Politifact Website Analysis

Nine years ago, three confused voters started a website aimed at separating the fact from the fiction in global politics. Today, three and a half million confused voters trust that very site to provide clarification after debates that leave more questions than answers. That website was Politifact and its executive director, Aaron Sharockman spoke to the power of truth in an increasingly volatile political climate, Wednesday in the Fred W. Smith Forum. He told the audience of 40 students and faculty members that while he believes people have never voted solely for the most honest politician, it doesn’t mean that facts lack weight with those casting a ballot. “Readers really care about this quest for truth and the advancement of truth,” said Sharockman. The truth Politifact aims for is often lost in a disparity between what people want and what media delivers. “They want
Despite the service PolitiFact provides, for MU sophomore Channing Phillips, the amount of false information circulating is utterly overwhelming. “Everything you hear, all of the articles you read, you assume are probably true,” Phillips said. “But, it turns out to be half or completely false.”
Sharockman made the case that the vast amount of misinformation voters young and old are exposed to is the reason why Politifact is so vital in modern society. In the “rapid spread of information” that emerged since the site launched in 2007 during the Obama-McCain race, any voter’s Facebook feed is full of misinformation, something Sharockman hopes Politifact can work with the company to eradicate.
Sharockman also broke down how Politifact rates degree of truthfulness for each statement. The “fact” in question is researched, conferred upon by a board of three staff members, and then categorized on a scale of true to half false to pants on fire, the ultimate wasteland for words that fall from lips and die at