Another PolitiFact 'Epic Fail'

Tom Bruscino, assistant professor of History at the U.S. Army School of Advanced Military Studies at Fort Leavenworth, was recently contacted by Louis Jacobson about a story he was working on for PolitiFact.  The story concerned Mitt Romney's assertion that the U.S. Navy is the smallest it has been since 1917 and that the Air Force is smaller and older than any time since 1947.  In a long and thoughtful response, Bruscino responded to Jacobson's query and found that it appeared that the statistic Mitt used "is accurate personnel-wise."  Bruscino concluded that although the statistics and the context can get complicated, he nonetheless found that Romney's "overall statement appears to be accurate about the trend--the Air Force is older and smaller than it has been for almost its entire history."

When the article was published, Bruscino was surprised to learn that Jacobson rated Romney's statements as "Pants on Fire" because of the supposedly misleading context.  Here is more of Bruscino's reaction:

Jacobson did a remarkable bit of research in a very short period of time. However, I did think his questions to me were leading. Remember, Mr. Jacobson asked "(2) What context does this ignore (changing/more lethal technology, changed geopolitical needs, etc)?," which both assumes and implies to the interviewees that Romney ignored those specific contexts.

Additionally, in his final few paragraphs, Jacobson refers to Romney's statements as "meaningless," "glib," "preposterous," and "ridiculous." To be frank, I'm a little surprised by that wording, especially in writing for a site that strives for objectivity.

My opinion, for what it is worth, is that since Romney's base statement was factually accurate when it came to most numerical metrics, it would seem that he could be given credit for a half-truth, even if the context complicates the matter.

In any event, that is how PolitiFact worked in this case. Just in case you are interested. 

The article was so egregious that even Politico condemned it this morning in their "Morning Defense" email:

EPIC FAIL - It’s PolitiFact that deserves the “Pants on Fire” for incomplete reporting, because Romney was just repeating a point Navy leaders themselves have made numerous times over the past year. Here’s Mabus, speaking last April at the Navy League’s annual meeting: “One of our main areas of focus has to be the size of our fleet. The CNO has repeatedly said, and I repeatedly have strongly supported him, that the minimal number of ships we should have is 313. We have 288 today in the battle fleet: the lowest number since 1916, which – during that time, the intervening years, our responsibilities have grown somewhat. But if Congress funds the shipbuilding program that we have laid out, we will reach a fleet of 325 ships in the early 2020s.”

This is just one example in the long train of abuses by PolitiFact.