77-799: PolitiFact.com is an American nonprofit project operated by the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida , with offices there and in Washington, D.C. It began in 2007 as a project of the Tampa Bay Times (then the St. Petersburg Times ), with reporters and editors from the newspaper and its affiliated news media partners reporting on the accuracy of statements made by elected officials, candidates, their staffs, lobbyists, interest groups and others involved in U.S. politics . Its journalists select original statements to evaluate and then publish their findings on
154-478: A certification to publishers who pass the audit. The certification lasts for one year, and fact-checkers must be re-examined annually to retain their certifications. Facebook has used the IFCN's certification to vet publishers for fact-checking contracts. Membership has also been used to identify the reliability of a fact-checking organization. DW called it the most prominent fact-checking consortium. The IFCN and
231-598: A lab leak as the possible origin of COVID-19 . The site had originally stated that the lab leak was a "conspiracy theory that has been debunked since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic". However, after some scientists said they were "too quick to discount a possible link", the lab leak theory , PolitiFact changed its evaluation of the claim to "unsupported by evidence and in dispute". PolitiFact has drawn allegations of political bias from both left-leaning and right-leaning media outlets. Overall, right-leaning outlets get more negative results from fact-checkers than those on
308-518: A 2011 budget proposal by Congressman Paul Ryan , entitled The Path to Prosperity and voted for overwhelmingly by Republicans in the House and Senate, meant that "Republicans voted to end Medicare ". PolitiFact determined that, though it is true the Republican plan would change Medicare fundamentally by forcing the elderly to use private health plans - the very thing Medicare was intended to substitute for -
385-499: A frame that suggests this is the case." In response, PolitiFact editor Bill Adair stated in MinnPost : "[...][W]e're accustomed to hearing strong reactions from people on both ends of the political spectrum. We are a news organization and we choose which facts to check based on news judgment. We check claims that we believe readers are curious about, claims that would prompt them to wonder, 'Is that true?'" An independent 2013 analysis from
462-561: A lease on 21,000 square feet of newsroom and studio space in the Promenade Central building on Peachtree Street, planning to complete its relocation by the end of the year. In 1996, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution was the first newspaper to report on Centennial Olympic Park bombing hero Richard Jewell being accused of actually being the bomber, citing leaked information from the Federal Bureau of Investigation . Even after Jewell
539-413: A northern suburb of Atlanta. In November 2010, the company donated its former downtown headquarters to the city of Atlanta, which plans to convert the building into a fire and police training academy. In February 2024, the newspaper announced it would return its headquarters to midtown Atlanta after nearly 14 years, citing a desire "to be at the beating heart of the city" it is named for. The company signed
616-480: A radically transformed program could still be termed "Medicare" so it was not technically true that "Republicans voted to end Medicare". PolitiFact had originally labeled nine similar statements as "false" or "pants on fire" since April 2011. For 2012, PolitiFact chose the claim made by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney that President Obama "sold Chrysler to Italians who are going to build Jeeps in China" at
693-516: A small newspaper, the Atlanta Daily Opinion which they renamed The Constitution , as it was originally known, was first published on June 16, 1868. Its name changed to The Atlanta Constitution in October 1869. Hemphill became the business manager, a position he retained until 1901. When Styles was unable to liquidate his holdings in an Albany newspaper, he could not pay for his purchase of
770-503: A year. Its equipment was donated to what was then known as Georgia School of Technology , which used it to help launch WBBF (later WGST, now WGKA AM 920) in January 1924. In late 1947, the Constitution established radio station WCON (AM 550). Subsequently, it received approval to operate an FM station, WCON-FM 98.5 mHz, and a TV station, WCON-TV, on channel 2. But the 1950 merger with
847-399: Is such an important cause to them that they really believe that lying is justified in that epic battle." Since 2010, PolitiFact has received funding from: Poynter Institute The Poynter Institute for Media Studies is a non-profit journalism school and research organization in St. Petersburg, Florida , United States. The school is the owner of the Tampa Bay Times newspaper and
