An independent experimental fact-checking site, exploring and advocating ways to make fact-checking better.
Back in 2016 I used the Medium platform to skewer Bill Adair’s errant view of fact-checking. Bill Adair is the founder of PolitiFact and after PolitiFact was elevated to journalistic sainthood with a position at Duke University. My article, titled “Fact Check This, Bill Adair,” pointed out that bias is irrelevant to fact-checking if the fact check gets the facts…
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With the IFCN seemingly uninterested in malfeasance by Logically Facts, Zebra Fact Check started looking at whether a European accountability organization might help fill the void.
How the International Fact-Checking Network can act so hypocritically mystifies me. This organization espousing high ethics and transparency routinely hides what it does and fibs about stuff. Allow me to describe the example that set me off today. On Oct. 13, 2023, Zebra Fact Check sent a formal complaint about PolitiFact to the International Fact-Checking Network. PolitiFact had dinged Gov….
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PolitiFact mishandled a fact check of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis touching illegal border crossings and ignored a correction request. Accordingly, Zebra Fact Check submitted a formal complaint to the International Fact-Checking Network.
Our first formal complaint about PolitiFact to the International Fact-Checking Network was submitted via email on Jan. 26, 2018.
Back in early 2018 the International Fact-Checking Network had yet to develop a working complaint submission interface. We filed our earliest complaints via email. For this example the first email points out to PolitiFact its inconsistency on spending cuts to future budgets. That March 29, 2018 email (documented at this website here) gets forwarded to the IFCN to serve as…
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Zebra Fact Check noted that a PolitiFact fact check created a false narrative around Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, suggesting that DeSantis conflated one statistic with another when speaking about illegal immigration. PolitiFact failed to acknowledge that border apprehensions have a long history as a proxy for illegal border crossings. PolitiFact also failed to acknowledge that border apprehensions do not…
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We tried to file this complaint weeks ago, but the International Fact-Checking Network’s interface for reporting complaints was broken. At last:
In recognition of a failed fact check published by Logically Facts and the subsequent comedy of errors it produced after my correction request, Zebra Fact Check submitted a formal complaint with the International Fact-Checking Network. We submitted the complaint early on Oct. 3, 2023.
As detailed in our Aug. 24, 2023 post “Fetal pain follies at Logically AI,” Zebra Fact Check submitted a correction request to “Logically Facts,” the fact-checking arm of LogicallyAI. Though “Logically Facts” promises a response to any complaint within 48 hours, to date Zebra Fact Check has heard nothing back, though we found the fact checker “revised” its fact check…
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