Finding Fact in Political Debate

Bibliographic Data

ID5116600
AuthorsBrooks Jackson (FactCheck.org Annenberg Political Fact Check), Kathleen Hall Jamieson (0000-0002-4167-3688, Annenberg Public Policy Center, University of Pennsylvania)
Year2004
Volume48
Issue2
Pages229-237
Publication date2004-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Behavioral Scientist (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0002-7642 • E-ISSN: 1552-3381
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0002764204267268
OpenAlexW2008660677
LanguageEN
Citations received4

Politicians seldom tell outright lies, but they often mislead voters intentionally with statements that use any of several techniques. These includeusing statistics that may be arithmetically correct but that give voters a false picture of reality, leaving out key facts and fudging about unstated assumptions, and so forth. The public should expect news reporters to catch these tricks, but too often the misleading statements are merely quoted along with a comment from the opposing candidate in the classic "he-said-she-said" style. Both reporters and voters need to be more aware of the ways in which politicians try to manipulate them. This article offers seven principles for sifting through misleading rhetoric to find the essential facts and gives examples from the 2000 and 2004 presidential campaigns

Computer security · Economics · Epistemology · Key (lock) · Law and economics · Linguistics · Political science · Politics · Positive economics · Presidential campaign · Presidential system · Public relations · Rhetoric · Sociology · Style (visual arts) · Computer Science · History · Intelligence, Security, War Strategy · Law · Philosophy · Rhetoric and Communication Studies

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