Beware fact checking websites

Pacifico

In recent years several websites have sprung up purporting to 'fact check' claims by politicians, sites like Full Fact and PolitiFact. Well in light of recent events in Syria PolitiFact have 'retracted' their assessment of the Obamas Administrations claim to have got 100% of Chemical Weapons out of Syria.

In 2014 John Kerry claimed that 'We got '100 percent' of chemical weapons out of Syria' - which PolitiFact decided was true.

Archive of fact-check "Kerry: We got '100 percent' of chemical weapons out of Syria"  | PolitiFact

Now - PolitiFact have retracted that position and state:

"We don't know key details about the reported chemical attack in Syria on April 4, 2017, but it raises two clear possibilities: Either Syria never fully complied with its 2013 promise to reveal all of its chemical weapons; or it did, but then converted otherwise non-lethal chemicals to military uses," the site wrote.
"One way or another, subsequent events have proved Kerry wrong," PolitiFact concluded.


Perhaps a lesson not to take these so-called fact checking websites at face value?

Enki

Maybe Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

UPDATED Media Brief: Reported Use of Chemical Weapons, Southern Idlib, Syria, 4 April 2017

Enki

What's the problem?

They reported the facts as known. And when new information is revealed, they react properly and take account of it.

Sounds pretty trustworthy to me.

Toko Black

None, it was a suggestion rather than OPs list of opinion sites, who probably use OPCW as a part source, some of the time...

Pacifico

Nope, although quite a number of politicians and people with a particular political agenda may well very much like people to believe that to be the case - especially those that have a tendancy towards the 'alternative' truth side of things.

PolitiFact originally rated the statements/story as mostly True. Not 100%, not without any doubt, not I swear on a copy of The Art of the Deal true.

They investigated the claims and according to the OPCW, a Green Cross chemical weapons inspector and other sources the best of the evidence and knowledge came to the conclusion that
it was mostly True.

I believe most reasonable and rational people would accept and agree with that conclusion based on the evidence.
It turned out to be in error, but it is still reasonable and understandable.

Pacifico

Well the problem is that these sites set themselves up as the arbiter of what is true or not - if subsequently they say 'oh sorry we got it wrong' then it kinda defeats the object of having them in the first place.

If all you want are sites that say this is the truth based on my best guess then theres no shortage of them out there.

Pacifico

No they don't.

That particular site have a defined process. They attribute sources. They don't claim to be the single source of truth forever. And where new evidence comes to light they use it.

Perhaps read their process before you make claims about what they say they do.

Learn how PolitiFact does its work

Pacifico

"PolitiFact is a fact-checking website that rates the accuracy of claims by elected officials and others who speak up in American politics."

well by definition they couldn't confirm that the claims made by the Obama Administration were correct (they admit that in their retraction), so in this particular case they shouldn't have made any comment on the accuracy of the claim at all.

PC1975

Absolute tosh.

As TB pointed out, they said the claim was "mostly true".  They never said it was a 100% incontrovertible fact.

And even now, YOU can't say it was definitely 100% wrong.  For all we know, the chemical weapons were all removed, but the Syrian regime made more.  Or got them from Russia.  Or their (highly unlikely) claims that it was a rebel stockpile that got hit was true.

But either way, their rating of this "fact" in 2014 was made in good faith with the best information available at the time.  And now better information is known, they have changed their rating on this.

PC1975

If you are going to set yourself up as the arbiter of what is true or not then making an educated guess isn't really the best way to go about it. The fact is the Obama administration lied when they claimed that 100% of the Chemical weapons have been removed from Syria - they couldn't know if this was true and neither could Politifact.