February's 5 top-read fact-checks

In February, PolitiFact’s most read stories had an eclectic flavor. You got the Oscars, a Vine, a claim from President Barack Obama and a mystery about one of the men vying to potentially replace him.

Here are the Top 5 most read items.

The Wisconsin Idea

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a would-be 2016 presidential candidate, said fundamental changes to language describing the Wisconsin Idea in the University of Wisconsin System's mission statement were the result of a "drafting error."

Not so.

Walker’s administration insisted on making the changes and provided detailed instructions on passages to be removed from state law, records show. Walker himself even acknowledged that the UW System had objected to the changes before his budget was put into final form.

Walker’s claim rated Pants on Fire.

A political turn at the Oscars

While accepting an Oscar for a song from the movie Selma Sunday night, singer John Legend claimed that "there are more black men under correctional control today than were under slavery in 1850."

PolitiFact Rhode Island fact-checked a nearly identical claim in December. It rates True.

PolitiFact Rhode Island found that U.S. Bureau of Criminal Statistics put the number of African-American men under state and federal criminal justice supervision in 2013 at about 1.68 million -- 807,076 above the number of African-American men enslaved in 1850.

Scott Walker and his college career

Scott Walker is surging in the polls. He went to London. He is the first Republican presidential hopeful to open a campaign office in Iowa.

And yet there is almost as much interest in Walker's college days as there is in what he's doing for 2016.

If elected, Walker would be the first president since Harry Truman without a college degree.

PolitiFact Wisconsin walked you through what’s known. You can read more here.

Obama urges audience to ‘do a fact-check’

President Barack Obama may be angling for our job.

During a Feb. 20, 2015, address to the winter meeting of the Democratic National Committee, Obama urged the audience to "do a fact-check" on the state of the economy, particularly in light of longstanding Republican criticisms of his policie

We did just that.

50 fact-checks in 6 seconds

The Daily Show posted a Vine in February titled, "50 Fox News lies in 6 seconds."

It turns out PunditFact fact-checked almost all of the statements they cited. For the record, we originally counted 49 claims, not 50. The Daily Show said No. 50 was left off due to a technical error.

You can see them all here.