MSNBC, CNN Pundits Do Slightly Better on ‘Truth-O-Meter’

By Mark Joyella 

PunditFact, the sister site of PolitiFact that fact-checks pundits and talking heads, has released its latest network scorecards, and the site–with plenty of caveats–reports “MSNBC and CNN have improved ever so slightly on PunditFact’s TV network scorecards, while Fox News has moved a touch in the opposite direction.”

The scorecards measure statements made by pundits, hosts and paid contributors. Here’s how the networks broke down:

At Fox and Fox News, 10 percent of the claims PunditFact has rated have been True, 11 percent Mostly True, 18 percent Half True, 21 percent Mostly False, 31 percent False and nine percent Pants on Fire.

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At MSNBC and NBC, 44 percent of claims have received a rating of Mostly False or worse.

And as for CNN? It has the best record among the cable networks, as 80 percent of of the claims rated are Half True or better.

PunditFact cautions that the ratings only involve “evaluated claims” and they “don’t fact-check everything.” That means it’s exceptionally difficult to use the ratings to make conclusions about which networks are more or less “truthful.”

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