FactChecking Debate No. 2

Nonsense in Nashville

McCain and Obama debated for the second time, in Nashville. We noted some misleading statements and mangled facts: Full Story »

Posted by Kaizar Campwala

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Review

Dwight Rousu
3.3
by Dwight Rousu - Oct. 10, 2008

The checking process here captures some of the major lies in the debate. Some of the highlighted topics suggest a bias in choice of topics and their importance. Lack of evidence that a number is right is not evidence that it is wrong. Changing to "favor" nuclear power is not a lie, it is a change, though undoubtedly an unfortunate change. I would much prefer a more complicated compilation that included a "degree of mendacity" similar to the degree of difficulty in diving competitions. If a fact is widely known and previously debunked, it should have a higher mendacity score. If it is on a topic of importance such as nuclear war or global climate change, it should merit a higher score. If it is an ad hominem attack that is a lie, that should also get a higher score. An overall measure would include the sums of the scores over however many lies each candidate launched. Weighting fibs and dangerous lies equally lends itself to bias.

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Dwight's Rating

Overall
3.3

Average
from 12 answers
Quality
3.4
Facts
4.0
Fairness
3.0
Information
4.0
Sourcing
3.0
Style
3.0
Context
3.0
Depth
3.0
Enterprise
4.0
Popularity
3.0
Recommendation
4.0
Credibility
2.0
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