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#1733085560574924-516: The Constitution ' s Doug Marlette . Editorial cartoonist Mike Luckovich received Pulitzer Prizes in 1995 and 2006. Cynthia Tucker received a 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary . The Atlanta Journal was established in 1883. Founder E. F. Hoge sold the paper to Atlanta lawyer Hoke Smith in 1887. After the Journal supported presidential candidate Grover Cleveland in the 1892 election, Smith
1001-625: The Daily Intelligencer , the only Atlanta paper to survive the American Civil War . In August 1875, its name was changed to The Atlanta Daily Constitution for two weeks, then to The Constitution again for about a year. In 1876, Captain Evan Howell (a former Intelligencer city editor) purchased the 50 percent interest in the paper from E. Y. Clarke and became its editor-in-chief. That same year, Joel Chandler Harris began writing for
1078-686: The AJC headquarters were in Downtown Atlanta near the Five Points district. In August 2009, the AJC occupied less than 30 percent of its downtown building, becoming outdated and costly. Later that year, the AJC consolidated its printing operations by transferring the downtown production center to the Gwinnett County facility. In 2010, the newspaper relocated its headquarters to leased offices in Dunwoody,
1155-664: The American Press Institute found that PolitiFact was statistically more likely to be critical of Republicans, while a text analysis by the University of Washington in 2018 was "not able to detect any systematic differences in the treatment of Democrats and Republicans in articles by PolitiFact", but noted that the analysis "cannot determine whether there are partisan biases in Politifact's judgments about truthfulness nor selection of which statements to examine." PolitiFact.com
1232-547: The American Press Institute jointly publish Factually , a newsletter on fact-checking and journalism ethics. The IFCN also organizes Global Fact, a yearly conference on fact checking. News University (NewsU) is a project of the Poynter Institute that offers journalism training through methods including e-learning courses, webinars, and learning games. NewsU is funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation . In 2023,
1309-660: The Associated Press and the Washington Post , writing that they "aren't about checking facts so much as they are about a rearguard action to keep inconvenient truths out of the conversation". In December 2011, Northeastern University journalism professor Dan Kennedy wrote in The Huffington Post that the problem with fact-checking projects was "there are only a finite number of statements that can be subjected to thumbs-up/thumbs-down fact-checking". Matt Welch , in
1386-580: The Charles Koch Foundation 's Director of Free Expression, Sarah Ruger, stated in an American Society of News Editors news release that "The foundation supports many grantees committed to press freedom, including The Poynter Institute, the Newseum and Techdirt 's free speech initiative." On February 12, 2018, the Tampa Bay Times , the for-profit branch of the nonprofit Poynter institute spun off
1463-472: The Constitution . He was forced to surrender his interest in the paper to Anderson and Hemphill, who each owned one half. In 1870, Anderson sold his one-half interest in the paper to Col. E. Y. Clarke. In active competition with other Atlanta newspapers, Hemphill hired special trains (one engine and car) to deliver newspapers to the Macon marketplace. The newspaper became such a force that by 1871 it had overwhelmed
1540-461: The Journal required major adjustments. Contemporary Federal Communications Commission "duopoly" regulations disallowed owning more than one AM, FM, or TV station in a given market, and the Atlanta Journal already owned WSB AM 750 and WSB-FM 104.5, as well as WSB-TV on channel 8. WCON and the original WSB-FM were shut down to comply with the duopoly restrictions. The WCON-TV construction permit
1617-748: The News Leaders Association transferred stewardship of the NLA Awards to the Poynter Institute, who will administer the contest from 2024 onward, and the awards were renamed to The Poynter Journalism Prizes. That same year, Poynter announced the creation of a new prize in honor of Roy Peter Clark called The Roy Peter Clark Award for Excellence in Short Writing. Since 2015, the Poynter Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Journalism has been awarded by
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#17330855605741694-641: The Paycheck Protection Program during the COVID-19 pandemic . President Neil Brown noted that this was not the first time the institute received government funding, noting past training contracts with Voice of America . In 2015, the institute launched the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), which sets a code of ethics for fact-checking organizations. The IFCN reviews fact-checkers for compliance with its code, and issues
1771-642: The Pulitzer Prize in 2009 for its reporting during the 2008 United States presidential election , and has been praised and criticized by independent observers, conservatives and liberals alike. Both liberal and conservative bias have been alleged at different points, and criticisms have been made that PolitiFact attempts to fact-check statements that cannot be truly "fact-checked". A survey of 511 stories from 2010 to 2011 found that statements made by Republicans were almost three times as likely to be labeled as false as those of Democrats . A larger 2016 analysis by
