Here goes PolitiFact again, showing how what would seem to be a straightforward system for rating statements—true, mostly true, half true, mostly false, false, or pants on fire—is often unreliable and frequently biased. Last week, the pop star Pink held a banned-book giveaway at her Florida concerts to protest the state’s recent restrictions on books in classrooms and school libraries. To promote the effort, she tweeted a list of books “that have been banned from schools in Florida.” PolitiFact has now rated that list as “mostly false,” straining the definitions of the words “mostly” and “false.”
Here’s PolitiFact’s summary of its verdict:
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None of the books on Pink’s 13-title list has been banned statewide. Ten have been temporarily or permanently removed or restricted from shelves in at least one Florida school district, according to reports we reviewed from the Florida Department of Education, Collier County school district and PEN America. We don’t see any records of Florida schools removing three of the titles Pink listed.
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Seven of these books were removed from schools in four districts, by state and Collier County counts. By PEN America’s most liberal definition of a "ban," 10 books Pink named were restricted or removed temporarily or permanently from schools in 17 of the state’s 67 school districts.
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Pink later clarified on X that some of the books she had mentioned were banned in one or more Florida school districts.
By the numbers, Pink was wrong about three out of 13 books on her list, which would suggest a “mostly true” rating. But PolitiFact wasn’t going to stop there: Their suggestion is that it counts only if the books were banned in all Florida schools.
Words matter. Pink wrote that the books “have been banned from schools in Florida,” not “have been banned in all Florida schools” or “have been banned in schools by the state of Florida.” Her wording could have been clearer, but it wasn’t false. Ten of the 13 books have indeed been banned or at least restricted in some schools in Florida, which fits the wording she used.
This isn’t about Pink’s tweet, though. It’s about how we conceive of book-banning, and it’s a problem to have an organization like PolitiFact downplay book-banning if it’s happening district by district rather than statewide. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Republican-controlled state legislature passed laws enabling and encouraging bans on books touching on topics such as race and racism and LGBTQ+ people, but the direct removal of books is a district-by-district process. That doesn’t make it less real or dangerous, and PolitiFact’s rating here isn’t a disservice just to the fact that 10 out of 13 correct is not “mostly false.” It’s also a disservice to the public’s understanding of how Florida and other states are restricting what students can read, and sending the message that LGBTQ+ people and people of color are not worthy or appropriate topics for kids to learn about.
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We talk about North Carolina non-stop on "The Downballot," so it's only natural that our guest on this week's episode is Anderson Clayton, the new chair of the state Democratic Party. Clayton made headlines when she became the youngest state party chair anywhere in the country at the age of 25, and the story of how she got there is an inspiring one. But what she's doing—and plans to do—is even more compelling. Her focus is on rebuilding the party infrastructure from the county level up, with the aim of reconnecting with rural Black voters who've too often been sidelined and making young voters feel like they have a political home. Plus: her long-term plan to win back the state Supreme Court.
