News Reporter: Fact Checker: Donald Trump is elected president. Will his Pinocchio rating improve?

Friday, 11 November 2016

Fact Checker: Donald Trump is elected president. Will his Pinocchio rating improve?

The truth behind the rhetoric

Donald Trump is elected president. Will his Pinocchio rating improve?

When Donald Trump declared his presidency 18 months ago, we described him as “a fact checker’s dream and nightmare” because he spouts off so many twisted and inaccurate “facts” that take a lot of effort to decode. Sure enough, Trump went on to earn an astonishing 59 Four-Pinocchio rulings, amassing more Four-Pinocchio ratings over 18 months than all Republicans (or Democrats) combined in the past three years. Of course, Clinton had her own trustworthiness issues — particularly regarding her email controversy.

In all, we wrote 168 fact-checks of Clinton and Trump claims; 315 fact-checks of all candidates who ran for president; awarded 427 total Pinocchios to Clinton and Trump; and fact-checked about 400 claims from 25 debates.

While the campaign is over, fact-checking is more important than ever — as the politicians now assume their elected roles as leaders and policymakers. So we’re excited to fact-check the outgoing and incoming Congress, new administration and the political debates to come. (Though, at the moment, we’re slightly more excited about getting some rest and family time this weekend.)

We took some time to reflect on the campaign this week, and excerpts of our two essays are below.

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Glenn Kessler reflected on the campaign, and the challenges President Trump may face based on his relationship with the facts. Here’s an excerpt; read the full column here.

Some commentators have argued that the rise of Trump indicates that the United States has entered a post-fact era, but recent research indicates that fact checks do have an effect. In contrast to an earlier finding that fact checks may reinforce a false belief, new research — including a test of a claim about crime made by Trump — found that a fact check reduced the prevalence of a false belief.

Moreover, fact-checking websites all experienced huge surges in readership during the election campaign. The Fact Checker had five times more unique visitors than during the 2012 cycle.

Now that Trump will assume the presidency, he may find that it is not in his interest to keep making factually unsupported questions.

For instance, Trump frequently said that the unemployment rate is really 42 percent, rather than the 5 percent figure produced by the government. We know from readers that this claim, though false, was readily accepted by some supporters. But now Trump will head a government that includes the Bureau of Labor Statistics. So unless he orders the BLS to change the internationally accepted method by which it calculates the unemployment rate, his own government will be issuing numbers that directly contradict him.

From a political perspective, Trump faces another problem. If a 5 percent unemployment rate translates to 42 percent, under his accounting, then even reducing the official rate to zero would mean an unemployment rate of 37 percent — which is not much of a platform for reelection.

Every new president starts with a clean slate, and we are eager to see whether Trump improves his Pinocchio ratings once he takes the oath of office.

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Michelle Ye Hee Lee wrote about her experience facing racism and sexism as an Asian woman fact-checking a politically charged election.

The first email calling me a "b—-" for my Pinocchio rating came early in the election season, when there were so many presidential candidates it was hard to keep track. I showed it to my colleague and editor Glenn Kessler. He was surprised; people don't really call him that. Over the next 18 months or so, "b—-" became one of the more pedestrian names I was called for doing my job.

Facing intense criticism is just a part of being a fact checker. Politics is personal, which means fact checks are too, especially when our ratings or analyses challenge people's core political beliefs. I expected the volume of criticism to swell throughout the campaign, and it did. But what surprised me was just how fiercely racist and sexist the comments became.

"Who knew that 'happy endings' at the local DC Chinese owned massage parlor could earn you a press pass and journalistic credential? … Perhaps you are better suited for rolling egg rolls and making wonton soup. Get off your knees and go back to the kitchen."

"Michelle, the sex workers in Times Square have more integrity about their prostitution than you have about yours. You can prostitute yourself by letting people use your genius, just as you can prostitute yourself by letting them use your genitals."

I didn't travel on the campaign trail this election. I wasn't blacklisted. No one booed or yelled at me. But I was berated almost daily for doing my job, and so were many other reporters on and off the trail. I understand people feeling frustrated with the media. What I can't relate to is what, exactly, compels some people to describe in detail how I'm prostituting myself or how I should be raped by an illegal Mexican immigrant.

I hope such comments were a product of heightened emotions as Election Day approached — not the new normal. And I have a good reason to be hopeful: the vast majority of Fact Checker readers I've communicated with are opinionated, thoughtful, respectful, brutally honest, and passionate about the truth. I have hope, because of readers like the one I emailed with recently. He wrote me a valid point-by-point critique, and ended with this:

“For what it is worth, I think you have one of the most important jobs in the world. I mean that. If you doggedly truth checked stories, you could single-handedly impact our polity.”

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Scroll down for this week’s Pinocchio roundup.

— Michelle Ye Hee Lee