1848-518: The Pulitzer Prize –winning PolitiFact website to form an independent division within Poynter. Since 2019, The Washington Post has been partnering with the Poynter Institute to increase diversity in media, with the goal to expand Poynter's annual Leadership Academy for Diversity in Digital Media training journalists to become founders, top-level executives and innovators. Other sponsors are CNN ,
1925-591: The Sunday Atlanta Journal-Constitution was available. Due to the downturn in the newspaper industry and competing media sources, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution contracted distribution dramatically in the late 2000s to serve only the metro area. From Q1 of 2007 to Q1 of 2010, daily circulation plunged over 44%. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has its headquarters in Perimeter Center , an office district of Dunwoody , Georgia. Previously
2002-495: The Tampa Bay Times and ad revenues generated on the website until 2018, and the Times continues to sell ads for the site now that it is part of Poynter Institute for Media Studies , a non-profit organization that also owns the newspaper. PolitiFact increasingly relies on grants from several nonpartisan organizations, and in 2017 launched a membership campaign and began accepting donations from readers. In addition to political claims,
2079-400: The "hard-earned and important position as referee in the mudslinging contest—a 'truth vigilante,' as it were", and "PolitiFact is trying to do the right thing here. And despite the efforts of partisans to work the refs by complaining about various calls they've made in the past, they're generally doing a hard, important thing well. They often do it better than the rest of the political media, and
2156-399: The 98 statements by political figures judged 'false' or 'pants on fire' over the last 13 month were given to Republicans, or 76 percent, compared to just 22 statements for Democrats (22 percent)." Ostermeier observed that PolitiFact was not transparent about how the comments were selected for analysis and raised the possibility that the more negative evaluations of Republican comments might be
2233-456: The February 2013 issue of Reason magazine, criticized PolitiFact and other media fact-checkers for focusing much more on statements by politicians about their opponents, rather than statements by politicians and government officials about their own policies, thus serving as "a check on the exercise of rhetoric" but not "a check on the exercise of power". PolitiFact retracted its fact-check about
2310-599: The Herald share resources on some stories that relate to Florida. Since then, PolitiFact.com expanded to other papers, such as The Atlanta Journal-Constitution , The Providence Journal , Milwaukee Journal Sentinel , The Plain Dealer , Richmond Times-Dispatch , the Knoxville News Sentinel and The Oregonian . The Knoxville News Sentinel ended its relationship with PolitiFact.com after 2012. In 2013, Adair
2387-692: The Institute so that after his death the school would become the owner of the St. Petersburg Times . The name of the school was changed to the "Poynter Institute" in 1984. Craig Newmark (founder of Craigslist ) is a board member of the Poynter Foundation and donated $ 1 million to it in 2015. In 2018, the Poynter Institute began a cooperation with the content recommendation network Revcontent, to stop misinformation and fake news in articles supplying Revcontent with fact-checking provided by their International Fact-Checking Network. January 11, 2018,
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2464-601: The International Fact-Checking Network. It also operates PolitiFact . The school began on May 29, 1975, when Nelson Poynter , the owner and chairman of the St. Petersburg Times (now the Tampa Bay Times ) and Times Publishing Company , announced that he planned to start a small journalism school called the Modern Media Institute . In 1977, Nelson Poynter willed ownership of the Times Publishing Company to
2541-664: The Lie of the Year to be the contention among some opponents of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that it represented a "government takeover of healthcare". PolitiFact.com argued that this was not the case, since all health care and insurance would remain in the hands of private companies. PolitiFact's Lie of the Year for 2011 was a statement by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) that
2618-564: The PolitiFact.com website, where each statement receives a "Truth-O-Meter" rating. The ratings range from "True" for statements the journalists deem as accurate to "Pants on Fire" (from the taunt "Liar, liar, pants on fire") for claims the journalists deem as "not accurate and makes a ridiculous claim". PunditFact , a related site that was also created by the Times ' editors, is devoted to fact-checking claims made by political pundits . Both PolitiFact and PunditFact were funded primarily by
