Hall of Shame

The Baloney Factor Hall of Shame is a page dedicated to remembering the worst polluters of the public discourse. Starting in 2015, these are individuals who have not only shamed themselves with misinformation, but harmed the country as well. These individuals have sunk to depths of baloney that are truly remarkable and should stand as cautionary tales to all that follow.

The first inductee to the Baloney Factor Hall of Shame can only be Doanld Trump who has a stunning record of false statements. He has produced a body of baloney so deep and wide that it will never be equaled. His election as President is a sign of a failing democracy, and his repeated false statements brought the United States government to the brink of collapse. Here are some of his lowlights:

• He scored an unheard of ten-statement Baloney Factor of 4.70 on 11/20/2020. This means his average over those ten-statements was very close to “Pants-on-Fire”, Politifact's most severe rating. No one has come close to that mark before or since, thankfully.
• His Baloney Factor for his 4 years as President was 3.36, meaning his Politifact ruling average was between “mostly false” and “false”.
• The best ten-statement Baloney Factor he achieved in his 4 years as President was a near-respectable 2.10. He was only able to manage this dubious best twice on 5/12/2017 and 1/31/2018 and it just got worse from there.
• He made 322 unique completely false statements during his presidency as tabulated by Politifact.
• When counting repeated false and misleading statements, the Washington Post counted 30,573.
• Politifact awarded him the "Lie of the Year" 3 times as an individual ( 2015, 2017, and 2019 ). He was largely responsible for a fourth in 2020 and was a participant in a fifth in 2021 . No other individual has more than one such “award”.
• Trump's first impeachment in 2019 started with his belief in lies and conspiracy theories about Joe and Hunter Biden. The impeachment charged that this belief led Trump to try to extort political favors from the Ukrainian President.
• On 1/6/2021, using lies about the 2020 election, he incited a riot that briefly occupied the U.S. Capitol and resulted in the deaths of 5 people. This incident led to his second impeachment. Though a majority of Senators found him guilty (57 - 43), it was not enough to convict.
• His lies to minimize the COVID-19 pandemic led to its politicization and contributed to the deaths of 800,000+ Americans.
• Awarded Rush Limbaugh the Presidential Medal of Freedom (see fellow Hall of Shame inductee below) thereby cheapening the award for all who follow.

Post Induction Baloney:

• Indicted March 30, 2023 in New York for lying in business documents about how money was spent. He was convicted on May 30, 2024 on all 34 counts.
• Indicted June 8, 2023 by the U.S. Justice Department for the possession of, and lying about classified documents.
• Indicted on August 1, 2023 by the U.S. Justice Department for conspiracy to defraud the United States and obstruction.
• Indicted on August 14, 2023 in Georgia on RICO charges.
• Readers Pick for 2023 Politifact Lie of the Year.
• Shares the 2024 Politifact Lie of the Year with his running mate J. D. Vance.

He was a true innovator in the world of mass baloney, realizing early that there was a huge untapped market waiting to be conned. He built and cultivated a legion of gullible followers calling themselves Dittoheads, who were more interested in outrage than facts. When Fox Entertainment came along later, Limbaugh’s audience was primed and ready to lap up whatever baloney Fox spooned out. With baloney softened brains, a large percentage of Americans were completely defenceless against the oceans of baloney that rolled in with the Internet. Lowlights:

• His lifetime Baloney Factor (from Politifact data starting April 2009) was 3.69.
• At the time of his death, his 10-statement Baloney Factor was 3.90 or almost completely false.
• The factual vacuum created by Limbaugh and his ilk allowed con man Donald Trump to become President of the United States (see fellow Hall of Shame inductee above). Limbaugh was a strong supporter of Trump all the way through to the end.
• While never awarded the Politifact Lie of the Year directly, he was part of the 2020 award group for statements like "The coronavirus is the common cold, folks". (2/24/2020)

While there are many many people who spew false claims willy-nilly, few of them have as big a following as Tucker Carlson had. The combination of large numbers of fools and large amounts of disinformation is always a dangerous mixture. There did not seem to be any deception too low for Carlson in his quest to keep his side in power. Here are some of his lowlights:

• Lifetime Baloney Factor: 3.96 (from Politifact data starting 8/15/2014).
• At the time of his firing (3/2023) and induction (5/2023), he was in last place on the Baloney Factor score board with a 4.20, one of the worst scores ever.
• He sowed doubt about the Covid vaccines and masks on many occasions even though he himself was vaccinated. This makes him part of the Politifact 2020 Lie of the Year group.
• He was one of the purveyors of the Big Lie that the 2020 election was somehow stolen from Donald Trump through voter fraud. This is particularly heinous since it was some of the fuel that led to the Jan. 6 insurrection. Subsequent text messages revealed during the Dominion/Fox lawsuit make it clear Carlson knew it was a lie.
• After the Jan. 6 Insurrection, he tried to minimize the political fallout by pretending it was just a peaceful demonstration. He even put together a film that was selectively edited to make it appear non-violent. This makes him part of the group receiving the Politifact 2021 Lie of the Year.
• He was an unfailing supporter of Hall of Shamer Donald Trump. Again, this is all the more heinous because his text messages make it clear he believes Trump to be a loathsome individual.