Hockey check on Politifact.com

I couldn't help my self, Sorry for the hocky referance....

Some say that Political "mud slinging" is not good. On the contrary, You learn a lot about the character of the person throwing their target. It has been a long time since we have seen a good political fight. In today's presidential race we have a high profile fight. And It sure is exciting.

Politicians in the past have not always told the whole truth. I think it is no different to day. With today's world of Information it seems that stories can easily be corroborated. Because of the power of the web to find information and exchange it. There are more "Fact Check" groups that are supposed to be "independent and 3rd party" ie no bias. This is great! and welcome, so long as they truly are non-bias.

Which brings me to one such site that is getting some air time. "PolitiFact[Check].com"

See: http://www.politifact.com

Proof of ownership:
http://whois.domaintools.com/politifact.com

Official looking and sounding web site. The dead giveaway that this site is going to be bias is the sub heading. "from St. Petersburg Times." An old Newspaper agency re-born on the web and can be found at

http://www.tampabay.com

Proof of ownership: Proof:
http://whois.domaintools.com/tampabay.com

So on one hand you have an old liberal media newspaper that wants to present a "fact check" web site for their own reference and for the reference of their friends the democrats. On the other hand you have MSM that is starting to look more and more to the “blog-o-sphere” for news. Having a "3rd party" fact check site is a win-win for democratics and liberals to be presented as “just the facts.”

I want to make it clear that there is proof of what I write regarding the St. Petersburg Times. Here are examples of stories ran in the paper. These include political endorsements. I thought the papers where supposed to simply report the news not engage in supporting any one view.

St. Petersburg Times and their Democratic support:

"John Kerry is better choice for president..."

http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/sptimes/access/714754321.html?dids=714754321:714754321&FMT=FT&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Oct+17,+2004&author=&pub=St.+Petersburg+Times&edition=&startpage=2.P&desc=John+Kerry+is+better+choice+for+president+Series:+TIMES+RECOMMENDS;+EDITORIALS

"McBride for governor..."

http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/sptimes/access/217131361.html?dids=217131361:217131361&FMT=FT&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Oct+20,+2002&author=&pub=St.+Petersburg+Times&edition=&startpage=2.D&desc=McBride+for+governor+Series:+EDITORIAL

"Gore for president Series: TIMES RECOMMENDS"

http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/sptimes/access/63023546.html?dids=63023546:63023546&FMT=FT&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Oct+29,+2000&author=&pub=St.+Petersburg+Times&edition=&startpage=2.D&desc=Gore+for+president+Series:+TIMES+RECOMMENDS

You can depend with this kind of backing that on the front page there will be a heading something to the effect of “republican candidates are lying again” and here is the proof. It is sad how predictable it is.

Bottom line: Investigate the clams your self. See if the references given are credible. The one thing I try to do here is provide as many links to credible proof of what ever I'm writing about.

-- Peter Mathias

Thanks for some of the links goes to some of the posters on:

http://blogs.tampabay.com/buzz/2006/08/that_liberal_st.html