2695-458: The Poynter Institute. Winners include: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ( AJC ) is an American daily newspaper based in metropolitan area of Atlanta , Georgia . It is the flagship publication of Cox Enterprises . The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is the result of the merger between The Atlanta Journal and The Atlanta Constitution . The two staffs were combined in 1982. Separate publication of
2772-668: The Scripps Howard Foundations, Craig Newmark Philanthropies, the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation and TEGNA Foundation. Poynter published a list of over 515 news websites that it labeled "unreliable" in 2019. The author of the piece used various fake news databases (including those curated by the Annenberg Public Policy Center , Merrimack College , PolitiFact , and Snopes ) to compile
2849-496: The U.S were assembled in the U.S., with roughly 70 percent North American parts content. (The vehicle with the most North American parts content came in at 75%). The 2013 Lie of the Year was President Barack Obama 's promise that "If you like your health care plan, you can keep it". As evidence, PolitiFact cited analysts' estimate of 4 million cancellation letters sent to American health insurance consumers. PolitiFact also noted that in an online poll, readers overwhelmingly agreed with
2926-612: The West Coast and served as editor of the San Francisco Examiner . Celestine Sibley was an award-winning reporter, editor, and beloved columnist for the Constitution from 1941 to 1999 and wrote 25 fiction and nonfiction books about Southern life. After her death, the Georgia House of Representatives named its press gallery in her honor as a mark of affection and respect. From the 1970s until he died in 1994, Lewis Grizzard
3003-576: The World Wide Web to examine more than 750 political claims, separating rhetoric from truth to enlighten voters". A Wall Street Journal opinion piece by Joseph Rago in December 2010 called PolitiFact "part of a larger journalistic trend that seeks to recast all political debates as matters of lies, misinformation and 'facts,' rather than differences of world view or principles". TV critic James Poniewozik at Time characterized PolitiFact as having
3080-399: The Year was disinformation in the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine being propagated by Vladimir Putin . The 2023 Lie of the Year was Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s campaign of conspiracy theories . PolitiFact.com was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting in 2009 for "its fact-checking initiative during the 2008 presidential campaign that used probing reporters and the power of
3157-480: The Year was misinformation related to the COVID-19 pandemic ; specifically, theories that either deny the existence of the disease outright, or claim that the disease is much less deadly than it actually is. In particular, Donald Trump was mentioned as a main supporter of such conspiracy theories. The 2021 Lie of the Year was lies related to the 2021 United States Capitol attack and its significance. The 2022 Lie of
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3234-552: The Year was the "various statements" made by 2016 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. Politifact found that 76% of Trump's statements that they reviewed were rated "Mostly False," "False" or "Pants on Fire". Statements that were rated "Pants on Fire" included his assertion that the Mexican government sends "the bad ones over" the border into the United States, and his claim that he saw "thousands and thousands" of people cheering
3311-524: The collapse of the World Trade Center on 9/11 . PolitiFact's 2016 Lie of the Year was " fake news " referring to fabricated news stories including the Pizzagate conspiracy theory . PolitiFact's 2017 Lie of the Year was Donald Trump's claim that Russian election interference is a "made-up story." The annual poll found 56.36% of the 5080 respondents agreed that Trump's "Pants on Fire" statement deserved
3388-449: The cost of American jobs. (The "Italians" in the quote was a reference to Fiat , who had purchased a majority share of Chrysler in 2011 after a U.S. government bailout of Chrysler.) PolitiFact had rated the claim "Pants on Fire" in October. PolitiFact's assessment quoted a Chrysler spokesman who had said, "Jeep has no intention of shifting production of its Jeep models out of North America to China." As of 2016, 96.7 percent of Jeeps sold in
3465-426: The distinction. Raul Labrador's statement that "Nobody dies because they don't have access to health care," and Sean Spicer 's statement that "[Trump's audience] was the largest audience to witness an inauguration, period," came in second and third place getting 14.47% and 14.25% of the vote respectively. In its article, PolitiFact points to multiple occasions where Donald Trump stated that Russia had not interfered with
