Hurt uses Wall Street Journal to rebut PolitiFact ruling

Congressman-Elect Robert Hurt is not backing down. He still believes that the Federal Health Care Act is an example of a “government takeover” of health care. Hurt and many other Republican candidates and politicians were tagged by PolitiFact with the “lie of the year” because of this claim.

Here is our PolitiFact Virginia report on Congressman-elect Hurt:

Hurt has help in his fight against PolitiFact. In a rare move, the Wall Street Journal editorial board wrote a scathing column hammering the media outlets that support PolitiFact. The Journal claims that PolitiFact went too far criticizing politicians who dubbed health care reform a government takeover and spelled out the reasons why they believe the Republican argument has merit.

In part the Journal points out how the Obama administration is using the PolitiFact report, (which was the national outlet’s “lie of the year”) to defend the plan and attack the GOP for questioning it. Their editorial board believes that PolitiFact is not the final word on health care debate and even questions the objectivity of the reporters who contribute to the program.

“Like other “fact checking” enterprises, its animating conceit is that opinions are what ideologues have, when in reality PolitiFact’s curators also have political views and values that influence their judgments about facts and who is right in any debate.”
-Wall Street Journal Editorial
PolitiFiction: True ‘lies’ about ObamaCare.

Hurt’s team is now using the Journal editorial to defend his statement.

Which side do you come out on? Chances are with much of today’s political debate (especially this issue) the answer probably hinges on where you stand on the issue.