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Mytical
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posted October 18, 2009 08:45 AM |
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Factcheck.Org
Do you, will you use the website for checking Political claims? If not, why? If so, why? Is it neutral? Is it secretly partisan? What do you think about the site? What other sites do you use to check your claims and/or facts if any? Do you just listen to a news cast (from any source) and never check to see if they are blowing smoke or not? Thoughts? Comments?
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Binabik
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posted October 18, 2009 09:48 AM |
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Edited by Binabik at 10:58, 18 Oct 2009.
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I use these sites but I take them with a grain of salt. I don't remember which is which, but some of those sites defintitely are not to be trusted.
I try to check things straight from the source as much as possible, assuming I know the original source. If not, I try to check multiple sites and see if they agree. The number of sites I prefer to have in agreement depends on how much I trust them. If it's not a place I'm already familiar with (which likely it isn't) then I look around at other things. I try to find other subjects at the same site that I'm already familiar with, and see if what they say makes sense. I try to find who owns the site, who they are affiliated with, who funds them, etc. (funding tells a lot)
It's pretty common for there to be key give-aways that a site is biased in some way. Although hard to list, the give-ways are often easy to recognize when you see them.
For any type of statistical information I try to go to the original source and look at the raw data rather than interpreted "conclusions". I try to be EXTREMELY careful not to confuse correlation and causation. That means trying to think of every possible thing that could affect the data.
As far as surveys and polls. I take those with a really, really, really big grain of salt. They can provide useful information, but you just have to be really careful with it. Generally speaking I'm highly skeptical of polls regardless of the source. I'm signed up with several survey places including Harris Polls. Let's just say that my experience with those places doesn't give me more confidence in survey results. (Harris is actually the best out of the ones I'm involved with, but bias and leading questions are still pretty common)
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Mytical
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Chaos seeking Harmony
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posted October 18, 2009 09:59 AM |
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Edited by Mytical at 10:04, 18 Oct 2009.
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Indeed, I rarely trust one site or even two alone. Even then I normally take things with a grain of salt. Everybody has hot buttons, and sometimes I find something that pushes mine..even if it is rare. You have to take the time to do your research even if it is something you personally are passionate about. So..will add Harris to my list. Any other suggestions?
Edit : As for polls, they are only as accurate as the people they ask. It is very difficult to get a good cross section for 'average' people to be honest.
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Binabik
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posted October 18, 2009 10:23 AM |
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Not sure if I was recommending Harris. They are just not as bad as some of the others. I took a very long survey with Harris a few days ago. I took screenshots of 57 pages of the survey thinking I MIGHT make a tread about it. If you hear about the approval rating of the president or congress, that's what this survey was. I started to make screenshots after some of the questions were either biased or leading. A lot of it is subtle, but it's there.
Here's an example. This is a very simple question compared to most.
Comments?
Don't want to go off topic, but I think this is related to the larger question of the thread.
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Mytical
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Chaos seeking Harmony
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posted October 18, 2009 10:31 AM |
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Edited by Mytical at 10:31, 18 Oct 2009.
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They are going the right direction on the wrong track?  No I can understand how some surveys are conducted and often misleading. I've been known to state things poorly or slant things when not trying to myself .
Also yeah it is not as simple as that, there are some things I agree with/am ok with and others that are way off track for me (and wrong direction too) so a simple question like that is very misleading.
The question is is the slant/misleading intentional or just poor wording?
edit : I agree that this is on topic for this thread.
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Binabik
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posted October 18, 2009 10:47 AM |
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I don't know if it's intentional. It's late and I'm curious what others think of this question, so I won't go into detail. But I'll say that intentional doesn't necesarily mean wrong or bad. It might be that Harris has different wording for the same basic question to compare how people answer each one. You could switch around the adjectives and compare the results.
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Consis
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Of Ruby
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posted October 18, 2009 09:23 PM |
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What Binabik Said
Every word....I agree
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Mytical
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Chaos seeking Harmony
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posted October 19, 2009 10:03 PM |
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Edited by Mytical at 22:05, 19 Oct 2009.
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First, I check out factcheck.org's claims, they have a lot more accuracy then say..Fox. They back up their claims with links, resources (that you can follow to see exactly what was said/done). Yes, some things are off, but that is why you check out EVERY fact on your own. If you don't use factcheck that is FINE. WHAT DO YOU USE?!! It is a simple question.
Edit : fried some spam.
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