politifacter

A utility for aggregating politifact statements.

Information

politifacter is a small command line (and, one day, server) utility written in node.js that allows the user to aggregate politifact scorecards based on politifact's API.

Build and Install

From NPM:

npm install politifacter -g

From repo:

npm build
npm install -g

Testing

npm test

Compatibility

Node v6.7.0+.

Examples

Local

A basic example follows:

pf analyze last_name=Obama,first_name=Barack

yields

Selectors: [ name_slug=barack-obama ]

Number of people in selection: 1 [ barack-obama ]
Number of statements in selection: 593
Honesty score: 48.06%
Lying score: 25.13%

            True : [====================] 20.57 ± 0% (122)
     Mostly True : [===========================] 27.49 ± 0% (163)
       Half True : [==========================] 26.81 ± 0% (159)
    Mostly False : [===========] 11.64 ± 0% (69)
           False : [===========] 11.97 ± 0% (71)
   Pants On Fire : [=] 1.52 ± 0% (9)

You can also aggregate via:

pf analyze party.party=Democrat

yields

Selectors: party.party=Democrat

Number of people in selection: 880
Number of statements in selection: 3973
Honesty score: 44.3%
Lying score: 33.58%

            True : [===================] 19.66 ± 2.11% (781)
     Mostly True : [========================] 24.64 ± 2.14% (979)
       Half True : [======================] 22.12 ± 2.19% (879)
    Mostly False : [==============] 14.45 ± 1.96% (574)
           False : [==============] 14.5 ± 2.04% (576)
   Pants On Fire : [====] 4.63 ± 1.44% (184)

or

pf analyze party.party=Republican

yields

Selectors: party.party=Republican

Number of people in selection: 969
Number of statements in selection: 5417
Honesty score: 31.02%
Lying score: 49.09%

            True : [==============] 14.57 ± 1.73% (789)
     Mostly True : [================] 16.45 ± 1.78% (891)
       Half True : [===================] 19.9 ± 2% (1078)
    Mostly False : [==================] 18.98 ± 2.02% (1028)
           False : [=====================] 21.97 ± 2.22% (1190)
   Pants On Fire : [========] 8.14 ± 1.52% (441)

Range selectors are also allowed:

pf analyze "party.party=Democrat,total_count>=50"

yields

Selectors: [ party.party=Democrat, total_count>=50 ]

Number of people in selection: 5 [ barack-obama, hillary-clinton, charlie-crist, joe-biden, tim-kaine ]
Number of statements in selection: 1059
Honesty score: 47.59%
Lying score: 26.62%

            True : [====================] 20.68 ± 1.66% (219)
     Mostly True : [==========================] 26.91 ± 2.54% (285)
       Half True : [=========================] 25.78 ± 2.68% (273)
    Mostly False : [=============] 13.31 ± 1.98% (141)
           False : [===========] 11.33 ± 2.1% (120)
   Pants On Fire : [=] 1.98 ± 1.53% (21)

Also, there is a compare feature:

pf compare "party.party=Democrat,total_count>=50|name_slug=hillary-clinton;name_slug=barack-obama"

yields

[ name_slug == barack-obama, party.party == Democrat, total_count >= 50 ]
   [<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<---------------------------===========================~~~~~~~~~~~~------------>]

[ name_slug == hillary-clinton, party.party == Democrat, total_count >= 50 ]
   [<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<----------------------------======================~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~---------->>]

Try this one to recreate something like this graph.

pf compare "total_count>=10|name_slug=barack-obama;name_slug=donald-trump;name_slug=hillary-clinton;name_slug=harry-reid;name_slug=nancy-pelosi;name_slug=john-kerry;name_slug=michele-bachmann;name_slug=ted-cruz;name_slug=newt-gingrich;name_slug=sarah-palin;name_slug=rick-santorum;name_slug=scott-walker;name_slug=paul-ryan;name_slug=rick-perry;name_slug=john-mccain;name_slug=marco-rubio;name_slug=mitt-romney;name_slug=rand-paul;name_slug=chris-christie;name_slug=joe-biden;name_slug=john-kasich;name_slug=bernie-sanders;name_slug=jeb-bush"

Web service

There is a small web server included in this package that is propped up. Here are some example calls.

