Fact-checking the fact-checkers

By E.G. | AUSTIN

POLITIFACT, the fact-checking project of the St Petersburg Times, has got itself in trouble today for giving its "Lie of the Year" award to the Democratic claim that "Republicans voted to end Medicare":

A complicated and wonky subject with life-or-death consequences, health care is fertile ground for falsehoods. The Democratic attack about "ending Medicare" was a pervasive line in 2011 that preyed on seniors' worries about whether they could afford health care.

Even when explained accurately, the Republicans' Medicare plan was not particularly popular with the public, nor with some independent health policy analysts. But the plan was distorted and attacked again and again.