Wisconsin Civil Justice Council President and National Federation of Independent Business State Director Bill G. Smith shake hands with Gov. Scott Walker, seated. (Photo from
WCJC website.)
So what does that picture have to do with PolitiFact's latest whine about all the flack they've gotten for conducting "journalistic research"?
Just this:
Back in January, PolitiFact decided to check a business group's claim that Wisconsin's lawsuit rules make it one of the most anti-business states in the country:
The Wisconsin chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business portrayed mom-and-pop companies as easy prey when people sue over harm from defective products, negligent care, accidents and other injuries.
"Wisconsin has one of the most promiscuous tort systems in the country in which small businesses are easy targets for baseless lawsuits and civil penalties that are entirely disproportionate," said Bill Smith, state director of the group, in a Jan. 4 news release in support of Walker’s proposals [...]
Smith pointed to a 2010 Pacific Research Institute ranking of states that he said puts Wisconsin at 35th -- or 16th-worst in the United States -- for an anti-business lawsuit climate. The institute is a free-market think tank based in California.
He also pointed us to Andrew Cook, a lawyer working with the Wisconsin Civil Justice Council, a business coalition lobbying for tighter lawsuit controls.
Thankfully, PolitiFact found the claim to be unequivocally false.
But there's a bigger problem here. Yeah, and it has to do with the organization's vaunted "journalistic research."
See Bill Smith up there, the state director of the business group making the claim? And then see how he points to the Wisconsin Civil Justice Council as a source backing up his claims? And notice how PolitiFact actually treats the WCJC as a legitimate source of information to be investigated?
Yeah, well … funny story.
Guess who's the president of the Wisconsin Civil Justice Council?
So Bill Smith of NFIB is making a claim that's backed up by … another group headed by Bill Smith. Amazing!
This is kinda like me calling you up on my land line to make some crazy ass assertion and then me giving you my cell phone number so you can call my employee to verify it.
Remember now, you rogue bloggers: This is how real journalistic research is done.