Politifact is now
defending one of its
silliest fact-check exercises ever in which the "watchdog" declared Jon Stewart's statement that Fox produces the most misinformed viewers of any media outlet to be false. Their analysis depends on a hyperliteral parsing of his assertion that "every poll" showed this to be the case. As they wrote:
It’s simply not true that "every poll" shows that result. So we rate his claim False.
Obviously, Politifact's standard is absurd. Even if Stewart were wrong about the "every poll" part of his claim, that would have nothing to do with the question of whether Fox misinforms its viewers. Politifact misses the point completely with its hyperfocus on those two words. Even if polling doesn't provide the strongest evidence for Stewart's case, ruling his entire assertion to be false on that basis does more to obscure the facts than to shed light on them.
Case in point: in its broadcast of the very interview during which Jon Stewart accused Fox of misinforming its viewers, Fox selectively edited out some of Stewart's most effective arguments. They even removed the admission by Chris Wallace that Fox has a conservative agenda. Yet Politifact says Stewart is the liar?
Politifact knows Fox is full of shit. So why do they feel the need to attack Jon Stewart for pointing that out?