Years ago Daniel Patrick Moynihan said “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.”

But now people seem to be armed with their own facts. Supposed facts are claimed to support both sides of an argument. Unfortunately it is the claim that gets the attention and relatively few hear about the basis of the claimed fact later.

For example, I am sure many of us saw the claim that about 75% of small businesses will have to fire workers or cut their hours as a result of ObamaCare. This claim was based on a survey or more accurately what the survey was said to show. Of course, the survey showed no such thing but that part of the story was not very prominent in the news.

The Fact Checker of the Washington Post recently examined this claim and lays out the facts and demonstrates why this claim is far from fact. Lest anyone think this is a partisan criticism, I should point out that this article has links to previous articles by this fact checker criticizing President Obama and the NRA for misusing survey data.

Two other sites I like for checking the factual basis of claims are Politifact and FactCheck.org.

Don’t accept the “facts” presented by either side without some critical thinking and checking. Having fact checkers helps us do that. Thanks to the fact checkers.