3542-469: The election despite multiple government agencies claiming otherwise. Politifact's 2018 Lie of the Year was that survivors of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting were crisis actors . These conspiracy theories were spread on blogs and social media by sources including InfoWars , and targeted students including X González and David Hogg , who became prominent gun control activists in
3619-561: The left, including at PolitiFact, which some right-wing commentators have interpreted as evidence of bias. In February 2011, University of Minnesota political science professor Eric Ostermeier analyzed 511 PolitiFact stories issued from January 2010 through January 2011. He found that the number of statements analyzed from Republicans and from Democrats was comparable, but Republicans had been assigned substantially harsher grades, receiving "false" or "pants on fire" more than three times as often as Democrats. The report found that "In total, 74 of
3696-464: The list and called on advertisers to " blacklist " the included sites. The list included conservative news websites such as the Washington Examiner , The Washington Free Beacon , and The Daily Signal as well as conspiracy outfits including InfoWars . After backlash from both readers of and contributors to some of the included publications, Poynter retracted the list, citing "weaknesses in
3773-499: The list with SPLC's own work on hate groups . In 2020, after receiving funding from Facebook , the Poynter Institute expanded the MediaWise program with a national media literacy program called MediaWise Voter project (#MVP). Its goal was to reach 2 million American first-time voter college students, helping them to be better prepared and informed for the 2020 elections . The Poynter Institute received $ 737,400 in federal loans from
3850-456: The merger, both papers planned to start TV stations: WSB-TV on channel 8 for the Journal , and WCON-TV on channel 2 for the Constitution . Only WSB got on the air, beginning in 1948 as the first TV station in the Deep South . It moved from channel 8 to WCON's allotment on channel 2 in 1951 to avoid TV interference from the nearby channel 9. ( WROM-TV since moved, leaving WGTV on 8, after it
3927-476: The methodology". Poynter issued a statement, saying: "[w]e regret that we failed to ensure that the data was rigorous before publication, and apologize for the confusion and agitation caused by its publication." Reason pointed out that the author was a freelancer hired by the Institute who typically works for the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). Reason drew parallels between the accuracy of
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#17330855605744004-746: The morning Constitution and the afternoon Journal ended in 2001 in favor of a single morning paper under the Journal-Constitution name. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has its headquarters in the Atlanta suburb of Dunwoody, Georgia . It was formerly co-owned with television flagship WSB-TV and six radio stations, which are located separately in midtown Atlanta ; the newspaper remained part of Cox Enterprises, while WSB became part of an independent Cox Media Group . In 1868, Carey Wentworth Styles , along with his joint venture partners James Anderson and (future Atlanta mayor) William Hemphill purchased
4081-463: The nonpartisan Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Mason University showed results consistent with the findings of the aforementioned 2011 study, concluding that PolitiFact was three times as likely to rank statements from Republicans as "Pants on Fire," and twice as likely to rank statements from Democrats as "Entirely True." The disparity in these evaluations came despite roughly equally attention paid to statements made by representatives of
4158-691: The novel. In 1922, the Journal founded one of the first radio broadcasting stations in the South, WSB . The radio station and the newspaper were sold in 1939 to James Middleton Cox , founder of Cox Enterprises. The Journal carried the motto "Covers Dixie like the Dew". Cox Enterprises bought the Constitution in June 1950, bringing both newspapers under one ownership and combining sales and administrative offices. Separate newsrooms were kept until 1982. Both newspapers continued to be published for another two decades, with much of
4235-451: The paper. He soon created the character of Uncle Remus , a black storyteller, to recount stories from African-American culture. The Howell family eventually owned full interest in the paper from 1902 until 1950. In October 1876, the newspaper was renamed The Daily Constitution before settling on the name The Atlanta Constitution in September 1881. During the 1880s, editor Henry W. Grady
4312-451: The political press owes them for doing it." Poniewozik also suggested, "they need to improve their rating system, to address the irresponsible, the unprovable, the dubious. Otherwise, they're doing exactly what they were founded to stop: using language to spread false impressions." Mark Hemingway, writing in the neoconservative magazine The Weekly Standard , criticized all fact-checking projects by news organizations, including PolitiFact,
