Wednesday, June 14, 2017

The state of "fact-checking"

The Washington Post "fact-checks" President Trump's claim that "we built the Golden Gate Bridge in four years and the Hoover Dam in five" by admitting that yes, these projects were indeed built in that time frame, but because people had been planning it for years before, that the claim was false.  In other words, they redefined President Trump's claim to declare the redefined claim false.

I award the Post seventeen Pinocchios for that one.  Nice try.

To put things in perspective, the current World Trade Center started construction in 2006,  and Tower 1 was completed in 2014.  The original World Trade Center buildings had groundbreaking in 1966, started construction in 1968, and was finished in 1970 and 1971.  The tallest building in the country (sorry, radio spires and such don't count) was started in 1970 and completed in 1973.  The Empire State Building was started in 1930 and opened in 1931. 

Based on these data, Trump's implicit claim that it's getting harder to do big projects can only be rated as "true."

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