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 the 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 and 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 three-member panel of 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 put some serious claims about education, jobs and health care through the AJC Truth-O-Meter this past week. And for a bit of levity, the Grammys.
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius was in town last week discussing Medicaid, and we examined her claim about the program’s costs. We investigated the impact that changes to the requirements for Georgia’s HOPE scholarship have made on a Middle Georgia technical college’s enrollment. Our Washington, D.C., PolitiFact colleagues checked an often-repeated claim about the prevalence of part-time jobs in the aftermath of Obamacare and a struggling economy. And we researched a claim by rapper/producer Kanye West, who has had his share of run-ins with our current and former presidents.
Abbreviated versions of our fact checks are below. Full versions can be found at: www.politifact.com/georgia/.
To comment on our rulings or suggest one of your own, go to our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/politifact.georgia). You can also find us on Twitter (http://twitter.com/politifactga).
DuBose Porter: There are half as many students in one Georgia technical college than there were two years ago.
This claim was made during a candidate forum for people vying to become the next chairman of Georgia’s Democratic Party. Porter, a former state representative and one of the four party chairman candidates, made this claim about the impact of Republican tinkering with the HOPE higher education grant.
Porter’s claim was aimed at the Oconee Fall Line Technical College in Middle Georgia. In 2011, the GPA requirement for the HOPE grant was raised from 2.0 to 3.0 amid concerns that the program was running out of money. Data from the state’s Technical College System showed an enrollment drop after the HOPE changes of about 41 percent, and data Porter provided showed about a 36 percent decrease. Both data sets supported Porter’s overall point about enrollment declines, but the numbers were less than he claimed.
We rated Porter’s claim Mostly True.
Susan Collins: “This year, the overwhelming majority of new jobs are part time.”
Our PolitiFact national team checked this much-used claim, made this time by Collins, a Republican senator from Maine. She made the claim earlier this month in response to President Barack Obama’s weekly Saturday address.
Republicans, like Collins, note that Obama’s health care law requires larger employers to provide health insurance to their workers, which they say gives companies an incentive to cut workers’ hours so much that they become part-time workers and thus exempt from the health insurance mandate.
Also, some economists worry that since the most recent recession, companies have been unusually willing to hire part-time workers rather than full-time workers.
Statistics show that 77 percent of the increase in jobs between December 2012 and July 2013 consisted of part-time jobs. It’s worth noting that longer time frames show the opposite pattern, and that most of the part-time jobs being created are being taken by people who actually want to work part time.
We rated Collins’ claim True.
Kanye West: I have the most Grammys of anyone my age, but I haven’t won one against a white person.
West, an outspoken rapper/producer, made this claim during an interview with The New York Times just prior to the release of his album, “Yeezus,” earlier this summer. In the past, West has had run-ins with two presidents.
For this claim, our research found that West, age 36, has 21 Grammys. He is tied with singer-songwriter Alison Krauss for having attained that many Grammys at that age. On his claim that he’s never beaten out a white artist for a Grammy, West was incorrect. He has beaten white artists in album and song categories, including Eminem and the Beastie Boys.
West has claimed — and been supported by some music critics — that his music has been overlooked by Grammy judges in broad categories, like Album and Song of the Year, which he has never won.
We only looked at the facts of his statement, and didn’t examine this opinion.
We rated West’s claim Mostly False.
Kathleen Sebelius: Medicaid spending declined by 1.9 percent in 2012, the second such decline in 47 years.
The Obama administration’s top health care official visited Atlanta last week and made this claim during a speech at the National Conference of State Legislatures.
About 54 million Americans receive Medicaid, and program spending has consistently grown higher than the nation’s economic input. The costs rose dramatically following the Great Recession.
Data from Sebelius’ office showed federal Medicaid spending rose steadily since its creation. The only years we saw a decline were in 2006, when Medicare Part D took effect, and in 2011, which would include portions of fiscal year 2012. Other organizations sent us reports with similar findings: The only other year Medicaid spending decreased was in 2006.
The Health and Human Services secretary was making a much larger point: Medicaid costs might not increase as rapidly as some predicted, even though they will still go higher. Her claim is accurate but could have used more context.
We rated Sebelius’ claim Mostly True.
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