* I’m a fan of PolitiFact and PunditFact. I salute the Tampa Bay Times for its proactive, staying-on-task enterprise in an increasingly challenging media marketplace. Both PFs help to out and hold accountable those who abuse public political forums. The more tools the better, because the longer a misleading statistic or a calculated misstatement goes unchallenged, the more likely it is to become de facto reality.
But there is, of course, wide discretion in choosing–cherry-picking, if you will–targets. Not all, no matter how topical, are equally worthy of valuable space and research–and reader–time. A recent PunditFact example: Former NBA star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s comment about racism on ABC’s This Week.
“More whites believe in ghosts than in racism,” noted Abdul-Jabbar. There was at least a hint of tongue-in-cheekiness in this “fact.” As well as in Abdul-Jabbar’s “validation”: “That’s why we have shows like Ghostbusters and don’t have shows like ‘Racistbusters.'”
For the record, Abdul-Jabbar’s statement was found to be “mostly false” on the Truth O Meter.
* Once again it is time for Time magazine’s annual paean to marketing and what remains of newsstand appeal: its “100 Most Influential People” issue. There’s something inherently weird with any list, however necessarily eclectic, that includes Barack Obama, Beyonce, Pope Francis, Janet Yellen, Vlad Putin, Miley Cyrus, Kim Jong Un and Megyn Kelly. But it also includes John Kovac.
John who?
Graduates of Tampa’s Jesuit High would know. Kovac’s a Jesuit alum and the son of former USF College of Engineering Dean Mike Kovac. John Kovac is now a Harvard-based astronomer credited with leading the team that has validated the “Big Bang” theory.
Too bad we’re not asking Miley who?