An independent experimental fact-checking site, exploring and advocating ways to make fact-checking better.
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.
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.
Zebra Fact Check has noticed a tendency among mainstream fact checkers to leave “systemic racism” alone as a fact-checking topic. The so-called “elite three” (FactCheck.org, PolitiFact, Washington Post Fact Checker) all suffer a lack of content on the subject. A Democrat can state that systemic racism exists as a reality in any number of contexts and fact-checkers will ignore it….
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Zebra Fact Check considers the avoidance of apples-to-oranges comparisons a completely basic task in fact-checking. Thus, it especially piques our interest when two mainstream fact checkers fact check the same apple fact with orange data when researching the same subject. During his inauguration speech, President Biden said the coronavirus deaths from the past year equaled the number of Americans killed…
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On Jan. 28, 2021 Zebra Fact Check sent a correction request to PolitiFact. We noticed PolitiFact described a 300 million hoped-for future supply of coronavirus vaccine as 300. PolitiFact issued a correction, though with less transparency than we hoped. Find more details in a post at PolitiFact Bias.
On Dec. 18, 2020 Zebra Fact Check submitted a new complaint about the mainstream fact checker PolitiFact to the International Fact-Checking Network. PolitiFact and the IFCN are both owned by the nonprofit Poynter Institute. In a nutshell, the complaint points toward a long-running study of PolitiFact’s subjective application of its “Pants on Fire” rating as evidence PolitiFact does not exhibit…
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Mainstream fact checkers have had a terrible October so far in 2020. Their poor performance prompts this answer to the Poynter Institute’s “Factually” newsletter and its “The Week in Fact-checking” with what we’re tempted to call “The Weak in Fact-checking.” FactCheck.org Whitewashes Steele Dossier Annenberg Fact Check (FactCheck.org) chastised Republicans for citing an unverified intelligence report from Russia saying the…
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Zebra Fact Check documented the International Fact-Checking Network’s 2019 failure to hold its stable of “verified” fact-checking organizations to account. PolitiFact, which shares ownership with the IFCN, was notable in escaping scrutiny. The IFCN has yet to explain those failures, but coincidentally or otherwise it revised its Code of Principles in December 2019 along with its methods for verifying compliance…
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