PolitiFact’s Lie of the Year of 2014 falls apart only two months later

◼ In October, the columnist George Will directly contradicted the president and a variety of federal health officials when he insisted that the African hemorrhagic fever Ebola could spread via fluids expectorated as a result of a cough or a sneeze.

The president’s honor had been called into question, an offense that Rudy Giuliani recently discovered the press simply cannot countenance. Even despite the fact that a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention poster backed up Will’s warning, PolitiFact dubbed his and other alleged exaggerations of the threat posed by Ebola as their LOTY....

Just about two months later, PolitiFact’s LOTY imploded.

“A team of prominent researchers suggested Thursday that limited airborne transmission of the Ebola virus is ‘very likely,’” The Washington Post reported on Thursday, “a hypothesis that could reignite the debate that started last fall after one of the scientists offered the same opinion.”

...“There was almost a rush to ensure the public that we knew a lot more than we did,” Osterholm said on Wednesday. “But we’re saying you can’t rule out respiratory transmission.”

Not only was there a rush by public health officials to calm frayed nerves surrounding the Ebola crisis, there was a rush by the administration’s allies in the media to shame and condemn those who were actually listening to the researchers that contradicted administration officials.... KEEP READING