2019's unforgettable Pinocchios
The year 2019 was a long one for fact checkers. (So were 2018, 2017 and 2016 but … here we are.) There was a government shutdown. The long-awaited Mueller report was released. There was a telephone call — that led to an impeachment inquiry. And the 2020 Democratic primary kicked off. And yet, some things were remarkably the same. Once again, President Trump earned the most places on this year's list of our biggest Pinocchios — seven of 13. Trump not only makes false claims but also repeats them, in some cases hundreds of times, even though they've been proved wrong. The only other politician who earned more than one entry on this year's list was Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.),who dropped out of the 2020 presidential race this month. There were three first-time appearances this year: Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, and Leana Wen, who earned her place while she was president of Planned Parenthood. Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) rounded out the list. We also included a fishy statistic, long attributed to Amnesty International in news coverage, that grossly exaggerated the number of abortion-related deaths before Roe v. Wade. To read the full list, click here. Enjoy this newsletter? Forward it to someone else who'd like it! If this e-mail was forwarded to you, sign up here. Hear something fact-checkable? Send it here, we'll check it out. The spin vs. the inspector general's report
Another Justice Department inspector general report. Another spin-fest. The 434-page report disputed GOP claims that a "dossier" of salacious material originally commissioned by Democrats triggered the Russia investigation and that the FBI spied on the Trump campaign. The report found a series of "significant errors or omissions" in the FBI's warrant applications to the nation's court for secret surveillance matters, but a 2018 House Democratic memo had asserted the FBI did not "abuse" the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) process or "omit material information." In response to the report, Republicans often falsely suggested that it confirmed what it actually disputed about the origin of the probe. If Democrats acknowledged the FISA abuses, they sidestepped their own role in suggesting the FBI had played it straight. Here's a quick tour of some of the spin: House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) tweeted: "The IG report proves Obama officials abused their FISA power to trigger an investigation into @realDonaldTrump's campaign." (The report does not say the FISA abuse triggered the investigation, or that Obama officials opened it.) President Trump told reporters: "The report, actually — and especially when you look into it, and the details of the report — are far worse than anything I would have even imagined. … This was an overthrow of government." (Nothing in the report suggests a coup was afoot.) Attorney General William P. Barr said in an interview: "The incumbent government used the apparatus of the state, principally the law enforcement agencies and the intelligence agencies, both to spy on political opponents, but also to use them in a way that could affect the outcome of the election." (The IG report did not find any White House briefings on Crossfire Hurricane or even that Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch was aware of it.) For the full fact check, click here. American students, fact from fiction American students are about average compared to their global peers, according to results from the triennial exam know as the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA). The 2018 survey found American students are slightly above average in reading and science, while lagging behind in math. The exam found that only 14 percent of American students were "top performers" in reading (the OCED average is 9 percent), meaning, among other things, they could reliably distinguish fact and opinion "based on implicit cues pertaining to the content or source of the information." Scores for American readers have stagnated around or below average since 2000, but how information is distributed and news travels has changed substantially in that same time. As facts and opinions spread further and faster, often without clear distinction online, the stagnation of reading comprehension and in student's ability to delineate fact and fiction is more even more troubling that it was two decades ago. We're always looking for fact-check suggestions. You can also reach us via email, Twitter (@GlennKesslerWP, @mmkelly22, @rizzoTK, @SarahCahlan or use #FactCheckThis), or Facebook (Fact Checker). Read about our rating scale here, and sign up for the newsletter here. Scroll down for this week's Pinocchio roundup. | 
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