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Complaint about PolitiFact sent to the International Fact-Checking Network, Jan. 26, 2018 (Update: oops, duplicate)

December 18, 2023 0 Comments

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We’ve been slow (Editor’s note 12/28/2023: Not as slow as we thought! We already posted this documentation in Oct. 2023) to document our first complaint submitted to the International Fact-Checking Network regarding PolitiFact. That’s partly because we tried to ensure that IFCN figures were clear that our emails were seeking publishable responses. It’s acceptable in journalism to publish anything received…
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ZFC on Medium (2016): ‘Fact Check This, Bill Adair’

October 26, 2023 0 Comments

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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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The secret slanders of the International Fact-Checking Network

October 16, 2023 0 Comments

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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Complaint filed with the International Fact-Checking Network about PolitiFact, April 4, 2018

October 9, 2023 0 Comments

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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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Correction request sent to PolitiFact, Oct. 6, 2023

October 6, 2023 0 Comments

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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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