Is That a Fact?

I’ve found that it’s virtually impossible to ferret out truth from rhetoric during a presidential campaign. Often the best you can do is seek out a variety of sources and try to determine who is lying. Unfortunately, when claims and counterclaims are volleyed back and forth, I find that I am a poor polygraph. I don't think the press is any better, neither the liberal New York Times and major networks or the conservative Fox News and Wall Street Journal. There must be conscientious editors and publishers that try hard to be unbiased, but I’m never sure who they are. Further, in their effort to be non-partisan, the best they can manage is bi-partisanship, so the unfortunate reader has to settle for factional distortions from both sides.

One site I really like is www.factcheck.org. Their sacred mission is to expose the dishonesty, hyperbole and shady tactics from both sides of the fence, and hold all candidates accountable for their campaign rhetoric. The result is a bright light on the dirty world of American politics, which suffers badly from the illumination.

For the next nine months (what a painful gestation period!) the FactCheck RSS feed is in at the top of my home page. One unfortunate side-effect is that on November 4th I'll have to vote for a candidate who I know has dealt in lies and treachery at worst, or distortion and sophistry at best. And sadly, that's a fact.