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.
The Latest
A Gaggle of Goldbricks
News commentary Columbia Journalism Review ·Veteran fact-checker Glenn Kessler says Trump made it ‘acceptable for politicians to lie with impunity’
News Poynter ·Glenn Kessler Believes Fact-Checkers Are Getting Easier to Ignore
News Columbia Journalism Review ·JD Vance called California’s congressional map ‘outrageous.’ It’s not exactly an outlier.
News Poynter ·Zuckerberg fired the fact-checkers. We tested their replacement.
News The Washington Post ·Trump Boosts Bogus Claim that Charity for Wildfire Victims Was a ‘Democrat Scam’
News NewsGuard's Reality Check ·Oprah Didn’t Block a Tsunami Escape Route
News NewsGuard's Reality Check ·DeSantis said everyone at ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ has a deportation order. Lawyers say that’s false.
News Poynter ·Footnotes, TikTok's crowdsourced fact-checks, launches in the US
News techcrunch.com ·Oprah Winfrey didn’t refuse to open her private road for Hawaii evacuees during the tsunami warnings
News Poynter ·Hiding secret codes in light can protect against fake videos
News techxplore.com ·Fact-checkers and the future
News American Press Institute ·Netanyahu’s claim of no starvation in Gaza contradicts widespread reports of a growing hunger crisis
News Poynter ·Amid starvation in Gaza, AI-generated images of Egyptians throwing bottles of food to sea go viral
News Poynter ·Trump falsely twisted an Obama-era assessment of Russian election interference as a ‘coup’
News Poynter ·Florida’s attorney general said state is ‘under attack’ from weather modification. Is that true?
News Poynter ·Beware Fake Version of Trump’s Alleged Bawdy Drawing for Epstein
News NewsGuard's Reality Check ·in brief
Fact checking: not a tool for all seasons
It was love at first sight, but over time, my ardor has cooled. I still believe there is value in cataloging misstatements, exaggerations, and, well, lies. But when government policies are undertaken and justified by nothing more than a fever-dream of fantasy and fiction, fact checking doesn’t meet the moment.
Sept. 27, 2024