An independent experimental fact-checking site, exploring and advocating ways to make fact-checking better.
Somebody at the question-and-answer website Quora asked whether the website “Media Bias/Fact Check” counts as trustworthy. A number of the answers to that question conveyed our view of that site, that the subjectivity of its methodology basically makes it a category error to gauge its trustworthiness. Quoran Felix Ling, on the other hand, considered it a key point that nobody…
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The International Fact-Checking Network has yet to figure out how to balance its role as a fact-checking advocate with its role in fact-checker accountability. The IFCN peddles the image that it verifies compliance with its Code of Principles. In practice, its accountability measures count as incredibly weak. The IFCN’s 2021 treatment of its Poynter Institute stable mate PolitiFact exemplifies the…
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When PolitiFact failed to respond to Zebra Fact Check’s Feb. 22, 2021 correction request, we sent a formal complaint to the International Fact-Checking Network. We called PolitiFact’s failure to correct its mistake a violation of its commitment to scrupulously follow an open and honest corrections policy.
PolitiFact published a video version of a fact check and with it an improper paraphrase of the fact-checked claim. Zebra Fact Check sent a correction request to PolitiFact on Feb. 22, 2021. As of March 14, 2021 PolitiFact had not fixed the error in the video.
On March 9, 2021, Zebra Fact Check sent an email message to the International Fact-Checking Network, Director Baybars Örsek, Associate Director Cristina Tardáguila, and Program Manager Ferdi Ferhat Özsoy. We also cc’d Poynter Institute President Neil Brown. Our message pointed out the inconsistency of the International Fact-Checking Network’s system of accountability and its resulting ineffectuality. It called for the the…
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Zebra Fact Check submitted a formal complaint to the International Fact-Checking Network on Nov. 23, 2020. The complaint noted two examples of PolitiFact skirting the IFCN’s requirement for open and honest corrections.
On Oct. 20, 2020, Zebra Fact Check noted no change made by PolitiFact pursuant to our Oct. 13, 2020 correction request. Accordingly, we submitted a formal complaint to the International Fact-Checking Network. We charged that PolitiFact failed to exhibit an open and honest corrections policy as stipulated in the IFCN Code of Principles.
On May 26, 2020 Zebra Fact Check followed up on its correction request submitted to PolitiFact by lodging a formal complaint about PolitiFact to the International Fact-Checking Network. The complaint suggests that PolitiFact’s failure to abide by its own principles for purposes of a Truth-O-Meter rating fail the IFCN Code of Principles on the issue of fairness. Further, PolitiFact’s failure…
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Following up on PolitiFact’s failure to correct in response to our July 2020 correction request, Zebra Fact Check lodged a formal complaint with the International Fact-Checking Network on Dec. 23, 2020. The complaint suggests PolitiFact fails to follow an open and honest corrections policy in its refusal to fix an obvious error.
Despite publishing an “In Context” article showing otherwise, PolitiFact published a fact check repeating the false allegation that President Trump used the phrase “very fine people” to refer to neo-Nazis. Zebra Fact Check requested a correction on July 30, 2020. PolitiFact had not corrected the item as of March 11, 2021.