Letter: Always check statements by politicians

White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller was awarded four Pinocchios for repeating claims of prevalent U.S. voter fraud on NBC’s Feb. 12 Meet The Press.

Miller also earned three Pinocchios by saying that several dozen people from the seven Muslim countries banned by the president’s executive order were involved in “all different kinds of terroristic activity.”

Pinocchios — falsehoods or partial falsehoods — are researched and awarded by the Washington Post newspaper’s Fact Checker, which has the following rating scale:

One Pinocchio indicates some shading of the facts. Selective telling of the truth. Some omissions and exaggerations, but no outright falsehoods. (You could view this as “mostly true.”)

Two Pinocchios indicates significant omissions and/or exaggerations. Some factual error may be involved but not necessarily. A politician can create a false, misleading impression by playing with words and using legalistic language that means little to ordinary people. (Similar to “half true.”)

Three Pinocchios indicates significant factual error and/or obvious contradictions. This gets into the realm of “mostly false.” But it could include statements which are technically correct (such as based on official government data) but when taken out of context are very misleading.

Four Pinocchios are whoppers (outright lies).

This story was originally published February 22, 2017 at 4:49 AM with the headline "Letter: Always check statements by politicians."