Politifact: Mitt Romney Claims Unemployment Fell to 4.7% During His Term. Official Government Data Says Unemployment Fell to 4.7% In His Term. We Rate Mitt Romney's Claim "Half True."

Wow.

Actually: Actually, I'm going to cut PolitiFact some slack here -- but only some, because I think they are being unclear about their rating.

Their headline says they're rating the "claim" (fact) that unemployment fell to 4.7% under Mitt Romney's governorship.

But then their article purports to rate an ad claiming this fall can be attributed to Mitt Romney.

I think it's much, much more defensible to say Mitt Romney's claim of ownership of this is "half true." Then you can add in questions about whether a governor really controls the state economy, and so on.

However, their headline says that the naked fact of 4.7% unemployment is Half-True.

They can either change the headline (the statement being reviewed) or the rating.

The claim "Mitt Romney suggests his stewardship propelled Massachusetts to 4.7% unemployment" could, I suppose, be fairly rated as "Half True."

But that's not what the headline says -- the headline says (for immediate use in Obama political ads) that the naked fact of 4.7% unemployment is half true.

This is like a movie reviewer deliberately inserting "THRILL RIDE OF THE SUMMER" just so the movie ad campaign will quote him.

Obama needs headlines like this to suggest that Mitt Romney is lying about the 4.7%. PolitiFact rides to his rescue, proving just such an ad-friendly headline.

But then the article changes the entire topic under discussion.

Clean up your act, PolitiFarce.

posted by Ace at 04:47 PM

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