After Zebra Fact Check received a message from the International Fact-Checking Network’s outside assessor, Michael Wagner, describing the flawed reasoning he used to dismiss our complaints to the IFCN about PolitiFact, we contacted IFCN Director Baybars Orsek to ask for confirmation that what Wagner sent us was the same reasoning he sent to the IFCN.
This email exchange also marks the start of our request for an official IFCN response regarding its handling of complaints about IFCN-verified signatories PolitiFact and Science Feedback.
We have yet to receive any such response.
Substack update (applicable on Substack publication date): In the original we did not include documentation of our efforts to follow up on Orsek’s offer to meet in November 2019.
Those efforts produced no detectable response from Orsek through the remainder of his tenure at the IFCN.