Sunday, July 24, 2016

Fact-checking with Pinocchio

As you know, Pinocchio is a fictional character and the protagonist of the children's novel The Adventures of Pinocchio (1883) by Italian writer Carlo Collodi. Carved by a woodcarver named Geppetto in a village near Florence, he was created as a wooden puppet but dreamed of becoming a real boy. He lies often. Glenn Kessler uses his image as a symbol to fact-check the candidates’ statements.

“Here’s the tally so far. Three Pinocchios could be viewed as mostly false, Two Pinocchios as half-true, One Pinocchio as mostly true and the rarely given Geppetto as completely true.

Trump (52 rated claims)
Four Pinocchios: 33 (63 percent)
Three Pinocchios: 11 (21 percent)
Two Pinocchios: 5 (10 percent)
One Pinocchio: 1 (2 percent)
Geppetto Checkmark: 2 (4 percent).

Clinton (36 rated claims)
Four Pinocchios: 5 (14 percent)
Three Pinocchios: 13 (36 percent)
Two Pinocchios: 11 (30.5 percent)
One Pinocchio: 2 (5.5 percent)
Geppetto Checkmark: 5 (14 percent)

As you see, the ratio of Trump’s Four-Pinocchios ratings is sky-high. In fact, nearly 85 percent of Trump’s claims that we vetted were false or mostly false. A line graph of Trump’s numbers would show a very steep sky jump. By contrast, Clinton has a bell curve of a typical politician. The number of false claims equals the number of true claims, while her other claims fall mostly somewhere in the middle.”

See the complete article from the Washington Post:


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