R0050/2026-03-31/Q001/SRC01

Research	R0050 — Journalism and Other Truth-Seeking Disciplines
Run	2026-03-31
Query	Q001
Search	S01
Result	S01-R01
Source	SRC01

PolitiFact Truth-O-Meter Methodology

Source

Field	Value
Title	The Principles of the Truth-O-Meter: PolitiFact's methodology for independent fact-checking
Publisher	PolitiFact / Poynter Institute
Author(s)	PolitiFact staff
Date	2018-02-12
URL	https://www.politifact.com/article/2018/feb/12/principles-truth-o-meter-politifacts-methodology-i/
Type	Methodology documentation

Summary

Dimension	Rating
Reliability	High
Relevance	High
Bias: Missing data	Low risk
Bias: Measurement	N/A
Bias: Selective reporting	Low risk
Bias: Randomization	N/A
Bias: Protocol deviation	N/A
Bias: COI/Funding	Low risk

Rationale

Dimension	Rationale
Reliability	Primary methodology document from PolitiFact itself; authoritative self-description of their process
Relevance	Directly addresses whether PolitiFact uses structured evidence evaluation elements
Bias flags	As a self-description, may present methodology more favorably than practiced; however, the document is detailed enough to identify what is absent as well as present

Evidence Extracts

Evidence ID	Summary
SRC01-E01	PolitiFact's six-level Truth-O-Meter as structured graduated claim rating
SRC01-E02	Absence of formal evidence hierarchy, structured bias assessment, and source tiering