Arianna Huffington Takes Issue with PolitiFact: “An Object Lesson in Equivocation”

In a long, detailed post on Monday, Arianna Huffington decided to revisit both the facts of a month-old “dust up” between herself and Liz Cheney on This Week as well as PolitiFact’s subsequent reporting on the exchange. In particular, Huffington took issue with PolitiFact’s “Half True” ruling on her assertion to Cheney that Halliburton had defrauded American taxpayers of “hundreds of millions of dollars in Iraq”.

At the time of PolitiFact’s ruling, Huffington says she was busy putting the final touches on her new book and so decided to let the verdict stand, noting that PolitiFact’s reporting included a laundry list of questionable numbers regarding Halliburton/KBR’s contracting deals in Iraq. The juxtaposition of PolitiFact’s reporting and their verdict, Huffington thought, spoke for itself.

But a month and one book later, Huffington has a bone to pick with PolitiFact and the state of accountability in Washington today. From her post:

PolitiFact’s finding that my statement that Halliburton had defrauded American taxpayers of “hundreds of millions of dollars in Iraq” was “Half True” — after first documenting example after example of why it was completely true — was an object lesson in equivocation, and a prime exhibit of the kind of muddled thinking that dominates Washington and allows the powerful to escape accountability.

According to Huffington (and, indeed, PolitiFact’s own research), Halliburton/KBR is guilty of nothing less than war profiteering, but “rather than draw the obvious conclusion from all the facts it had just marshaled,”  Huffington accuses PolitiFact of “rhetorical tap-dancing” and backing away from her statement. Ultimately, Huffington concludes that PolitiFact is contributing to what she sees as an “accountability double standard” in today’s media:

Which is why I’d like to borrow two of the busiest letters of the day, and take this BP: Beyond PolitiFact. In the end, this is not about me, or Liz Cheney, or even Halliburton. It’s about our accountability double standard. It’s actually not that complex, nor is it ambiguous. It’s plainly obvious and the American people know it. And the refusal of our political and media leaders to acknowledge it is contributing to the widespread anger and cynicism sweeping the country right now…

As long as we allow truth backed up by a mountain of evidence to be, in the name of “pious fairness,” downgraded to Half True, that’s the way the planet we’re all living on is going to continue to operate. And that’s a fact.

Overall, Huffington’s rebuttal is strong, if somewhat tardy. More important, though, is how refreshing it is to witness a discussion about (and full of) facts rather than the often baseless inflammatory rhetoric so typical of political debates today. And for that, both Huffington and PolitiFact should be lauded.