Here are Wisconsin Watch's top 10 most read fact briefs

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On Sept. 24, 2022, Wisconsin Watch published its first fact brief. It marked a new partnership with Gigafact, a nonprofit network of nonpartisan local, regional and expert newsrooms that fact-check and verify influential claims circulating online.

In the two years since, our more than 500 fact briefs stand out from other fact-checking efforts. We tackle questions that can be answered yes or no, and each brief is limited to 150 words.

Politicians and other news outlets have pointed to our fact briefs as an authoritative check on misinformation being injected into the public discourse. Online readership has spiked for relevant fact briefs during this summer’s political conventions and two presidential debates.

Bill Adair, founder of PolitiFact and author of “Beyond the Big Lie,” has spoken highly of Gigafact.

“In the years that we’ve been studying the rise of misinformation, we’ve realized there simply aren’t enough fact-checks to counter all the falsehoods,” Adair said. “Gigafact is addressing this head-on with a wonderfully simple approach that should yield a dramatic increase in fact checks.”

At Wisconsin Watch, we can report that Adair’s prediction turned out to be true. Fact briefs have been some of the most widely read articles that Wisconsin Watch has produced.

Here in reverse order is a countdown of our top 10 most read fact briefs.

10. No, Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Janet Protasiewicz as a Milwaukee County judge did not release Darrell Brooks on bail before his deadly Waukesha Christmas Parade attack.

Milwaukee County Court Commissioner Cedric Cornwall approved Brooks’ release on $1,000 bail on Nov. 5, 2021.

On Nov. 21, 2021, Brooks drove a Ford Escape through the parade. The attack left six people dead and injured more than 60.

The claim about Protasiewicz was made during the campaign leading up to her election to the Supreme Court in April 2023. 

9. No, Wisconsin’s constitution does not “clearly” say the Wisconsin Supreme Court chief justice administers the Supreme Court.

Wisconsin’s constitution says: “The chief justice of the Supreme Court shall be the administrative head of the judicial system and shall exercise this administrative authority,” but adds “pursuant to procedures adopted by the Supreme Court.”

8. Yes, you can collect unemployment in Wisconsin if you get fired.

It depends on the circumstances. Employees may not receive unemployment benefits if they get fired for “violating reasonable requirements of the employer.”

7. No, a law Tim Walz signed does not allow a child to be taken away from parents who don’t consent to “sex changes.”

Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance of Ohio made the claim while campaigning in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

Walz, the Minnesota governor and 2024 Democratic vice presidential candidate, signed legislation allowing Minnesota courts to take temporary jurisdiction in a child custody dispute between parents in another state if one wants a child to obtain “gender-affirming care” in Minnesota.

The law does not change when the state can take custody away from parents or enable the state to take away custody in connection with such care.

6. No, “just about every law enforcement agency in the country” had not endorsed Donald Trump for president in early 2024.

Former President Donald Trump made the claim in an April 2024 Milwaukee radio interview.

As of early that month, few law enforcement organizations had announced endorsements in the 2024 presidential election.

Police unions — not law enforcement agencies such as police or sheriff’s departments — endorse candidates.

In early September, the Fraternal Order of Police, the country’s largest lobbying organization representing more than 350,000 law enforcement officers, endorsed Trump. In response, about 100 law enforcement officials endorsed Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris.

5. Yes, Donald Trump suggested rules in the U.S. Constitution could be terminated in response to election fraud. 

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie made the claim during a 2023 Republican presidential debate in Milwaukee, drawing attention to Trump’s false claim.

Trump said in a 2022 social media post: “A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution. Our great ‘Founders’ did not want, and would not condone, False & Fraudulent Elections!”

4. Yes, individuals under age 21 can legally drink alcohol in a bar in Wisconsin if they are with a parent.

Wisconsin’s legal drinking age is 21, but people under 21 can legally drink alcoholic beverages in establishments such as taverns and restaurants if they are with their parents, guardians or spouses of legal drinking age.

However, establishments can refuse to serve underage people.

3. No, Tim Walz didn’t sign legislation requiring female hygiene products to be installed in boys’ bathrooms.

Walz signed a Minnesota law requiring public schools to provide free menstrual products to “all menstruating students in restrooms regularly used by students in grades 4 to 12 according to a plan developed by the school district.”

The Minnesota Education Department told Wisconsin Watch: “Each school district should have its own plan to comply with the legislation. (The department) has not directed schools to provide these products in boys’ bathrooms.” Some schools have stocked them in unisex bathrooms instead.

2. No, the U.S. has not “lost” seven embassies during Joe Biden’s presidency, the most under any president.

U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., made the claim about embassies, the official headquarters for U.S. diplomats and government representatives serving in foreign countries, at the 2024 Wisconsin Republican Party convention.

Under Biden, three U.S. embassies — in Afghanistan, Belarus and Sudan — suspended and have not resumed operations, each following unrest in those countries.

1. Yes, the U.S. debt increased by $7.8 trillion during Trump’s presidency

Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis made the attack in an interview with the conservative Wisconsin Right Now website as he was competing with Trump and others for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination. 

The federal debt was $27.8 trillion when Trump left office, $7.8 trillion higher than when he entered.

The debt — borrowing done when the government spends more than it takes in — is a result of decisions made by a president and Congress during a president’s term, but also by decisions made by previous presidents and Congresses.