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 a few hours or a few days, 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.
The weather was overcast and rainy. But PolitiFact Georgia and the AJC Truth-O-Meter tried to part the clouds a bit last week with four hard-news fact-checks.
We examined whether Michelle Nunn, a possible 2014 Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, praised the Occupy movement in a 2011 newspaper op-ed. We also checked former U.S. Rep. Bob Barr’s record on the Defense of Marriage Act to determine whether the DOMA author had strayed from his initial commitment. Our national colleagues counted Border Patrol agents and miles along the southern border for a claim about the immigration bill. And we examined a claim about the death penalty made by former President Jimmy Carter.
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. You can also find us on Twitter.
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Former President Jimmy Carter: “(T)he United States government and its Constitution says that people can be put to death.”
This was the second part of a duo of claims by the former president that PolitiFact Georgia checked over the past two weeks. Like the previous statement, Carter made this claim during a Time magazine interview last month in advance of a women’s conference held at the Carter Center.
Carter opposes the death penalty and said the government’s allowance of capital punishment “sets an example of extreme violence that very few other developed, industrialized nations would have.”
There have been 37 federal prisoners executed since 1927, the most notable being Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh in 2001. Our research on the topic supported Carter’s statement. The U.S. Attorney General’s Office has guidelines on prosecuting such cases, and the Supreme Court has ruled capital punishment can be employed under the Constitution, although there is still much discussion about its interpretation.
We rated Carter’s claim True.
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National Republican Senatorial Committee: Michelle Nunn has praised the Occupy movement.
The NRSC made this claim about Nunn, a potential Democratic candidate for U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss’ seat, in a news release last month.
The group based Its argument on an op-ed Nunn wrote in 2011. The op-ed referenced Occupy a couple of times, and the NRSC used the column as an example of Nunn’s “extreme record of praising radical liberal groups” that it says shows she is out of touch with Georgia voters.
Nunn did not comment directly on the claim or her op-ed. But her supporters told us the intent of her article was to talk about young people and their role in the marketplace. The bulk of the op-ed was about millennials — people typically born between 1980 and 2000 — not the Occupy movement.
The claim had an element of truth but ignored critical factors that give a different impression.
We rated the NRSC’s claim Mostly False.
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State Rep. Ed Lindsey: Bob Barr has changed his position on the Defense of Marriage Act over the years.
Lindsey and Barr are both Republican congressional candidates for U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey’s seat. (Gingrey is running for the U.S. Senate.) Lindsey used last month’s Supreme Court ruling on the Defense of Marriage Act to score a political win against his rival.
Barr, a former Georgia congressman, authored and guided DOMA to passage as a Republican in the mid-1990s. But then Barr became a Libertarian, and our research found that he apologized for his role in getting the bill passed and called for the law’s repeal on multiple occasions. As a Libertarian, Barr has said DOMA has been used by the government to overstep its authority.
Now, seeking office as a Republican, Barr says he has come to understand that this is a matter for states to handle.
Barr has refused to directly comment on the Supreme Court’s decision striking down a part of DOMA. But his silence doesn’t dismiss his past.
We rated Lindsey’s claim True.
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Bill Maher: If it is enacted, the Senate immigration bill is “going to make the Border Patrol bigger than the FBI — you could put one agent every 250 feet.”
Comedian Bill Maher made this statement last month during an episode of his HBO show “Real Time with Bill Maher” during a discussion about an amendment to the Senate immigration bill.
The amendment would add 19,200 additional full-time active-duty Border Patrol agents along the southern border. The latest statistics we found reported that in 2012, there were 18,516 Border Patrol agents in that area. That would make the new total 37,716 once the newcomers are added. That beats the FBI’s 35,629 employees reported in 2012.
On the second point, the southern border between the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico, spans 10.32 million feet. Doing the math, you could space out agents one every 274 feet (or, using the widely published 40,000 figure, you could put them every 258 feet). Either way, Maher’s calculation was very close to accurate.
We rated Maher’s statement True.
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