United StatesOwnership & classification
Founded: 2007
Ownership
PolitiFact was launched in 2007 by the Tampa Bay Times (then the St. Petersburg Times). Since February 2018 it has been owned and operated by the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, a nonprofit journalism school in St. Petersburg, Florida, which acquired it outright and gave it nonprofit status. Poynter itself was founded by newspaper publisher Nelson Poynter and controls the fact-checking brand directly.
Funding
As a nonprofit operation, PolitiFact is financed through grants, foundation support and individual donations rather than a single owner's budget. Disclosed funders have included the Democracy Fund, the Craig Newmark Foundation and a range of foundations and tech-company programs that support Poynter (including Google, Meta and the Knight Foundation).
Affiliation & stance
PolitiFact has no party, government or church ties; it is a privately governed nonprofit fact-checking project run by an independent journalism institute. Its editorial decisions are made by its own newsroom and it is a signatory of the International Fact-Checking Network code of principles, which is why it is classified INDEPENDENT. Its lean is best described as CENTER.
Editorial lean
- Our estimate
- Center
- Measured from coverage
- Not enough analyzed coverage yet.
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Factual
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Objective
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Articles
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reports
Factual: How accurately its articles report the facts, judged against primary sources and the cross-outlet consensus. Only articles that cite their sources are counted.
Objective: How neutral the writing is — whether reporting keeps the writer’s own preferences and opinions out of the article.