{"id":2911,"date":"2012-01-08T17:37:00","date_gmt":"2012-01-08T17:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2012\/01\/fact-checking-fact-checks.html"},"modified":"2012-01-08T17:37:00","modified_gmt":"2012-01-08T17:37:00","slug":"fact-checking-fact-checks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2012\/01\/fact-checking-fact-checks.html","title":{"rendered":"Fact checking fact checks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

So ABC has its typical \u2018Fact Check\u2019 article<\/a> after the latest GOP debate.\u00a0 I don\u2019t have access to everything, so it\u2019s tough to say.\u00a0 I\u2019ve noticed a trend, though, throughout the years.\u00a0 According to various \u2018Fact Checks\u2019 that crop up around election time, Republicans are almost always less accurate than Democrats, and statements that hit at a GOP candidate\u2019s weak spot are almost always at least (mostly) accurate.\u00a0 Not a fact, just a trend I noticed.<\/p>\n

But\u00a0nevertheless, I thought I would read through this one, especially since Rick Perry called out the Obama Administration\u2019s more recent moves that have many people of faith, particular Christians and especially Catholics, a little worried.\u00a0 He called it nothing less than a war against religion in our country.\u00a0 I\u2019ve seen that phrase used more recently than I have before.\u00a0 Much of it has to do with forcing organizations, even religious ones, to adopt certain practices that might otherwise be against the dictates of their religious conscience, especially where sexual identity or abortion and contraception are concerned.<\/p>\n

Of course ABC feels this is not accurate.\u00a0 Or does it?\u00a0 Here\u2019s the whole section:<\/p>\n

\n
\u201cRick Perry accused President Obama of battling religion \u2014 Catholicism in particular \u2014 in tonight\u2019s debate, saying those battles would \u201cstop\u201d if the Texas governor is elected president.<\/div>\n

In particular, Perry cited the Obama administration\u2019s decision in September to deny funding to Catholic charities for victims of sex trafficking. Perry opined that Obama did so because he disagrees with Catholics over abortion.
The Christian Post<\/span><\/a> wrote that the Obama administration made the decision \u201cbecause it does not provide clients with access to abortion and birth control services.\u201d
\u201cThis administration\u2019s war on religion is what bothers me greatly,\u201d Perry said at the debate.<\/p>\n

Perry\u2019s rhetoric might be an exaggeration, though it\u2019s certainly reminiscent of an ad he released in which he said: \u201cYou don\u2019t need to be in the pew every Sunday to know there\u2019s something wrong in this country when gays can serve openly in the military but our kids can\u2019t openly celebrate Christmas or pray in school. As president, I\u2019ll end Obama\u2019s war on religion.\u201d<\/div>\n
Most respondents in a poll by Yahoo! don\u2019t agree with Perry\u2019s assessment of the White House\u2019s stance on religion. Out of nearly 20,000 votes in a real-time poll conducted by Yahoo.com during the debate, 58 percent of voters said they didn\u2019t agree with the Texas governor.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

You get that?\u00a0 Where was the \u201cFact Check\u201d?\u00a0 According to a Yahoo Poll?\u00a0 Are you kidding me?\u00a0 And 58% of \u2018voters\u2019 taking part in this vast scientific survey on Yahoo.com,\u00a0 58% said they didn\u2019t agree with Perry?\u00a0 So what the hell does that mean?\u00a0 And what of the 42% that did!\u00a0 So when only 42% of people thought gay should marry, it was obviously OK that they couldn\u2019t?\u00a0 42% of Americans who think the highest office in the land has their religious beliefs in the cross hairs is a pretty damn significant story, if you ask me.<\/p>\n

Naturally, and I hate to break the news, but online polls aren\u2019t the most accurate.\u00a0 Second, the demographics are far from representative of the nation as a whole.\u00a0 Plus, of course, you can have party splits there.\u00a0 You just don\u2019t know.\u00a0 But what I do know, and to me what is telling, is this.\u00a0 First, ABC had nothing to lean on to \u2018refute\u2019 this \u2018fact\u2019 of Perry\u2019s charge other than a Yahoo poll.\u00a0 That screams something right there.\u00a0 Second, some 84,000 out of 200,000 think the highest office in the land is casting aside the Bill of Rights to attack their religious freedom.\u00a0 If that\u2019s the best ABC can do to suggest I shouldn\u2019t worry, I think it might be prudent for people who take their religious faith seriously to start worrying. <\/p>\n

Another thing.\u00a0 I operate on the \u2018fool me once, shame on you\u2019 philosophy.\u00a0 That\u2019s why I don\u2019t put much faith in the media.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think all journalists are liars, agenda driven pundits manipulating facts to ramrod some ideological perspective down America\u2019s throat.\u00a0 I just don\u2019t know the ones who do from the ones who don\u2019t.\u00a0 Likewise, I don\u2019t know that every show on the History Channel<\/em> is crap.\u00a0 There might be some about topics I know nothing about that are pre-post modern scholarship level.\u00a0 But since I\u2019ve seen stories in the news and shows on the History Channel about topics I do know something about, and found them wanting at best, I have to be suspicious about the ones I don\u2019t know anything about.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Same here.\u00a0 I\u2019ve never put much trust in \u2018fact checking\u2019 like this.\u00a0 Especially in our society which, as I\u2019ve said before, is based on pundits, not principles.\u00a0 But seeing a farce like this, and seeing such a lame and transparent attempt to hide the obvious fact (one it was otherwise unable to refute) that Obama\u2019s Administration is pushing legislation that could jeopardize religious freedom, I think from now on I\u2019ll have even less concern about what the latest journalist\u2019s fact check has to say, and more concern about the religious rights of Americans.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So ABC has its typical \u2018Fact Check\u2019 article after the latest GOP debate.\u00a0 I don\u2019t have access to everything, so it\u2019s tough to say.\u00a0 I\u2019ve noticed a trend, though, throughout the years.\u00a0 According to various \u2018Fact Checks\u2019 that crop up around election time, Republicans are almost always less accurate than Democrats, and statements that hit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2805,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nFact checking fact checks<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"So ABC has its typical 'Fact Check' article after the latest GOP debate.  I don't have access to everything, so it's tough to say.  I've noticed\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, 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