This is a guide to questions that could come up on Hotline, Candidate Line, or any outward-facing emails (research@, comments@, etc.) about BULL. If the conversation progresses beyond these, and you’re not sure how to answer, transfer to the Officials Research Director or a Public Statements researcher.
Do not make promises to the caller about removing a fact-check from the site.
- A new fact-checking tool that allows users to see when and how many times a politician has lied according to reputable fact-checking partners. Users can read the statements found to be inaccurate by PolitiFact, FactCheck.org, and the Washington Post Fact Checker and can click a link to the fact-checker’s article questioning the statement.
- BULL is not a collection of every fact-checked article on a politician in our database, but rather a project focusing on exposing lies and misleading statements from politicians. Articles finding statements to be true, mostly true, or half-true have not been included-- we’re focusing on statements that have been found to be false or mostly false.
- Vote Smart researchers are not fact-checking every statement by every politician, but rather collecting fact-checked articles from our partners (see below). Any determinations on the accuracy of a statement have been provided by those partners.
- It means what you think it means! It’s bullcrap-- statements from candidates lying to or misleading Americans.
- Washington Post Fact Checker (factchecker@washpost.com)
- Politifact.org (truthometer@politifact.com)
- FactCheck.org (Editor@FactCheck.org)
- We do have permission from all three sources to link to their articles from our site.
- A fact-check article from one of our partners (see above) that corresponds to data in the Vote Smart database. See more on the fact-check collection criteria on the Factchecking wiki, and see the Public Statements regular collection criteria at Speeches and Public Statements Data Standards.
- We collect statements from:
- The president
- The vice president
- Congress
- Governors
- Candidates running for these positions
- At least one fact-check partner has found the statement to be false or mostly false
- BULL indicates when a politician has lied to or misled voters, so we’re focusing on statements found to be false or mostly false.
- Explain that we’re not fact-checking in house, but rather providing a link to our partner’s fact-check of the statement
- Direct the user to the fact checker’s article for more context
- You can also direct them to contact the fact checkers at:
- Please note that we will not remove a link to a fact-check article from our partners-- don’t make promises here about removing anything from the site!
- Skim the fact-check article (put the caller on hold if necessary)
- Direct the user to the fact-checker’s article for more context and identify the part of the statement identified as false, if applicable
- Related to specific BULL entries:
- Direct to the fact-check article on our partner’s website
- Explain collection criteria (see above)
- Related to partnering publications:
- Partners selected based on their nonpartisanship and quality of reporting
- In-depth investigations, covering politicians from all parties and political beliefs
- If the caller suggests an additional fact-checker, pass along to the Officials Research Director or a Public Statements researcher, but again, do not make promises about adding new fact-check sources
- Current resources in Public Statements allow us to collect:
- Official statements from .gov sites
- TV transcripts from select shows
- Tweets from the president, vice president, presidential candidates, and congressional leaders
- If you believe that we’re missing a fact check that fits our criteria, or if you or a user believe that we should step outside of our regular collection to take a fact check on a statement we wouldn’t regularly collect (a tweet from someone outside of congressional leadership, for example), let a Public Statements researcher and/or the Director of Officials Research know.