4389-435: The result of selection bias , concluding: "The question is not whether PolitiFact will ultimately convert skeptics on the right that they do not have ulterior motives in the selection of what statements are rated, but whether the organization can give a convincing argument that either a) Republicans in fact do lie much more than Democrats, or b) if they do not, that it is immaterial that PolitiFact covers political discourse with
4466-434: The same content except for timely editing. The Journal , an afternoon paper, led the morning Constitution until the 1970s when afternoon papers began to fall out of favor with subscribers. In November 2001, the two papers, once fierce competitors, merged to produce one daily morning paper, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution . The two papers had published a combined edition on weekends and holidays for years previously. Before
4543-462: The selection. This stands in stark contrast to its October 9, 2008 statement that Obama's "description of his plan is accurate, and we rate his statement True." PolitiFact's 2014 Lie of the Year was "Exaggerations about Ebola", referring to 16 separate statements made by various commentators and politicians about the Ebola virus being "easy to catch, that illegal immigrants may be carrying the virus across
4620-633: The site monitors the progress elected officials make on their campaign promises, including a "Trump-O-Meter" for President Donald Trump , an "Obameter" for President Barack Obama , and a Biden Promise Tracker for President Joe Biden . PolitiFact.com's local affiliates review promises by elected officials of regional relevance, as evidenced by PolitiFact Tennessee's "Haslam-O-Meter" which tracked former Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam 's rhetoric and Wisconsin's "Walk-O-Meter" which tracked former Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker 's efforts. PolitiFact won
4697-461: The southern border, that it was all part of a government or corporate conspiracy". These claims were made in the midst of the Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa when four cases were diagnosed in the United States in travelers from West Africa and nurses who treated them. PolitiFact wrote, "The claims – all wrong – distorted the debate about a serious public health issue." PolitiFact's 2015 Lie of
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#17330855605744774-455: The stories on banks and others had ruffled feathers in Atlanta and among corporate leadership, some of whom complained of a "take-no-prisoners" editorial approach. In 1993, Mike Toner received the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting for When Bugs Fight Back , his series about organisms and their resistance to antibiotics and pesticides . Julia Wallace was named the first female editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 2002. She
4851-632: The two parties: 50.4 percent for the GOP, versus 47.2 percent for the Democrats, with 2.4 percent attention paid to statements from independents. Upon his retirement from PolitiFact, founder Bill Adair said in October 2024 that Republicans lied far more than Democrats, by a margin of 55% to 31% for fact checks conducted between 2016 and 2021. He added that the disparity was not caused by Republicans being checked more often or more critically. Adair said, "Republicans see their work as part of this epic battle and in that, it
4928-558: The wake of the shooting and helped organize the March for our Lives . Politifact's 2019 Lie of the Year was Donald Trump's claim that the anonymous whistleblower who reported possible presidential misconduct got the report of his phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky "almost completely wrong." The whistleblower complaint alleged that President Trump urged President Zelensky to conduct an investigation into Trump's political rival in return for promised military aid. The 2020 Lie of
5005-426: Was a popular humor columnist for the Constitution . He portrayed Southern " redneck " culture with a mixture of ridicule and respect. The Constitution won numerous Pulitzer Prizes . In 1931, it won a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for exposing corruption at the local level. In 1959, The Constitution won a Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing for Ralph McGill's editorial " A Church, A School... " In 1967, it
5082-434: Was a spokesman for the " New South ", encouraging industrial development as well as the founding of Georgia Tech in Atlanta. Evan Howell's family would come to own The Atlanta Constitution from 1902 to 1950. The Constitution established one of the first radio broadcasting stations, WGM , which began operating on March 17, 1922, two days after the debut of the Journal's WSB. However, WGM ceased operations after just over
5159-480: Was accused. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has four major sections daily. On Sundays, it has additional sections. The main section usually consists of Georgia, national, international, and business news. The Metro section includes major headlines from the Metro Atlanta area . The Metro section usually reports the weather forecast. The Sports section reports sports-related news. Before social media became popular,
