I loaded three fact checking analyses from Politifact (links below) into a workspace for analysis and classified the findings as:
True, needs context, misleading and false.
I extracted the information from the text of each analysis and sorted each claim into one of three four categories based on the Politifact analysis.
I am not super political but this data is fascinating and I’d love to repeat it across multiple different fact checking sources. This post is intended to be a visualization from one source across three election cycles. However, there are sooo many other fact checking sources out there. My request is that you drop a link to any you think I should include in a comment below and I will repeat this visualization for each source and post a link to any fact checking sites you think would be interesting to visualize.
by Electrical-Set-1116
44 Comments
I used a [Dystr](http://dystr.com/?gtl) workspace to query the data and draw the charts and it’s quick enough that I should be able to add a similar graph to each comment by the end of the day today. Looking forward to seeing suggestions and making this analysis more complete.
Politifact sources:
https://www.politifact.com/article/2016/sep/27/trump-clinton-first-debate-fact-checks/
https://www.politifact.com/article/2020/sep/30/fact-checking-first-2020-presidential-debate-joe-b/
https://www.politifact.com/article/2024/sep/11/2024-presidential-debate-fact-check-harris-trump/
I like how the colors in the left hand column of charts actually evoke his physical appearance in an abstract way.
Nice idea. Would be nice if the text was easier to read, and consider including the total number of each, not just the percentages?
Also seems like the data is quite biased. Like has Trump really not said a single truthful thing in the debates this year? Seems like they are only picking the more egregious things to fact check. It would be nice to see an analysis of every claim made.
I think you need to consider the total number of facts as well and not just proportion
Anytime someone is saying a person is 0% truthful is a sign of bias. Not Ops problem, but the sources.
Ugh is it really (rule 8) Thursday already? We’re barely 10 minutes in…
Politifact is biased and everyone but Democrats knows it.
So…Trump lies his ass off.
In other news, the sun came up today.
While I did not support her in the primaries, we could’ve easily had Clinton… 🙁
I mean I hate trump as much as anyone else, but 0% across 3 debates? Come on… he even lied about his name or what? Something really wrong with the sources
This dataset is inherently flawed because Politifact will only fact check claims that are at least somewhat contentious. At least, it does not match the title “How truthful have candidates been”. For example, they did not write about the claim that Trump made a deal that released 5000 Taliban prisoners because it was obviously true.
If you make 50 total claims, 10 of them are analyzed, and 5 are false, it is not the same as making 50 claims, 40 of them are analyzed, and 20 of them are false.
I deem this graph… **Missing context**
Kind of a cool idea.
Stated elsewhere here, but I think the font could be improved upon. Size & color. More for the Candidate names, and the numbers within the pie chart. I wouldn’t think to use these colors myself, but I actually like the warm palette you went with here.
Also, more sources might be needed. I find it hard to believe someone could do go through 3 debates without any factual statements. This just makes me question the data, and thus invalidates whether I’m interested in really anything this visual has to say.
I don’t know enough about political biases outside of the: FOX = RED & CNN/MSNBC = BLUE. But my first assumption here would be that there is a biases at play here. Unless something of more validation could come forth to show that Trump is indeed giving primarily all false & misleading statements.
So trump never tells the truth? Not once? lol
This is a joke right?
I think last night proved how flawed ‘fact checking’ studies can be. The media’s political bias leads to only ‘fact checking’ one side.
bias and subjectivity makes what is considered a fact or misinformation useless.
Trump lied off his ass but that’s still not 0% truthful. For all of these the false percentage seems way too high anyways.
Really? 2/3 of what Harris said was false or misleading? And *nothing* Trump said in all three debates was true? Surely he said something inconsequential that was true.
More proof that pie charts are a bad way to represent data. Bars might not look good, but 10/10 times they are easier for people to read if you set them up right.
Fact check website raw numbers are really stupid to use as data because they don’t randomly select the claims they’re rating, often times they’re going to literally select based upon “fairness.”
These places grade on the curve for Trump to . For something for to be call false it has to be outlandish. For Biden and Harris not so much.
We’re supposed to believe that Trump never, ever says something that is simply true?
Hmm, smells like propaganda to me…
How many facts have turned out to be false after the fact and how many lies ended up being true? We live in a propaganda world.
Ah yes literal propaganda. I’m not even a trump fan but shut the fuck up. Y’all want to make libs look stupid? This is how you do it.
Just use stack charts- pies are essentially useless
Biased or not – these facts are concerning. Both parties and candidates speak more lies than truth. How did we get to this point? We need a moderate party
Well, I guess the graph that looks like a peace sign is better than the graph that looks like an angry Pac-Man
Bullshit, you are saying Trump has never said anything thats true? Like no fact has ever been true during debates?
Trump said he didn’t read the Project 2025 materials; true without a doubt as he isn’t a reader.
As someone says, as much as you can hate Trump, 0% truth is legit impossible stats wise.
Even adding 1% or 10% is more likely but having someone say nothing truthful is mathematically impossible.
I love that Trump’s colour is mostly orange.
There should be a pie chart for this post which would be 100% misleading
Trump hasn’t said one fact in the past 3 elections? If you’re gonna post propaganda, at least make it believable
Seems to really like Hillary
Needs: larger numbers that are in black or something darker!
I hate Trump so much I made the news for it haha, but the idea that he has NEVER said something truthful is absurd, even to me.
Parris be like all red and has no clue what’s happening
Say what you want about the guy but he’s consistent
Imagine spending even 5 minutes creating this infographic and not realizing that every item, on both sides, is extremely misleading.
Do better, OP. And stop asking other people to do your work for you.
1. Pie Charts are very rarely the answer when it comes to r/dataisbeautiful. If you think pie charts are a good data visualization you probably shouldn’t be posting here.
2. You’ve decided to report on an incomplete dataset and present it as fact. As many others have posted, you have simply regurgitated one websites analysis of SELECT statements and their authenticity, yet presented the data as ALL statements and their authenticity. In order to do this project well, don’t leave out the possibility of doing some data collection yourself, and then adding the data for a more complete picture.
3. Consider stack bar charts that correct for number of statements or time speaking (as opposed to pie charts that imply equality).
Politifact needs to fact check themselves. Terrible.
Not beautiful and illegibly small font
Yeesh, the “good guys” aren’t anything to write home about…
Has anyone audited “Politifact” to see how “Truthful/Misleading/False” THEY are ????
A graph about them might be the first thing required BEFORE looking at anything further.
.
Breaking news: Trump lies more than 60% of the time…