The fact-checkers at PolitiFact found themselves dumping former congressman Alan Grayson hours after publishing a celebratory hiring statement.
Mr. Grayson, a Florida Democrat known for bombastic comments and the assertion that AR-15 rifles fire “700 rounds in a minute,’” was let go by PolitiFact.com on the same day its “reader advocate” experiment was announced.
The Democrat was originally supposed to join former Republican Rep. David Jolly, also of Florida.
“We sought out a Democrat and Republican to critique our work in order to try to improve the trust and credibility in fact-checking and PolitiFact. It has become clear our choice of Alan Grayson did not meet that threshold to many,” the website, a project of the Tampa Bay Times, began a pair of tweets. “We called Alan a short while ago and informed him that we would be canceling our agreement for him to write on PolitiFact. We remain committed to this experiment, however, and will be seeking out a Democrat to replace Alan. If you have a good suggestion, please reach out.”
The website, which is known for its “Truth-O-Meter,” originally touted the “Big news!” regarding an trial that will run through April.
We sought out a Democrat and Republican to critique our work in order to try to improve the trust and credibility in fact-checking and PolitiFact. It has become clear our choice of Alan Grayson did not meet that threshold to many. pic.twitter.com/uJuoHhiObI
— PolitiFact (@PolitiFact) February 1, 2018
“Alan and David will be free to critique any of our fact-checks starting today, and we won’t restrict what they have to say,” a statement on PolitiFact’s website read.
Conservative author Ben Shapiro’s website, The Daily Wire, ridiculed the idea that Mr. Grayson would put forward honest analysis.
“[Mr. Grayson] accused Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) of wanting to ’create a sort of a mass suicide cult,’’ Mr. Shapiro wrote. “He says that Republicans want you to ’die quickly’ if you don’t have health care and compared their health care policy to the Holocaust. […] That’s the guy Politifact chose to fact-check the fact-checkers.”
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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