weeks of his new job hosting CBS’ The Late Show, including Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.
His time with Cruz on Sept. 21 stood out for a fact-filled back and forth about a major Republican role model, President Ronald Reagan. Colbert asked Cruz if he could agree with Reagan’s support of amnesty for undocumented immigrants and record of raising taxes amid budget shortfalls.
Cruz said “of course not” before pivoting to Reagan’s most conservative accomplishments, one being that he “signed the largest tax cut in history” and spurred economic growth.
Colbert jumped in, saying “But when conditions changed in the country, he reversed his world’s ‘largest tax cut’ and raised taxes when revenues did not match the expectations. So it’s a matter of compromising.”
PolitiFact wondered if Colbert’s retort was on the money or overstated.
As Cruz said, the Gipper really did cut taxes — with the help of Congress — in his first year as president.
It was the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981, a $38 billion phased-in cut ($99 billion in 2015 dollars). This law included across-the-board cuts of about 30 percent to statutory income tax rates.
As Colbert said, Reagan raised taxes, too. Two laws, one in 1982 and another in 1984, were especially dramatic, but that did not completely reverse the 1981 Economic Recovery Tax Act.
The broader point Colbert makes is on point. Reagan agreed to raise taxes to deal with budget deficits, even if he wasn’t enthusiastic about it.
We rated the claim Mostly True.
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