Certainly there’s a reason journalists repeat “follow the money” like a mantra.

With PolitiFact, though, we have many evidences of its bias. For example, its parent newspaper has never during its entire existence (St. Petersburg Times/Tampa Bay Times) endorsed a Republican presidential candidate in the national election.

The true beauty of PolitiFact is its rating system. It’s more valuable for showing PolitiFact’s bias than it is for showing how truthfulness differs from politician to politician. When PolitiFact tightens its standards to give a conservative a harsher rating or relaxes its standards to cut a liberal a break, each time it creates a verifiable record of bias.

Media watchdogs need to start doing a better job of researching that record and reporting it to the public.