How many times have you been told that fact-checkers are neutral arbiters of truth, selfless guardians of an informed democracy, heroic watchdogs standing between you and dangerous misinformation? It’s the tallest of tales that we’re just supposed to take for granted.
And then they give us every reason not to believe it.
PJ Media readers have long known that mainstream fact-checkers are anything but neutral. During COVID, biased fact-checkers were deployed like weapons to silence dissenting voices on vaccines, lockdowns, and lab leak theories. After the 2020 election, conservative outlets — including this one — had to walk on eggshells with every piece we published, constantly watching for anything that might trigger a "misinformation" flag and get our content buried or deplatformed— especially about the election.
Now, a new analysis from the Media Research Center confirms that nothing has changed.
The MRC studied PolitiFact's "Truth-O-Meter" ratings for elected and appointed officials from January 1 through March 31, 2026. The results are staggering, though they won't surprise anyone who's been paying attention.
A NewsBusters analysis of all the “Truth-O-Meter” ratings of elected or appointed officials from January 1 through March 31, 2025 found the Democrats drew 11 “fact checks” -- one “True” rating, six “Mostly True” ratings, and four “Half Trues.”
By contrast, the Republicans were rated “Mostly False” or worse in 22 of 32 fact checks (69 percent). That’s zero “True” ratings, two “Mostly True,” eight “Half True,” four “Mostly False,” 15 “False,” and three “Pants on Fire” ratings (all three to Trump). Overall, the number of "Truth-o-Meter" fact checks is smaller than we've observed over the last several years.
There’s a disparity in the number of fact checks of 32 to 11, or almost three to one, and the disparity in “False” warnings is 22 to 0.
Trump now has 223 “Pants On Fire” flags, more than 19 percent of his 1,150 fact checks. He’s been on the False side on 894 of those 1,150 (77.7 percent). In this quarter, it was 13 out of 17 (76 percent). Trump hasn’t been on “True” side at all over the last 15 months. He drew one “Mostly True” after in October 2024, but for that election year, it was 68 to 1.
This is the organization that positions itself as an honest broker. The one that partners with platforms and news networks to determine what information millions of Americans see. This is the outfit that helped construct the architecture of digital censorship conservatives have been fighting for years.
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The frustrating part is that fact-checking, in theory, isn't a terrible idea. A genuinely nonpartisan operation that holds all politicians accountable, regardless of party, could serve the public interest. Context matters. Accuracy matters. Accountability matters. But that requires a level of institutional honesty that outfits like PolitiFact have never demonstrated. Frankly, there’s no reason to believe they ever will. But make no mistake about it, PolitiFact isn’t a fact-checker; it's a narrative enforcer. And the numbers prove it.
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