Why Canada still doesn’t have a full-time fact-checking beat
Canadian Daniel Dale became a star fact-checking Trump. Back home, the work remains ad hoc. That says a lot about Canadian politics and media.
TORONTO — Daniel Dale is Canada’s most famous fact-checking journalist. He’s also one of Canada’s only fact-checking journalists. And therein lies a tale of politics, media, and some key differences between the United States and Canada.
Dale was born in Toronto, graduated with a business degree from York University, and made his way into journalism. He was hired by the Toronto Star in 2008, where, among other things, he would cover the late, troubled, larger-than-life Toronto mayor, Rob Ford. Eventually Dale was dispatched to be the Star’s correspondent in Washington, D.C.
After Donald Trump began his first presidential run in 2015, Dale found himself intrigued by Trump’s numerous, less-than-accurate claims in his public appearances. In addition to his regular articles as a foreign correspondent, Dale began tweeting lists of false things Trump had said during his campaign rallies. Dale’s posts quickly caught on, especially among Americans during the 2016 election.
Related Knowledge Center: Fact-checking and its detractors
Fact-checking has become a familiar tool for political reporters to hold office-holders and candidates accountable. But critics ask if fact-checkers sometimes miss the forest for the trees, and if the practice often struggles with false equivalency the way conventional political coverage does.