An independent experimental fact-checking site, exploring and advocating ways to make fact-checking better.
We have long criticized PolitiFact for failing to heed reasonable requests for corrections as well as its too-frequent failures to follow its own corrections policies. When the International Fact-Checking Network committed itself to the role of policing signatories to its statement of principles and stated it would accept and review specific complaints about the fact-checking organizations under its umbrella, we…
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With the exception of Zebra Fact Check, which features a rating system designed to minimize subjectivity, there are two kinds of fact checkers. The first type follows the FactCheck.org model and offers readers fact-checking and explanatory journalism using a traditional media presentation with text, pictures and graphs.. The second type follows the PolitiFact model, expanding on the FactCheck.org model by…
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What message does it send if the Poynter Institute declines to correct mistakes in its reporting on fact-checking? On July 3, 2019 the International Fact-Checking Network at the Poynter Institute published a review of a Pew Research report on public trust in the media. We flagged an error in Daniela Flamini’s reporting. And with a month having passed, the error…
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It turns out there’s a crisis of trust for fact-checking organizations, at least with respect to the U.S. audience. So far, it seems that fact-checking organizations are content to ignore the problem. After all, they know they are doing a fantastic job fact-checking. So isn’t it just a matter of time before the reliability of fact-checking sinks in with the…
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The Washington Post Fact Checker Turns Fact-Checking on its Head Health care has emerged as a key issue for the 2018 mid-term elections. The mainstream press has largely supported a narrative that support for a lawsuit asserting the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional shows opposition to protections for pre-existing conditions. The Washington Post Fact Checker published a fact check showcasing…
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If a fact checker cannot verify that something is true but finds that it might be true, does that make it half true? And what if a fact checker runs a headline asking one question while the fact check content answers a different question? Dark Money Paid for Over 80 Percent? PolitiFact’s Oct. 5, 2018 fact check of a claim…
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Two examples from the past several weeks help solidify our impression that the new journalistic genre of “fact-checking” needs a basic upgrade. In both examples, key principals in the fact-checking industry could not see an error staring them in the face. PolitiFact, Louis Jacobson On Sept. 12, 2018 PolitiFact published a fact check of MSNBC host Joe Scarborough through…
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An Aug. 3, 2018 PolitiFact fact check of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Medicare For All helps show the disadvantages of issuing fact check ratings without the benefit of logic. PolitiFact’s system ends up giving a “Half True” rating to Sanders’ entirely spurious argument. PolitiFact quotes Sanders to introduce his argument: Sanders said, “Let me thank the Koch Brothers of…
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The Need for Polarized Teams in Fact-Checking Could the use of polarized teams improve political fact checking? We have noted in the past that mainstream fact checkers might easily avoid many of their mistakes by pursuing ideological diversity in their work groups. We find it obvious that ideological diversity offers an easy way for media outlets to appeal to a…
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PolitiFact recently partnered with a television news channel, Newsy, to spread its fact-checking content. Ordinarily the video version of a fact-check simplifies the fact check and further distorts any inaccuracies. But the Newsy version of a July 2, 2018 PolitiFact fact check actually does a more complete job of reporting. That said, the fact check of a President Trump claim…
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