In July 2019, Zebra Fact Check discovered an error in the International Fact-Checking Network’s coverage of a Pew Research survey.
The IFCN-published story falsely said “Almost half of Americans believe that fact checkers are biased, and the majority of those skeptics are Republican.”
Pew Research data apparently do not support the latter proposition.
Zebra Fact Check received no reply to its outreach and the error remains without correction.
Of note, the story was updated with a clarification of a secondary error we pointed out (using “exactly half” in reference to survey results regardless of the margin of error).
The clarification does not appear to follow Poynter.org’s policy on corrections:
We will specify how we were made aware of the error and when we updated the story.
Dear Poynter Institute,
A July 3, 2019 IFCN article by Daniela Flamini features careless reporting about a Pew Research survey. Flamini reported:
Almost half of Americans believe that fact-checkers are biased, and the majority of these skeptics are Republican.
Flamini apparently overlooked the demographics of the report. While it’s true that nearly 70 percent of Republicans believe fact checkers favor one side, Pew Research shows Republicans as a smaller group than either Independents or Democrats. As I showed in a response to Flamini’s post, it appears Republicans make up a minority of the skeptical population. If the math may be made to support Flamini’s claim then somebody should take the time to do it. Otherwise, a correction or clarification is in order (it might be claimed a plurality may be called a “majority,” though that seems misleading in this context).
In the third paragraph, Flamini claims “exactly half” of Americans believe fact checkers are unbiased (that is, do not favor one side). Flamini’s language encourages misunderstanding about the reliability of polling. Any margin of error for a survey should discourage a journalist from suggesting the survey figures are exact. Simply saying “half” should have sufficed.
Fact checkers care about accuracy, correct?