This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The day after Paul Ryan's acceptance speech for being nominated the Republican candidate for vice president, the "fact checkers" were all over the news debunking inaccuracies in his speech. Thank heavens for the Annenberg Policy Center's FactCheck.org, the Tampa Bay Times' Pulitzer Prize-winning PolitiFact.com and The Washington Post's "The Fact Checker." God bless them, every one.
It's good that the candidates were held to the standard of accuracy and had to spend the next day explaining why they outright lied or unfairly misrepresented things. Politicians shouldn't get away with just saying whatever they want.
I'm sure they'll do the same for the Democrats next week.
I encourage The Salt Lake Tribune to do the same thing with this fall's Utah elections. Perhaps team up with some university's journalism or political science department.
We especially need to hold politicians' feet to the fire. Not for only proven blowhards like Sen. Orrin Hatch and Gov. Gary Herbert, but also their lesser-known opponents.
Truth is too high a standard to expect of political candidates. But factually accurate statements are something we have a right to expect.
David Fisher
Cottonwood Heights