It's a couple days old, but this is pretty weak stuff from Politifact and deserves a quick look.

Following the right-wing's freakout regarding second graders who sang Obama's praise during Black History Month, Politifact decided to determine whether the allegations in RNC chief Michael Steele's fundraising letter, in which he denounced the school children's performance, were true.

In his plea for cash, Steele denounced the song as “indoctrination” and an example of “fanaticism” that was sweeping the country. He also claimed the performance represented, “the type of propaganda you would see in Stalin's Russia or Kim Jong Il's North Korea.”

Incredibly, Politifact concluded Steele's claims were true. Actually, Politifact punted on most of Steele's outrageous allegations:

You can argue whether or not Steele laid the political rhetoric on a little too thick.

The fact we wanted to check was the question that immediately popped into our head when we saw the video, “Did this really happen at a public school?”

Oh brother. Steele claimed the kids were part of a propaganda exercises straight out of communist Russia, and were the victims of insidious “indoctrination.” But Politifact didn't want to bother itself with those fiery allegations. (It's merely “rhetoric.”) Instead, it simply wanted to determine if the video took place in a public school.

Gee, that must have been tricky since, y'know, the public school in question confirmed the video was filmed there.

Next time Politifact is confronted with egregious, fact-free allegations by the RNC chief, researchers there ought to not look away in order to confirm a mundane fact that's not even in dispute.