5236-529: Was acquired in February 2018 by the Poynter Institute , a non-profit journalism education and news media research center that also owns the Tampa Bay Times . In March 2019, in preparation for the 2020 presidential elections , PolitiFact partnered with Noticias Telemundo for fact-checking of information given to the Spanish language audience. In April 2019 PolitiFact joined forces with Kaiser Health News (KHN), for health-news fact checking. In October 2019 insight
5313-573: Was also used by WLWA-TV, now WXIA-TV 11.) This was also necessary to satisfy Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules preventing the excessive concentration of media ownership , preventing the combined paper from running two stations. In 1989, Bill Dedman received the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting for The Color of Money , his exposé on racial discrimination in mortgage lending, or redlining , by Atlanta banks. The newspapers' editor, Bill Kovach , had resigned in November 1988 after
5390-450: Was awarded another Pulitzer Prize for Eugene Patterson 's editorials. (Patterson later left his post as editor over a dispute over an op-ed piece.) In 1960, Jack Nelson won the Pulitzer Prize for local reporting by exposing abuses at Milledgeville State Hospital for the mentally ill. The papers were published in independent editions even after newsrooms were combined in 1982. In 1988 the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning went to
5467-488: Was canceled, and WSB-TV was allowed to move from channel 8 to channel 2. To standardize with its sister stations, WCON-FM's call letters were changed to WSB-FM. Ralph McGill , editor for the Constitution in the 1940s, was one of the few southern newspaper editors to support the American Civil Rights Movement . Other noteworthy editors of The Atlanta Constitution include J. Reginald Murphy . "Reg" Murphy gained notoriety after being kidnapped in 1974. Murphy later moved to
5544-462: Was cleared of any accusations by the FBI, the AJC refused to issue an apology and remains the only paper to have not retracted their story by Kathy Scruggs and Ron Martz falsely accusing him of terrorism. The court case regarding this has been dropped after the death of both Richard Jewell and the initial reporter. Jewell died not long after from diabetes due to poor eating habits that escalated after he
5621-658: Was given into PolitiFact's Truth-O-Meter's step-by-step process of assessing an item's truth, as considered true by the Politifact team, revealing confirmed facts and including accreditations. Since 2009, PolitiFact.com has declared one political statement from each year to be the "Lie of the Year." In December 2009, they declared the Lie of the Year to be Sarah Palin 's assertion that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2009 would lead to government " death panels " that dictated which types of patients would receive treatment. In December 2010, PolitiFact.com dubbed
5698-618: Was named Editor of the Year 2004 by Editor & Publisher magazine. Mike Luckovich won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning a second time in 2006. He had first received it in 1995 under The Atlanta Constitution banner. The paper used to cover all 159 counties in Georgia and the bordering counties of western North Carolina , where many Atlantans vacation or have second homes. In addition, it had some circulation in other bordering communities, such as Tallahassee, Florida , where
5775-675: Was named Knight Professor of the Practice of Journalism and Public Policy at Duke University , and stepped down as Bureau Chief at the Times and as editor at PolitiFact.com. The Tampa Bay Times' senior reporter, Alex Leary, succeeded Bill Adair as Bureau Chief on July 1, 2013, and Angie Drobnic Holan was appointed editor of PolitiFact in October 2013. Adair remains a PolitiFact.com contributing editor. In 2014, The Plain Dealer ended its partnership with PolitiFact.com after they reduced their news staff and were unwilling to meet "the required several PolitiFact investigations per week". The organization
5852-521: Was named as Secretary of the Interior by the victorious Cleveland. Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Margaret Mitchell worked for the Journal from 1922 to 1926. Essential for the development of her 1936 Gone with the Wind was the series of profiles of prominent Georgia Civil War generals she wrote for The Atlanta Journal ' s Sunday magazine, the research for which, scholars believe, led her to her work on
5929-905: Was started in August 2007 by Times Washington Bureau Chief Bill Adair , in conjunction with the Congressional Quarterly . In January 2010, PolitiFact.com expanded to its second newspaper, the Cox Enterprises -owned Austin American-Statesman in Austin, Texas ; the feature, called PolitiFact Texas , covered issues that are relevant to Texas and the Austin area. In March 2010, the Times and its partner newspaper, The Miami Herald , launched PolitiFact Florida, which focuses on Florida issues. The Times and
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