Who Checks the Fact Checkers?

 Here's a paragraph from the Republic's latest Gabby Giffords update.  Can you find the obvious error?

She was elected to the state House in 2000 and ran for the state Senate in 2002 after the death of Tucson Sen. Andy Nichols, becoming at 32 the youngest state senator in Arizona history. She resigned from that position in December 2005 to run for the congressional seat being vacated by retiring Rep. Jim Kolbe, a Republican.

Youngest in history?  Give me a break.  Anyone who has any experience with history knows that there have been plenty of young people in both the House and Senate.  When I served in the House, we had an "under 30 caucus".   Keith Bee was a member of that caucus and was was elected to the House at 24 and then elected to the Senate at 26.  That's just one obvious example of a Senator who was younger than Gabby.

Does is matter?  Yes.  The Republic has been running a series called "Arizona Fact Check" in which the goal is to "Keep Arizona Honest."   There's only two problems with this approach...politicians are more accurate than journalists, and the Republic uses these "fact checks" to ding people the reporters don't like. 

For example, check out how many twists and turns reporters Stephanie Russo and Alia Beard Rau had to go through in order to declare Senator Al Melvin's statement about the Republican Caucus "false."

Or how about this labryinth that Dennis Wagner has to create in order to claim that David Schweikert's assertion that stimulus money was used to fund Fast and Furious is somehow false.

This from the same crew that never bothered to cover Fast and Furious when it was unfolding and who often botch even the most basic facts.

Comments

[janfan]

The Republic's copy desk, which should catch such errors, has been decimated by the many rounds of layoffs. That said, it is still sloppy reporting/writing by the author of the story.

As for Schweikert, Greg, any time you write about him you should include a disclaimer that he is your best buddy. In the real world of journalism a reporter is not allowed to write about friends. That's just another difference between journalists and bloggers. An important difference if you care about basic ethics.

[RonJ]

janfan: "In the real world of journalism a reporter is not allowed to write about friends." Really? Seriously? Of course, you are kidding. The incestuous relationship between the media and leftist politicians borders on criminal. The mainstream media is and has been in the tank for Democrats for decades. And it's not just at an ideological level--it's personal. The press whores themselves to Dems and vice versa.

[Surprised]

Wow, hadn't seen the Melvin "Fact Check" piece. Ironically, it too has at least one factual error:

"The Center for Arizona Policy, from which Melvin says he got his information, did not include responses from all legislators."

No, the Center for Arizona Policy did not RECEIVE responses from all legislators. It's an optional survey, and they print every one they get.

[westsider]

Greg, are you fact checking the story about how many coyote-sightings there have been in Arcadia?

[janfan]

Ron J.,
You, and Gov. Finger Wagger, are both idiots.

[RonJ]

janfan: great comeback. You got me. I'm crushed.

[westsider]

"I must say that among educated people, politics occupies far too great a proportion of their time. . .Questions of higher spirit cannot even be compared to the sort of blinking frivolity of politics. The ultimate problems of life and death show the colossal nature of this difference even more...People are prepared to stuff their heads with anything, and to talk on any subject, while actually blocking off any true contemplation of the [whole] issue. This is the reason for the increased pettiness of our society, and our concentration on the small and the irrelevant." - Alexander Solzhenitsyn