If you need to know what "selectors" are available, you can call the example API:

curl http://politifacter.ajroney.com/api/example | python -m json.tool

yields

{
    "barely_true_count": 69,
    "current_job": "President",
    "false_count": 71,
    "first_name": "Barack",
    "half_true_count": 159,
    "home_state": "Illinois",
    "id": 4,
    "last_name": "Obama",
    "mostly_true_count": 163,
    "name_slug": "barack-obama",
    "pants_count": 9,
    "party": {
        "id": 1,
        "party": "Democrat",
        "party_slug": "democrat",
        "resource_uri": "/api/v/2/party/1/"
    },
    "photo": "http://static.politifact.com.s3.amazonaws.com/politifact/mugs/NYT_OBAMA_1.jpg",
    "primary_edition": {
        "edition": "National",
        "edition_slug": "truth-o-meter",
        "id": 1,
        "meter_name": "The Truth-O-Meter<sup>TM</sup>",
        "resource_uri": "/api/v/2/edition/1/"
    },
    "promise_meter_cutout": null,
    "resource_uri": "/api/v/2/person/4/",
    "total_count": 625,
    "true_count": 122,
    "website": "http://www.whitehouse.gov/"
}

Then, you can make an analyze call:

curl http://politifacter.ajroney.com/api/analyze/home_state=Illinois,party.party=Democrat,total_count%3E=5/text

yields

Selectors: [ home_state=Illinois, party.party=Democrat, total_count>=5 ]

Number of people in selection: 6 [ barack-obama, michelle-obama, rahm-emanuel, richard-durbin, arne-duncan, luis-gutierrez ]
Number of statements in selection: 626
Honesty score: 48.25%
Lying score: 25.40%

            True : [====================] 20.45 ± 10.47% (128)
     Mostly True : [===========================] 27.8 ± 14.22% (174)
       Half True : [==========================] 26.36 ± 7.81% (165)
    Mostly False : [===========] 11.34 ± 6.15% (71)
           False : [============] 12.46 ± 9.4% (78)
   Pants On Fire : [=] 1.6 ± 4.9% (10)

Finally, you can also get the statistics object that is aggregated on the server:

curl http://politifacter.ajroney.com/api/analyze/party.party=Democrat,total_count%3E=50/statistics | python -m json.tool

