Fox News more wrong than ever: New Politifact review finds pundits spewing mostly lies

Fox News promotes the most false information among TV news outlets, according to a fact-checking watchdog – and the problem is only getting worse.

Politifact regularly examines claims made on air by pundits, hosts, or paid contributors and rates those statements by accuracy.

The latest scorecard showed more than 60 percent of the claims made on Fox News were mostly false or worse – and half of all claims were either demonstrably false or outright lies.

Politifact found that 39 percent of the claims made on air during Fox News broadcasts had some basis in fact, with 10 percent that could be proven as true, 11 percent rated as mostly true, and 18 percent that were half true.

However, a nearly equal number – 38 percent – of the claims made on Fox News were demonstrably false, while 26 percent of them were mostly false, and 11 percent were mocked as “pants on fire” falsehoods.

A scorecard from September found that 58 percent of claims made during Fox News broadcasts were mostly false or worse.

Slightly less than half – 44 percent -- of the claims made on MSNBC and NBC News were mostly false or worse, a 1 percent improvement over the previous scorecard.

CNN was rated the most accurate news network, with 80 percent of its claims rated as half true or better.

Politifact cautioned against drawing broad conclusions about network accuracy based on its scorecard, pointing out that only some claims – not all – were fact-checked.

Statements made by candidates, government officials, or their representatives were not included in the scorecard.