I don't want Watermark to suffer from this disease, so if I feel compelled to write about politics, I will, mostly, put such posts on Open Salon, and just note them here. I do want to at least refer to our current political world here, though, so I've put some links on the sidebar to help all of us sort out what is true, and what is not.
Cynthia Barnes shared this with me, and gave me permission to post it here. She says it well:
"I've been watching both the conventions, and trying to avoid the pundits on both sides. I came across this website today and thought I'd share the link. FactCheck.org is provided by the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, and it is both non-partisan and extremely well-researched. The front page right now will show more about McCain, because that's the most current convention, but scrolling down to earlier posts will reveal them taking the Democrats to task for errors, inaccuracies, stretching the truth and just plain lies.
From their mission statement:
We are a nonpartisan, nonprofit, "consumer advocate" for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics. We monitor the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews,and news releases. Our goal is to apply the best practices of both journalism and scholarship, and to increase public knowledge and understanding.
What I really like is that they link to the actual primary source documents. A lot of politics is opinion and subjective, but there ARE still facts that can be verified. It's up to us to demand that our leaders and our candidates stick to the truth. There's very little we can do about hypocrisy and hate-mongering from pundits except to refuse to buy into it. But when it comes from elected officials or those who seek to be elected, we can (and should) call them on their bullshit.
I have added links to PolitiFact, Snopes, and Center for Responsive Politics, other nonpartisan fact-checking organizations, and may add more as I come across them. They will sit at the top of the sidebar until after the election.
Please use them.
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it's hard not to get somewhat caught up in it, especiallyif you turn on the t.v. or radio these days.
I too am for non mud-slinging, does nobody any good.Jannie
Posted by: Jannie | 24 September 2008 at 11:02 PM