Those are some of the shades of truth that website Politifact assigns to statements (full list in the picture below). Who knows what their contributors’ persuasions are, right? .. supposedly neutral.
They rated President Obama’s statement from Tue night’s State of the Union speech ‘In the last 22 months, businesses have created more than 3 million jobs. Last year, they created the most jobs since 2005‘ only as Half-True, interpreting the President to be claiming all the credit for it. Then after an outcry it was changed to Mostly True.
What about Indiana governor Mitch Daniels’s statement in his rebuttal to the SOTU speech ‘Nearly half of all persons under 30 did not go to work today’? That rates as a Pants-on-Fire statement, making a ridiculous claim.
Governor Daniels also said
Contrary to the President’s constant disparagement of people in business, it’s one of the noblest of human pursuits. The late Steve Jobs – what a fitting name he had – created more of them than all those stimulus dollars the President borrowed and blew. Out here in Indiana, when a businessperson asks me what he can do for our state, I say ‘First, make money. Be successful. If you make a profit, you’ll have something left to hire someone else, and some to donate to the good causes we love ..’
to which my responses are
-The President does NOT constantly disparage people in business.
-Yes, but those jobs that Apple/ Steve Jobs created are almost all in Shenzhen, China or in Asia. And people work in those jobs under brutal conditions. (A report in yesterday’s New York Times article says buyers of iPhones and iPads could care less. Apple CEO Tim Cook has insisted that conditions are getting better.)
-Of course business is about making money. But don’t screw up the environment, and treat workers fairly.