yields

{
    "falseArray": [
        71,
        27,
        9,
        10,
        3
    ],
    "halfTrueArray": [
        159,
        58,
        20,
        21,
        15
    ],
    "mostlyFalseArray": [
        69,
        39,
        15,
        11,
        7
    ],
    "mostlyTrueArray": [
        163,
        73,
        19,
        16,
        14
    ],
    "name": "",
    "pantsOnFireArray": [
        9,
        6,
        2,
        4,
        0
    ],
    "people": [
        {
            "barely_true_count": 69,
            "current_job": "President",
            "false_count": 71,
            "first_name": "Barack",
            "half_true_count": 159,
            "home_state": "Illinois",
            "id": 4,
            "last_name": "Obama",
            "mostly_true_count": 163,
            "name_slug": "barack-obama",
            "pants_count": 9,
            "party": {
                "id": 1,
                "party": "Democrat",
                "party_slug": "democrat",
                "resource_uri": "/api/v/2/party/1/"
            },
            "photo": "http://static.politifact.com.s3.amazonaws.com/politifact/mugs/NYT_OBAMA_1.jpg",
            "primary_edition": {
                "edition": "National",
                "edition_slug": "truth-o-meter",
                "id": 1,
                "meter_name": "The Truth-O-Meter<sup>TM</sup>",
                "resource_uri": "/api/v/2/edition/1/"
            },
            "promise_meter_cutout": null,
            "resource_uri": "/api/v/2/person/4/",
            "total_count": 625,
            "true_count": 122,
            "website": "http://www.whitehouse.gov/"
        },
        {
            "barely_true_count": 39,
            "current_job": "Presidential candidate",
            "false_count": 27,
            "first_name": "Hillary",
            "half_true_count": 58,
            "home_state": "New York",
            "id": 1,
            "last_name": "Clinton",
            "mostly_true_count": 73,
            "name_slug": "hillary-clinton",
            "pants_count": 6,
            "party": {
                "id": 1,
                "party": "Democrat",
                "party_slug": "democrat",
                "resource_uri": "/api/v/2/party/1/"
            },
            "photo": "http://static.politifact.com.s3.amazonaws.com/politifact/mugs/GYI_659046701_585968470.jpg",
            "primary_edition": {
                "edition": "National",
                "edition_slug": "truth-o-meter",
                "id": 1,
                "meter_name": "The Truth-O-Meter<sup>TM</sup>",
                "resource_uri": "/api/v/2/edition/1/"
            },
            "promise_meter_cutout": null,
            "resource_uri": "/api/v/2/person/1/",
            "total_count": 270,
            "true_count": 60,
            "website": "http://www.hillaryclinton.com/"
        },
        {
            "barely_true_count": 15,
            "current_job": "",
            "false_count": 9,
            "first_name": "Charlie",
            "half_true_count": 20,
            "home_state": "Florida",
            "id": 257,
            "last_name": "Crist",
            "mostly_true_count": 19,
            "name_slug": "charlie-crist",
            "pants_count": 2,
            "party": {
                "id": 1,
                "party": "Democrat",
                "party_slug": "democrat",
                "resource_uri": "/api/v/2/party/1/"
            },
            "photo": "http://static.politifact.com.s3.amazonaws.com/politifact/mugs/crist.JPG",
            "primary_edition": {
                "edition": "Florida",
                "edition_slug": "florida",
                "id": 4,
                "meter_name": "The Florida Truth-O-Meter",
                "resource_uri": "/api/v/2/edition/4/"
            },
            "promise_meter_cutout": null,
            "resource_uri": "/api/v/2/person/257/",
            "total_count": 90,
            "true_count": 15,
            "website": ""
        },
        {
            "barely_true_count": 11,
            "current_job": "U.S. senator",
            "false_count": 10,
            "first_name": "Joe",
            "half_true_count": 21,
            "home_state": "Delaware",
            "id": 11,
            "last_name": "Biden",
            "mostly_true_count": 16,
            "name_slug": "joe-biden",
            "pants_count": 4,
            "party": {
                "id": 1,
                "party": "Democrat",
                "party_slug": "democrat",
                "resource_uri": "/api/v/2/party/1/"
            },
            "photo": "http://static.politifact.com.s3.amazonaws.com/mugs/mug-joebiden.jpg",
            "primary_edition": {
                "edition": "National",
                "edition_slug": "truth-o-meter",
                "id": 1,
                "meter_name": "The Truth-O-Meter<sup>TM</sup>",
                "resource_uri": "/api/v/2/edition/1/"
            },
            "promise_meter_cutout": null,
            "resource_uri": "/api/v/2/person/11/",
            "total_count": 78,
            "true_count": 13,
            "website": "http://www.joebiden.com/"
        },
        {
            "barely_true_count": 7,
            "current_job": "U.S. Senator",
            "false_count": 3,
            "first_name": "Tim",
            "half_true_count": 15,
            "home_state": "Virginia",
            "id": 424,
            "last_name": "Kaine",
            "mostly_true_count": 14,
            "name_slug": "tim-kaine",
            "pants_count": 0,
            "party": {
                "id": 1,
                "party": "Democrat",
                "party_slug": "democrat",
                "resource_uri": "/api/v/2/party/1/"
            },
            "photo": "http://static.politifact.com.s3.amazonaws.com/politifact/mugs/AP_NCCB111_CAMPAIGN_2016_KA.JPG",
            "primary_edition": {
                "edition": "Virginia",
                "edition_slug": "virginia",
                "id": 10,
                "meter_name": "The Virginia Truth-O-Meter",
                "resource_uri": "/api/v/2/edition/10/"
            },
            "promise_meter_cutout": null,
            "resource_uri": "/api/v/2/person/424/",
            "total_count": 52,
            "true_count": 9,
            "website": "http://www.kaine.senate.gov/"
        }
    ],
    "selectors": [
        "party.party=Democrat",
        "total_count>=50"
    ],
    "totalArray": [
        593,
        263,
        80,
        75,
        48
    ],
    "trueArray": [
        122,
        60,
        15,
        13,
        9
    ]
}

License

The MIT License (MIT)

Copyright (c) 2016 Aaron Roney

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.